Welch's 21 Steps to Management Greatness - 17
"Managers should learn to become team players. Middle managers have to be team members and coaches. Take steps against those managers who won't learn to become team players."
That business success is related to the successful functioning of teams, has been a key to building great companies for some time. Everybody in a business needs to be part of a team, and the overall team.
From the practical standpoint, one reason many managers hesitate to join the effort is insecurity or pride. They don't want to share information and coach people to success because they think they'll be replaced by the ones they're training, or they want to be considered important because they have more information than others in the company.
Welch is right as far as taking steps go. A business can't afford to have those in leadership who won't become team players. Success and survival a business depend on it being a major aspect of the business. Anyone refusing to enter into being a part of a team, either needs to be instructed to how crucial it is, and if they still resist, simply will have to be let go.
Destroying our teams or keeping them out of the loop is a recipe for disaster. We can't have insecure people in management any longer. We can't have those so prideful that they won't share information. In the end, that's one of the key components of participating as a team player in managment: sharing information.
Insecure and prideful people hold back information which can do great harm to our people. While we need to have any amount information available to our people at all times, there are important instances where new information can be known by only some in management because it takes some time to filter to the workers.
Jack Welch was one of the best at creating open communication in a company. And General Electric (GE) was no small company that made it easier to do with. He had to cross state and international borders, along with language barriers to get the information to everyone in the company. He wasn't prideful or insecure about it. He knew it was the lifeblood of the company.
Managers are team players by becoming a conduit of information and remover of barriers, not by blocking the flow of information and erecting barriers before their people, making their jobs harder.
We need to make sure we, as well as any manager or team leaders operates in our company in this way. Those not willing to comply either need to change their minds or be let go. It's that crucial and important to our success.
Other Jack Welch Resources:
Jack Welch's advice to MIT Sloan students
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