Preferred Management Style for Professionals?
What is the preferred management style for handling a team of professionals? Why?
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Jaap de Jonge Editor, Netherlands
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Preferred Style for Managing Professionals
According to the situational leadership model, we should adapt our management style to the situation, in particular to the development level of the employees. This development level of the employees depends on 2 main variables: competence in the task (area) and commitment to the task (area).
1. You start by examining their competence. Your team is composed of professionals. Assuming they are operating inside their domain of expertise, they have a moderate or even high level of competence in their task areas. So they fall in category D3 or D4 in the picture of the summary of Situational Leadership and the matching management style is either S3 or S4.
2. Now you consider their commitment to the task area:
If their task commitment/motivation is high, then they should be seen as D4 and the preferred management style would be S4: Delegating. In this situation, both the directive and the supportive behavior of the manager can be and should be low.
- If their task commitment/motivation is variable or moderate, they should be regarded D3, so your preferred management style would be S3: Participating/Supporting. In this situation, the directive behavior of the manager should be low, and the manager should focus on the relationship, supporting such professionals.
Note 1: You can find another angle to how you should manage professionals in the discussion "How can you Motivate Knowledge Workers?" which focuses on giving knowledge professionals a sense of making progress in meaningful work. Ultimately this approach arrives at the same conclusion as the above: TASK AUTONOMY AND PERSONAL SUPPORT.
Note 2: See also this best practice on Team Coaching of Smart Creatives in innovative firms.
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Alan Kennedy, Canada
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Managing Professionals: First Expectations and Responsibilities
It seems to me that management of a team of professionals has to begin with an explicit understandin... Sign up
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Briolett, Canada
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Managing Professionals
Hmmm. A lot of good points raised. My thoughts...
- Well educated doesn't equate to intelligent. Th... Sign up
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Dammike Kobbekaduwe, Sri Lanka
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Preferred Style of Managing Professionals
Professionals have a deeper knowledge in their domain of expertise. However, if they lack common tou... Sign up
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Seelig, Netherlands
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It Depends on Culture
@Graham: I agree it depends on culture. In individual low hierarchical cultures like the Netherlands... Sign up
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Wismayer, UK
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Preferred Management Style for Professionals: Management by Invitation
Today there is really only 1 management style and that is management by invitation. Long gone are th... Sign up
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Pigeot, Germany
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Management of Professionals that are Low on Knowldege and Commitment, but they're not to Blame
Of course age, culture and background are adding complexity to managing professionals.
Having a fra... Sign up
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Tyrell Clifford, Sri Lanka
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The Style of Managers that Professionals Hate
@Vongani Karel Nkombyane: I totally agree with you. Managers only with experience don't like to list... Sign up
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Seelig, Netherlands
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Vuxen Level
@Goran Skoog: I understand that. That is typical Swedish. And in my humble opinion a very mature way... Sign up
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Tyrell Clifford, Sri Lanka
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Preferred Management Style for Professionals
I agree with Qazi Ata, however a visionary leadership style is very important to inspire professiona... Sign up
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Seelig, Netherlands
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Jazz Style Management
@Qazi Ata: That's exactly what Ricardo Semler (Semco) is doing. With one big difference. The workers... Sign up
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Sibusiso Mngomezulu, South Africa
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Metaphor for Managing Professionals
Imo, the best way to manage professionals is to get them to be specialist in looking for the ball as... Sign up
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