Yesterday I ran a leadership session for a group of technical experts and managers in America. We explored the reality that the old master craftsman model and the supervisory management model of industrial revolution times is over. Management guru, the late Peter Drucker, talked about ‘knowledge work’, where it is the workers, not managers who are the experts, back in 1952.
So why has it taken us so long to ditch this old idea of supervisory management, and for those who have ditched it, why do they often find there is still a role for managers in even the most technical environments? Mainstream management thinking seems to have moved the pendulum to the opposite extreme, where it suggests that managers of technical workers do not need to have any technical skill at all, in this knowledge era.
My question is whether it is possible to be an effective leader of experts if you have no appreciation or passion for what they do? I would be interested in hearing your view.
So why has it taken us so long to ditch this old idea of supervisory management, and for those who have ditched it, why do they often find there is still a role for managers in even the most technical environments? Mainstream management thinking seems to have moved the pendulum to the opposite extreme, where it suggests that managers of technical workers do not need to have any technical skill at all, in this knowledge era.
My question is whether it is possible to be an effective leader of experts if you have no appreciation or passion for what they do? I would be interested in hearing your view.
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