Soft Skills Managers - Development in a New Work Context

I recently read in an American book about cultural change in organizations, surprisingly, about a study by the “University of Bielefeld.” I had to read that sentence three times. Indeed, it said Bielefeld. Not without reason: there is a spectacular study by the University of Bielefeld that wonderfully sets the stage for the topic of “soft skills for managers” in times of New Work.

In the study, subjects should first read aloud a predefined text (the weather report). They were (unwittingly) observed by another subject. The observer should now assess how intelligent the reading subject is. The astonishing result: the observing subject was better able to assess the intelligence than the reading subject, who had to assess himself (Borkenau & Liebler, 1993).

Soft Skills Executives 3: Coaches

What do we learn from this? We are astonishingly bad at assessing ourselves. Much remains hidden from our perception - while it is often less hidden for outsiders. Making these hidden processes conscious in individuals but also in teams - that is one of the roles that managers must take on in times of New Work, or rather, one of the most important soft skills. The manager must uncover blind spots as a coach (also catalytic leadership; Coldewey 2015).

Expanding the reality or horizon of employees is one of the best levers for managers to develop employees further. This is the only way something fundamentally new can arise - a characteristic of learning organization .

Soft skills executives 2: designers

In addition to this role, managers also play a central role. Imagine that the organization is a ship on the high seas. What role would managers have on this ship? Many will say “captain”, others maybe “the helmsman who sets the direction”. Both are certainly not wrong, but another answer would be more appropriate: managers are the designers of the ship (Senge, 1990). Only they can influence whether the ship is a heavy tanker or an agile motor yacht - by leading by example and establishing a corresponding culture.

Soft Skills Executives 3: Consultants

Now some will ask: But a manager has to fulfill their core operative business - how are they supposed to shape the corporate culture as well? The question here is based on a flawed - possibly unconscious - assumption. Managers have to lead - and less so fulfill their core operative business. One could also say, their core operative business is the management or advice of employees.

A consulting manager sees a clear personal meaning in her work and strongly identifies with the vision of her company. She also knows that her team is the most important resource for achieving this personal meaning and vision. The logical consequence of this: The manager’s focus is to advise his own employees on their activities and to enable them the optimal environment for successful work (Bass & Steidlmeier, 1999).

Conclusion

In order to prepare managers for new work and to develop them in this context, it is important to convey a new understanding of leadership and to focus on their soft skills: Managers are coaches, designers and consultants. So then, just implement it, right? Unfortunately, it’s not quite that simple. Otherwise the concepts mentioned would have been implemented much more strongly. They have been around long enough, as a quote from Laotse shows:

“The best leaders are those who - when they have accomplished their task - all the people say: ‘We have done it ourselves.’”

So it’s because of “New” leadership. The principles have long been known, the hurdle lies in the implementation. Tools that can help executives to develop in a new work context can be found in our Articles on the subject , If you are also interested in how we can support you in change processes, have a look right here .

References

Bass, BM & Steidlmeier, P. (1999). Ethics, character, and authentic transformational leadership behavior. The Leadership Quarterly, 10(2), 181-217.

Borkenau, P., Liebler, A. (1993). Convergence of stranger ratings of personality and intelligence with self-ratings, partner ratings, and measured intelligence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65, 546-553.

Coldewey, J. (2015). What does “agile” mean here? In: Scherber, S., Lang, M. (ed.), Agile leadership. From an agile project to an agile company. Düsseldorf: symposium.

Senge, PM (1998). The leader’s new work. Building Learning Organizations. In Hickman, GR (ed.), Leading organizations: perspectives for a new era (pp. 439-457). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.