Simply put, managers are more effective—and the organizations they work for are more profitable—when they behave as if their employees are in charge of them, not the other way around.
Managers should see themselves as subordinate to their employees, in other words. This is the critical insight that will make you a better manager. Good management happens when you listen to, and support those you manage, while bad management happens when a manager attempts to use their ‘authority’ to dictate, control, coerce, or otherwise tell their employees what to do.
That means…
Most managers behave in ways that hurt, rather than help the organizations they work for
Businesses that choose to adopt traditional, top-down management practices put themselves at a competitive disadvantage relative to their rivals, and thus jeopardize the organization’s very survival
Your company’s organization chart (if it has one) is probably upside down
And that, in turn, will make your business more efficient, more effective, more creative, more competitive, and therefore more likely to succeed.
