Change Is Good

My Leadership Challenge In 2022 Prepared Me for 2023

Never too late to teach an old dog new tricks.

I am a Boomer. No doubt about it. I have Boomer attitudes and Boomer ways. At the same time, I am also a highly trained professional who has successfully managed and worked with people in seven counties-the USA, the UK, France, the Netherlands, Japan, Mexico, and China. I was a good enough boss to still mentor members of my former teams from all counties except China. My old direct reports call me when they need advice.

Just for fun, I will also mention that I hold an Electrical Engineering degree and an MSM in Organizational Management. I am a graduate of a special Japanese leadership training program and the accelerated executive leadership programs of two Fortune Fifty companies. My side job while working was as a consultant for tough international management challenges.

I don’t know exactly what they are teaching in Business Master’s programs now. I can, however, see the result. Two people I mentor recently graduated from Business Master's programs. They attempted kinder, gentler, quiet place management techniques on current employees in corporations — no hard deadlines or accountability.

They provided guidelines to their teams. The teams ate them alive. Little was completed on time or within budget. Challenging for me as a mentor and not a good start to their post-graduate careers.

I belong to several groups where I am just a member, not a leader. After my experience with the two new managers, it was not a surprise to hear echoes of gentle management as I was leading a project where the current Leader was currently enrolled in a Master’s program.

At two separate meetings, I was publicly told that my leadership techniques were outdated; projects should be fun — deadlines and timetables cause unnecessary stress. I was not fully insulted because I recognized the structure of the conversation as the one I had heard in my mastermind management group. This was being taught in school.

I needed help. I was pleased I had the mentoring experience with my paid customers to fall back on. I asked my mentees how to implement the gentle management technique. Both managers helped tremendously. I traded their help for a future free session with me.

With some adjustments, I changed my style for that project.

To be a gentle manager, I did not publish the hardline spreadsheets and accountability schedules I had prepared. The new grads told me not to publish dates — let the team tell me when things would happen. Another gentle technique is not to add additional knowledge unless asked specifically about a problem. Instead, I implied where knowledge could be found, allowing the team to seek it at their own pace.

The project came out fine. Someone eventually did the things others had committed to, but the pressure did not come from me. It came from those who needed things done. I noted that at the end of the project, other Leaders reverted to the old ways, deadlines, not guidelines. I did not.

The gentle management system has pluses and minuses. The takeaways were:

1. A small percentage of activity participants will do most of the work. Some people won’t do anything if you don’t instruct them to. They will simply follow along.

2. Without deadlines, completion dates move into the future continuously. Be prepared. Don’t even attempt to keep a guideline schedule up to date. Trying to figure out the final dates will make you pull your hair out. Instead, let it flow.

3. People are less stressed by guidelines. No expectations for the future are defined, and uncertainty is reduced. Whatever a person does, whenever they finish is satisfactory.

4. There are few paper trails left behind with this management technique. You cannot go back and pull a document to see what was done, as no step-by-step or task-by-schedules exist.

5. Whenever the project was completed was when the project was completed. Gentle management requires completion date flexibility. Flexibility must be built into the contract with the customer.

6. Gentle management is much easier than old-school management.

7. This type of leadership does not work well if you have a team that is being measured by their individual contributions.

8. Gentle does not work in hard-driving, completion-date, schedule-driven organizations.

So, what did I learn in 2022? I now swing both ways: traditional management techniques or gentle management techniques.

I took on a new 2023 task in one of my groups. Before I agreed to the task, I asked the Leader how they wanted the project run — what was their vision of the tools to be used?

He preferred locked-down deadlines and accountability. We discussed how we thought the team would react and made some plans together. It was a worthwhile conversation I will have before I take on new tasks for anyone.

In 2023, I am ready to add value wherever I can. Keeping up with Leadership style changes over time is fun. It will be interesting to see what 2023 will bring.

I’m happy to be back to whom I pride myself on being — a skilled person who can work with anyone however they choose.

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