The leader manager, the cornerstone of agile transformation of companies

Faced with increasingly fierce competition, and in an economic context permanently marked by the health crisis, companies must constantly rethink their value proposition, their products and services, and the purchasing journeys of their customers.

This continuous need for transformation is the result of three major factors:

• More and more demanding consumers., They can no longer tolerate the slightest irritant in their relationship with the brand... nor the slightest doubt in the policy CSR. The permanent adoption of new practices (with a radical change in the relationship with space-time since the rise of the smartphone) and the societal and environmental issues are having an increasingly significant impact on the choices of customers.
• Increasingly innovative digital technologies which contribute to the pursuit of Digital transformation in many sectors, from IoT and 5G to artificial intelligence and beyond Blockchain and nanotechnology.
• Recipes from the «pre-industrial world» that are increasingly fragile in a VUCA context (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous). The Agile approaches They are becoming increasingly important in companies to accelerate the resumption of activity and to achieve growth despite the lack of long-term visibility.

The transformation of the company: a matter of pace… and management

In this context, organizations that do not transform themselves quickly enough and those that cannot demonstrate resilience will inevitably be left behind by more agile or innovative actors, capable of changing the game in no time. The list of victims of the GAFA, as well as of ambitious (and malicious) startups or simply very innovative companies, is growing every day. In other words, The question of rhythm is essential!

To transform at the right speed in this increasingly fast world, companies obviously need to rely on leaders capable of renewing ambition and formalizing a strong vision in the service of an ambitious transformation project.

It is also necessary to ensure that new technical and digital skills They are spreading everywhere where necessary. This project seems to be generally well underway in companies, although the constant evolution of the professions gives it a more permanent character.

The most critical issue remains: that of deeply change the mindset, corporate culture and working methods to reconcile economic performance and the well-being of employees. However, this internal revolution, if driven by the leaders, must above all to be led on a daily basis by the managers alongside their teams.

The 5 major challenges of the leading manager

In this context of transformation, the manager must face five major issues :

1. The acceleration of the company’s pace

As mentioned at the beginning of the article, the need to accelerate the transformation impacts all activities within the company, and first and foremost, the development of new projects, products, or services. Especially when it comes to rethink the value proposition or improve the user experience.

Michael Comish, former CDO at Tesco, reminded us of this:« The development time of projects is no longer measured in months but in weeks »This acceleration, further reinforced by the health crisis, is often experienced as suffering by managers and their teams.

2. The inertia of the structural organization

Organizations that are too pyramidal, silos, procedures, the inertia of habit, outdated work methods, and unsuitable tools... Acceleration represents a difficult challenge for “traditional” companies whose structure, by its very nature, can constitute a handicap in terms of achieving transformation at the right speed. The culture of excellence, too! This French malus sometimes slows down all the projects in the company towards perfection… while the startuppers They remind us that the best is the enemy of the good, as Reid Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn, puts it:« If you’re not a little embarrassed by the first version of the product or service you’re launching, it means you launched it too late! ».

3. The low engagement of the employees

Already in 2017, the international Gallup study showed that Companies in France are suffering from a serious problem of employee engagement. Only 9 % of them declare themselves actively involved in the business project, while a large majority, 65 %, do not feel involved, and 26 are % completely disengaged.

This too low level of commitment, also noted in the annual study by Malakoff Mederic, is a major obstacle to the transformation of the company. Without meaning, why would employees change their practices? How will they innovate if they do not believe in what they are doing and why are they doing it?

4. The specific expectations of Generation Z

Without falling into caricature and youthism, the rise in the power of Generation Z Within the company – and as a customer – this again challenges the manager’s reality framework. Born in a digital world, nurtured by environmental issues, the Generation Z has arrived with its new codes, its specific expectations, an exacerbated need for meaning (all the more so with Covid-19) and a profound gap between the tools and services it uses and those of the company.

Motivating and retaining the youngest employees so that they put their potential to work for the company can quickly become a challenge. intergenerational management… and bring them back into the framework without stifling their creative potential, which is sometimes a challenge.

5. The inevitable hybridization of work modes

How to motivate your team, give meaning, refocus on action priorities, and move projects forward… remotely or in a hybrid context? For managers, the anchoring of teleworking, largely favored by the health crisis, makes the daily and long-term management of teams more complex. Working in a hybrid mode – sometimes in person, sometimes at home – seems to be becoming the norm, at the risk that management does not maintain sufficient connection with and among its employees (see our dedicated article). hybrid management).

The 4 new roles of the leading manager

To succeed in meeting the challenges posed by this new reality and to strive towards a Agile management, The leader manager must develop new structured skills around 4 major roles in connection with Management innovation :

1. The manager at the service of engagement

The first challenge of the leading manager is to To unite its teams, To engage them in a common vision: the company’s vision, of course, but also the one formalized with his team. The manager must therefore know how to giving meaning and enable its employees to achieve the objectives by evolving the tools and working conditions, as well as ensuring the adequacy of skills.

In a context of acceleration, the manager should no longer be in a constant control in retrospect. On the contrary, once the framework is set, he/she must foster autonomy and above all allow the right to make mistakes According to the great principles of Collaborative management. Without the right to make mistakes, it is not possible to create commitment and unleash the creativity of employees.

Finally, the leader manager knows how to establish a culture of permanent feedback He solicits them for him, ensuring that his management style meets the needs of his teams, and he regularly provides them with feedback without waiting for the annual review, which is too formal and the frequency of which no longer suits the pace of the company.

2. The manager at the service of collaboration

No acceleration of transformation without developing much more collaborative practices! In this context, the leaders« incantations to »break down silos” are not enough… and the reorganizations led by HR are no better. Managers need to develop new practices related to Collaborative working mode. If new tools are implemented in this regard (Enterprise Social Network, Yammer, Slack, etc.), it is up to managers to adopt them and to be exemplary in their use to encourage the adherence of their teams.

The circulation of information is also a sensitive issue. There has never been so much knowledge in the company, but if it is not well disseminated, it is useless. Power is no longer linked to the knowledge that one possesses, but rather to the knowledge that one disseminates. The the ability to become an internal and external influencer by sharing their knowledge It is certainly a skill to be developed as a priority.

But the development of more collaborative practices will only really work if managers, among themselves, also build it. a relationship of mutual trust with rights and duties towards their peers, coupled with a genuine capacity for mutual assistance. That is why, prior to the development of new skills, It will be necessary to create and maintain a community of managers who will understand the meaning of the transformation of the company and who will agree on strong management values to succeed together Driving change.

3. The manager at the service of agility

The manager must now integrate agility into his management better take into account the diversity of the employees. the way he or she leads. If customers want products or services and an ever more personalized purchasing journey, the employees formulate the same requirements: their manager must know how to recognize the specificities, expectations, and needs of each individual. As a result, one relationship style will work with some people but not with others!

The Agile manager must therefore moving from collective management to individualised management. To succeed in this challenge, the manager must first get to know himself better in order to synchronize with his teams. Integrating the Process Com or the MBTI into managers’ training programs is an effective way to develop this individualization of management.

4. The manager at the service of innovation

« 80 % of the startups are launched by young people under the age of 35. However, on the Accor Hotels Management Committee, we are all over 45 years old. So don’t expect us, the executives, to have the most disruptive ideas. On the other hand, it is our responsibility to ensure that they emerge within our organization rather than outside of it. »
Sébastien Bazin, CEO of Accor Hotels

This reality places the need for the manager to become The catalyst for innovation for its teams. Since innovation is a happy consequence of creativity, the whole point is to cultivate it. To do this, the manager must know how to collaboratively redefining the value proposition (the WHY dear to Simon Sinek) with his team. He must understand the mindset and values of agility. He can adopt the techniques of Ideation and Design Thinking. These agile methods allow ideas to emerge and, above all, to mature more quickly by harnessing the power of collaboration. Finally, the manager must know how to use the art of pitching and coach his teams to teach them how to effectively defend their ideas to the executives.

These new responsibilities therefore place the leader manager at the core of the company’s human and digital transformation. Having become the convergence point for tools, work methods, and all the levers of engagement, the manager sees his or her mission become more complex as the company accelerates. Enabling them to acquire the key new skills mentioned above is therefore essential today.

However, let’s not forget that the practices and expectations of the manager are also constantly evolving… and that he must find his own motivational levers! The trap would be to try to put all managers into a single training logic. Only an accompaniment adapted to the context of the organization and the person can allow the manager to strive towards this goal. leadership indispensable to the success of teams and the company.