To me a manager is a motivator, someone who makes the team want to achieve anything in any way possible, through any means. The people have to be self-motivated, but a good manager can make anyone have that motivation. A manager helps break down goals to his/her team and makes very precise and well thought out actions to get his team there. After the many readings I learned that the ideas we have of management with top down thinking is wrong and we should be doing outside in thinking. Linda Hill's "leading from behind" didn’t make sense to me because I always have believed that a leader should be in front of their team and leading them head first into battle or sales. But, after watching the video I understood what she meant that a leader needs to let his team step forward and flourish on their own, and if he if is in the front they will never step up because the leader has already stepped up for them.
What I understood from Seddon’s basic argument is that a manager’s roll is like managing a system in order to reach an organizations goal. Seddon’s six steps helped show that everything we know to be right, when broken down is wrong. The one that stood out is with many people you have more brain power and that is not always a good thing, it all depends on the type of work those brains are being put forward to do. So, if your mind is not in the right place it doesn’t matter how much you know. From the video "Recognizing the role of managers" she talks about “executing tasks at the group level, developing people, delivering the deal for employees and energizing change all with authenticity and trust.” The part that was mentioned about "authenticity and trust" hit close to home, because I have never felt the need as a manager to make up something to make my people happier, I always felt that even if it is a little blunt honesty is the best policy. Developing people is another important roll of a manager; I would add that anytime you have movement from people under you to a higher position, is kudos to that person’s manager. A manager’s roll is so diverse that it is hard to break it down into words. As a manager myself I do everything the front line associates do and everything my bosses do, it is a very broad definition but in the end that is a manager, a person who can do everything to achieve the company’s goal. I work for T-Mobile and by John Seddon’s rules in the “Think System” we would be failing in all aspects. T-mobile is a very hierarchal company, the CEO or COO come up with a plan and gets passed down all the way to the front-lines. Sometimes that information in not relevant to that person’s job, this seems to create confusion. Seddon’s view is that if everything functioning as a system and not separate parts it would be guaranteed to succeed. There would be less confusion at the frontlines, which would pay dividends with our customers’ experience. T-Mobile has too many separate parts; we have a small business team, a retail team, a third-party team, and customer care but none of these parts actually work together. If a customer does something with one section of T-Mobile they must continue to use that section until the sale is completed. They would not be able to buy a phone from customer care and return it at the store. That goes back to Seddon’s saying is one company’s managers smarter than the others, or is it the fact that things are done differently by using “better thinking” strategies to succeed. Seddon is clear that a manager should be concerned with the organizations goals more than performance benchmarks that the company may have. Another issue we have is not enough training for new managers, they do not know our systems, our plans, or our phones yet are expected to come in and have a drastic impact on the business. Linda Hill explains that many new managers come in with out the basic skill set and many of them are failing to develop these skill sets because of “globalization and demographic trends.” If they are not coming in with these skill sets then it is on the company and that person’s manager to teach them if not at the very least guide them in the right direction. T-mobiles issues are the same as many companies, as Reed says, it’s the excuse of busyness. We must learn to move past all the excuses of busyness and put together a complete system that focuses on the company from the outside-in.
Keeping in mind the information you've now learned about the role of the manager and systems thinking, articulate some key goals you wish to achieve through mastering the concepts presented in AMBA610 and/or the MBA program generally. My short Term Goals 3 to 6months
Learn how to better manage my time, so it doesn’t seem like I’m going a million miles a second to try to complete my tasks.
Continue to lead my market in sales, promote two of my reps into senior positions, and to continue to use my peers to help me progress in my career.
Get into the LDP(leadership development program) program to help move me up in the company.
To gain information in my AMBA610 class that is prevalent to the work I’m doing now and to learn how to let my manager notice that my skill set has changed.
I will need to take a step back and try to lead from behind, which is something, I have never done.
Mid-term Goals 1 to 2 years
Learn to use System thinking in a small environment such as my store and hope to gain success with it and share with the rest of the market.
Gain my master’s degree and be the first in my immediate family to accomplish this task.
Long-Term Goals 3 to 5 years
Use the knowledge I have gained from the MBA program to lift the glass ceiling off of me and get into a higher position with the same company.
If I cannot gain a higher position within my company use my MBA to move on to a different company with more competitive pay.