[Webinar] Rethinking the roles of managers and managerial skills

Free replay    Credit Agricole TS, Abeille Insurance and The Voix du Nord

The profound changes and the health crisis of recent years have had a strong impact on companies, their organization, work methods – which have evolved towards a hybrid model between teleworking and in-person presence – and the expectations of their employees.

In this volatile and uncertain context, managers play a key role in helping the company transform and in implementing its strategy. These challenges require Reconsidering the role of managers and redefining managerial skills necessary to meet these challenges.

What New challenges for managers? How to deeply review the Management reference frameworks ? What skills are needed to pass? from management to leadership ? Enjoy 60 minutes of testimonies in video on The new roles of managers… and discover our summary of the webinar below!

Broadcast recorded on Thursday, March 31, 2022 with the complicity of Cyrille Chaudoit, co-founder of talenco

1. Challenges requiring a transformation of management skills

The challenges faced by companies are numerous and varied, but all involve reviewing the roles, attitudes, and skills of managers/leaders in order to embody and bring the company’s project to life.

The company’s adaptation to a new reality framework

The media sector, for example, has been transformed by digital transformation. For the group The Voix du Nord, It was necessary to face many challenges and to carry out a genuine transformation. Transformation to bring more transversality And to «de-silotize» the organization. In 2021, a major transformation management plan was launched, involving the 180 managers in new, more agile and collaborative working methods.

The performance in question in a more agile organization

To meet the performance and competitiveness challenges linked to the arrival of new competitors (online banks, new banks), Credit Agricole Technologies and Services (CA-TS) has embarked on a major transformation to bring the entire company into the digital age. Agile organization at scale with redefined roles.

Aligning teams on a new strategy

As part of the acquisition of the company and a change in shareholder structure, and in a context of a health crisis, the group had to make certain changes. Abeille Insurance – former Aviva France – implement a new strategy, involve the entire company, and maintain the commitment of the teams.

The manager, catalyst of the transformation of the company

In a constrained, uncertain and hybrid context, the manager’s posture must evolve in order to:

• meeting the new expectations of employees and put themselves at the service of the team,
• Knowing how to manage in a format of hybrid work which is now becoming structural,
• to be able to to adapt constantly.

In order to enable managers to assume these new roles, it is now essential to support them. But before embarking on a new initiative, it is necessary to understand the needs of the organization and the employees. Management and leadership training, Therefore, it is essential to be clear about The main roles of the manager and to «formalize» the postures, actions and skills expected... to be discovered in our white paper!

2. A management framework to redefine the roles of managers

Management frameworks at the service of management transformation

The management framework is an explicit foundation of the expected management culture and the role of the manager in implementing the company’s project. This framework must be clearly established in order to then effectively evolve the roles and competencies of managers.

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Within the group Abeille Insurance, The management framework was built on the basis of extensive consultation (focus groups, surveys, individual interviews, collective work...) around 4 themes:

1. support the commitment in time and create an environment of culture that promotes success,
2. improving continuously (this is where the approach of the framework comes in),
3. guide and accompany the transformation, Managing change over time, valuing projects and trusting employees,
4. being clear about the vision and giving meaning, notably by communicating on a strategic level.

At the end of the first wave of training for the 450 managers, thanks in particular to this « well-researched work before being broadcast »The managers came out,« calm », and this is a very encouraging sign for the transformation of the group.

« Today at Abeille, it is the employees who propose and co-construct their goals with their manager. »

Jean-François Ode

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A The Voix du Nord, The support project began in 2021 for the 180 managers, starting with defining the main management guidelines: Search for agility, Accountability of managers, search for meaning and commitment…

For Gabriel d’Harcourt, « The manager’s position is not easy. He has a catalyzing role; he acts as a link between the management and the employees, but transformation is not possible without them. ».

At the end of the team training program, he notes with satisfaction that « The fact that they were able to work together allowed people who had worked in the company for a long time to get to know each other without knowing each other. This also gives the desire to go further in the co-creation of goals and the sharing of the vision. ».

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Chez Credit Agricole TS, The management framework has been defined to meet the challenges of driving performance and the transition to Agility at scale.

This framework, inspired by the Agile Manifesto, was co-created with the Steering Committee and the Leaders around 6 dimensions: embark the teams and give meaning, help our employees grow, manager performance by empowering his teammates, Integrating the collective game internally but also with the client to respond quickly to needs, enable employees to innovate and grant them the right to make mistakes.

Finally, for Marie-Christel Grandjanny, « A final very important dimension that goes well with the «Servant Leader» attitude is knowing how to question yourself, to show humility and to continue learning. »Today, we are indeed witnessing a shift in the role of manager towards that of leader, and more specifically, as at CA-TS, a dual role of « Change Leader«who will use his influence to facilitate the work of his team, and of « Servant Leader » at the service of his team to foster creativity and support performance.

A co-constructed management framework for an effective training program

At talenco, we are convinced that there is no transformation without a corporate project and without the involvement of the leaders and managers. The stakes are high. create a community of managers to bring all employees together around the company’s project.

For Jean Baptiste Gouin, « If we want to involve the General Directorate in a training plan for managers/leaders, we must start with co-creating a management framework with the General Directorate, HR and managers, and not directly propose training modules ».

A clear management framework requires highlighting 4 key elements: Main roles of the manager (5 maximum), the Key acts in each of these roles, the postures or values to adopt each of these roles and the rituals associated with key actions.

It is from this framework and the defined management roles that we will be able to build effective training programs (ideally, with a training module for each managerial role).

To successfully transform the company and retain and attract talent, it has become imperative to evolve the management skills framework and review the ambition, role and support for managers. They are more than ever the key human factor for success in reconciling performance, well-being at work and societal commitment!

To go further, download our example of a management skills framework now!