The Boss From Outer Space...

So begins the name of a new book by Patricia Addesso reviewed recently in an excellent Globe and Mail article by Wallace Immen, which unfortunately is only viewable online with a paid membership. It's a follow up to her first book, Management Would Be Easy... If It Weren't For The People.   

Both offer examples of management practices that should just stop... and ones that need to be developed. You can imagine the gist. Bosses have power, which means to a degree they can keep getting away with bad behavior. No one wants to be the messenger who gives them the bad news that their actions are turning people off or, in the case of "Outer Space," failing to draw the best from everyone. Dr. Addesso's most important point is that bosses, more than ever, need to be able to recognize and encourage how people differ and the value different people bring to work - diversity in other words.

As we move deeper into an age when every employee at every level should be able to contribute opinions, we can no longer tolerate managers who cut some people out of the picture because they can't relate to their styles. As well as race, religion and gender hat means older managers have to understand and value members of younger generations... and vice versa - younger managers need to value and understand the contributions older staff can add... and so on, for every "group" we could define. At the end of the day we're all just "people" whose efforts can be appreciated and utilized... or wasted because some leader is too limited a thinker to figure out what's possible.

All it takes is a commitment to this vision - everyone can contribute... and some practice at encouraging them to do so. It takes willingness to listen, consider and try to figure out how to align unique efforts with the whole, but as I can say from personal experience, a diverse team whose members bring a range of skills and viewpoints to a problem can come up with a solution far faster than a team that's too "cozy." Another expert who says the same is Lynda Gratton of the London Business School, who's work on exceptional teams makes the same point. Teams struggle at first to learn to work together, to manage their differences and those that succeed win big. We know diverse teams are trickier to manage, but the pay-offs are dramatically better. After a while, Dr. Gratton observes, they get stale. So moving people on is a good thing. But it all falls flat if the team manager can't handle differences and diversity. Leadership, as always, is the key.