Expectations for individual employees have changed significantly over time.
Expectations for individual employees have changed significantly over time.
The individual employee is given more and more responsibilities and must be solution-oriented, able to make decisions and manage their own projects. In short, a more independent employee. Some decisions that were previously made by managers must also be made by employees. With this change, the role of the manager has also changed, and thus the need for the individual employee.
IS THIS THE END OF THE TRADITIONAL LEADER?
The development has been massive, and managers must be flexible, open and create personal relationships with employees. The traditional hierarchical approach is being replaced by a communicative, energetic and inclusive approach. Personal relationships and feelings must be easy to show to employees who have become more independent. In this way, employees will have trust in both you as a manager and in the company. We have even seen during Corona how employees must be able to step in when you have to be able to function digitally and remotely from one day to the next. Here, employees have often had to plan and carry out work tasks and communicate decisions to management. With self-management, employees’ flexibility and freedom to prioritize tasks have been a great motivation, as they will always be willing to make an extra effort to get tasks done. The traditional manager is facing a massive change, as employees suddenly expect a more transparent manager, where it is okay to show vulnerability and that you do not always have a clear answer to the various questions. Working on these qualities makes you authentic as a leader, and there will be a great chance that your employees will be able to identify with your goals, and not just be employees, but followers!
UNDERSTANDING THE HUMAN
At Summ, we have always worked from the perspective of “people over machines”. As digitalization and new methods have come into play, this does not change what is most essential for our employees and the management strategy we operate with on a daily basis. For us, it is always about being able to put ourselves in our employees’ shoes – understanding and developing them so that through a natural process they strengthen the desire and motivation to develop and improve themselves. Short and long conversations are something we have with our employees every day, both the very difficult personal conversations and the work-related ones. This is a big part of Summ’s culture, namely that our employees know the journey, know the goal and are motivated to fight for it. All of this is based on our DNA of More Than Numbers!
