Partial Subordination; a big-time challenge to Managers

 As Somesh was done with conversation over his mobile, this time the noise of his mobile being thrown at his table was loud enough to be heard by his peers in nearby cubicles. He was actually irritated that most of his teammates have still not finished the task explained by him in the recent team meeting. What he is wondering is that while he prepared such a creative ppt. to elaborately explain the task still, his subordinates have only partially implemented his directions. Somesh is still wondering what went wrong....

Many managers suffer from this challenge of not being heard to implement. Many subordinates initiate the task as directed by their manager but due to lack of certain "drivers" they don’t find themselves so keen to finish on time. Many others do engage themselves for the task but the ownership for work is so low that they end up producing average or low-quality work. Managers certainly can get the task done with way higher ownership once they include these "drivers" while dealing with their subordinates.

Drivers for complete subordination are Trust, Value, Empathy & Courage.

Trust; Manager’s Competence & Character help build trust with their teammates. The pre-requisite is that managers need to have both Competencies & Character in abundance and in constructive dimension.

Value; The same task gets viewed differently by different subordinates purely by the way they see value in it. Workplace tasks can be seen as “task given by boss”, “part of my job”, “I have to do it as I get paid for this”, “opportunity to learn/contribute/grow/exhibit talent”. It’s prudent for a manager to communicate the value of a task to his teammates. Subordinates keep thinking “What’s in it for me” and their efforts to complete the task are proportional to the perceived value of the task.

Empathy; It definitely cannot be about work, work, and work all the time. Managers need to be sensitive enough to appreciate and understand employees' situations.

Courage; Although the managerial position comes with the power of authority so it’s obvious and desirable for managers to be courageous in asking questions, demanding performance.

Comparison of Drivers; As managers operate and navigate by virtue of their natural personality hence it's generally found that they may be strong on a specific driver & average or weak on some other. While Trust and Value need to be offered with a maximum possible amount, Managers need to exhibit a balanced but consistent delivery of Courage and Empathy.

Ironically these drivers are not replaceable, being sturdy on one driver does not allows a manager to be weak on other driver(s). They all are equals and they all are needed. 

Is it all.....

Many times Managers have willingness but are not able to establish the drivers with their teammates. The ability to Communicate is key here. Drivers get established by Communication since Communication behaves like a media to express drivers. Needless to add one must possess expertise in all three forms of communication viz. Visual, Verbal, and Vocal.