Management in companies: a necessary evolution 1/2

The stakes of the evolution of management in the company

Changing the relationship to power

The so-called “millenials”, born between 1980 and 2000, will represent more than 50% of the workforce in 2020. Compared to what is offered in companies today, they want more freedom, power and flexibility. They want to have exciting missions, authentic working relationships based on trust, a sufficient level of autonomy, freedom and flexibility, to be part of supportive teams where collaboration is constructive…

Who doesn’t want that?

Yet, although 85% of executives believe that evolution and innovation are key to staying competitive and attracting talented employees, today’s companies only spend about 10% of their time on it. Moreover, only 11% of the suggestions made by employees to their managers are actually taken into account. More than half of these suggestions to change the current business environment are made by millennials.

Management, and therefore leaders, need to adapt now and unleash their power: there is a serious need for humble, open and collaborative leaders. Hierarchical, pyramid-like organizations are increasingly dysfunctional in a connected, horizontal world, where everything has (re)become interdependent.

Rediscovering a sense of action: managerial innovation

Currently, when we talk about managerial innovation, it is mostly about information systems and organization. We are still on a systemic and structural approach to managerial action, whereas there is an urgent need to question again the meaning of the manager’s action. What is the basis of his function? Should it evolve towards a more collaborative principle and can it be propelled by a common, shared fundamental purpose?

The need for a genuine self-reflection to bring leadership in the digital age

Management must transform and renew itself. For this to happen, it is the individuals, the leaders, who must initiate this change. Innovation comes from the individual, because he or she is the owner of the ideas that move the world forward. In the same way, management cannot change without enlightened individuals who are as aware of themselves as they are of the challenges of the current period. Genuine reflection, deep introspection and clear Focus are now necessary to make companies evolve in the digital age.

Only leaders who know themselves well can make the crazy bets necessary today. This is the basis of breakthrough innovation, the one that can enable companies to negotiate the huge shift they have to make.

What have been the changes in management over the last 5 years?

In fact, as has been said, there have been few strategic changes in the evolution of management: the classic leadership programs, born in the American schools of the 1950s-1970s, are still offered without much variation in the grandes écoles; coaching as an aid to the individual in companies… The aid to the evolution of management has remained very limited, and above all always reproducing the same logic: rational, structural, organizational.

These approaches are becoming more and more limited, inoperative or counter-productive. We can clearly see the difficulties in integrating lasting changes into the leader’s daily functioning. The manager is always in the logic of making a mental effort to change. The digital age has brought about a revolution in thinking: it has re-emerged the obligation to use direct thinking, the so-called intuition. Its use in broad daylight still frightens most Leaders because the habit of rationality is so deeply entrenched. It is still difficult to give oneself the right to think or act differently…