The inexcusable effectiveness of the manager is often taking important doses of his quality of life, in the form of negative emotions, physical and mental fatigue, and also visible or underlying nervous tension, which also dot family life; however these elements –negative emotions, fatigue, tension… - are among those that, to a greater extent, hinder the effectiveness or performance of management personnel
Tucked into this vicious circle, we have to apply more and more effort, but psychic entropy leads to worse results: as is known, this archetype is frequent inside and outside the company.
However, it is possible to prevent, and if necessary break, this kind of hex, and to generate another circle - a virtuous circle - in which fulfillment and satisfaction with achievement nourish intrinsic motivation and performance.
High performance and a certain autotelic enjoyment of professional performance can go hand in hand, although this forces us to model beliefs and attitudes, practice systemic reflection and strengthen self-control.
When necessary, a good coach can help us neutralize the negative, but it can also help us to better exploit the positive, and lead a better quality of life in professional performance.
Different movements and postulates are oriented towards this objective of enjoyment through good performance, without forgetting obviously the collective effectiveness that it would catalyze, as we have just verified by listening to the gurus at the Expomanagement-2004 recently held in Madrid.
Often, in large companies, the managers themselves are assigned a supposed Coaching function, especially before young collaborators with a promising future; We do not rule out an edifying tutelary function (although we have some reservations), but we would identify the authentic Coaching with the experts in this technique.
Coaching techniques cannot be replaced by good intentions and supposed intuitions, and, if a manager wanted to cultivate them, he would have to learn them (they can naturally be learned) and guide them to the collective good.
Coaching is a method or means that can aim for several purposes; But in these paragraphs, if the reader follows us, we point to the manager's desire to be effective and uplifting, and to obtain satisfaction and even enjoyment from it.
The coach should help the manager to adopt the most beneficial attitudes, and find his own answers to questions that he had not even asked himself.
Many of us need a kind of reengineering ourselves, and a good coach or, failing that, someone who, with the same purpose, applies similar techniques can help us.
It is not a matter of giving advice, but of extracting from the coache the best that is within; of making us reach the best conclusions on the best paths. And, if we can all improve in efficiency, much more we can improve in quality of life, which also affects our environment at work and at home.
If we were to ask ourselves where we enjoy more, at work or at leisure, perhaps, dragged down by deep-rooted beliefs, we would assume that at leisure; but, better thought, and especially after being interested, just a little, in the psychology of happiness, we would admit that it depends.
In fact, and although in many cases we find it regrettable, there are not a few addicted to work, as there are to supposedly pleasant practices. But we can talk about jobs… and jobs.
There are some in which, although we do not rule it out, it is difficult to imagine the enjoyment (firefighters, escorts, air traffic controllers…); but there are many others -and we do not think only of artists- in which there is space to enjoy, if one sets her mind and nothing prevents it. Let's propose it.
We can think of many occupations: doctors, teachers, vendors, tour guides, architects, restaurant chefs, journalists, mechanics, laboratory technicians, researchers, surgeons, hairdressers, advertising professionals, office workers, carpenters, decorators, winemakers, ranchers…
These and many others are works that, to a greater or lesser extent, facilitate self-realization and, let us also say, a certain autotelia; that is to say, they allow attention to focus on development itself, beyond the results, and can therefore be intrinsically gratifying.
It will be understood that it is not a matter of disinterested in the results: it is rather a matter of ensuring them through work done at ease and conscientiously, safe from the harmful effects of negative emotions or attitudes.
The life of managers
If someday we wrote our memories, perhaps we would see that life was what had been happening to us while our thoughts or feelings pointed elsewhere; but the fact is that at every moment we are as happy as our thoughts and feelings allow us.
What we have in consciousness is what marks our well-being or discomfort; but, in turn, what we have in consciousness depends on where we direct our attention.
Thus, it seems that if we govern the attention, we have a good part of the battle won. This is what the experts tell us, but in order for us to manage our attention well at work, if we do not do it already, someone who speaks our language must help us: a coach.
It does not matter excessively what he graduated from in college, but he must know the world of the manager and the climate in which he lives.
We have just alluded to the so-called work environment, whose relationship with professional satisfaction is unquestionable; But we have also spoken of attention focused on the development of the activity itself, as if we had chosen it by vocation, and not so much to make a career or simply earn money.
In the case of managers, the focus on the task and people will sound disturbing, because what companies postulate is certainly results orientation and goal achievement.
As we have suggested, these postulates are however compatible with concentration on the task and satisfaction with things well done, although it is true that some of the mantras that circulate in companies are often misunderstood and even adulterated: quality, empowerment, teamwork, internal communication, learning, work by goals…
The Hungarian-American psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi tells us, speaking about quality of life:
“The problem appears when people become so obsessed with what they want to achieve that they no longer get pleasure from the present. When this happens, they lose their chance to be happy. "
But if (also in our professional practice) we make the effort to live the here and now, the same author warns us that we can enjoy the activity and even enter states of high concentration and satisfaction, and equally high performance.
This is the case, and it seems that it is more frequent when the task, testing our capacity, stimulates us sufficiently; then, concentrated, we lose the notion of time and the environment, and we wish not to be interrupted: it is the state of "flow".
The complex functioning of organizations often demands routine or bureaucratic tasks that we do not like, and business life also includes unpleasant decisions and moments.
But let's also promote moments of flow, because they combine high performance with enjoyment.
In short, we could be comfortable, or very comfortable (that is: in “flow”), writing a report, visiting a client, solving a problem, assigning tasks, preparing a catalog or an offer, giving a conference, installing electronic equipment, searching the Internet for information, designing a program or acquiring new knowledge.
But we should be focused on the task. These "flow" states studied by Csikszentmihalyi are characterized by:
- They occur when we face challenges that we can take on. We are absolutely focused on the activity. There are clear goals to achieve, and we achieve them. The activity provides us with immediate feedback. It seems to us that we are overcoming the challenge with surprising ease. We do not care about the risks or dangers that the activity entails. We lose the notion of ourselves. The sense of the duration of time is altered. The activity becomes an end in itself: it becomes autotelic. We feel a certain intimate euphoria of triumph.
The coach can help us increase these states that, as we know, contribute both to professional efficiency and to satisfaction and enjoyment; But this consultant-coach can do more for our quality of life, without prejudice - that is, for the benefit - of high performance.
Is there anything we can do before going to a coach? Still talking about improving our quality of life, we should start by removing the obstacles, if we know how to identify them. It will not always be within our reach, but let's be optimistic.
Let's separate the exogenous from the endogenous, let's separate the hard from the soft, let's separate the conjunctural from the permanent. But let us remember something important: we must start with self-knowledge and self-criticism; at least, we must advance along this path to where we can no longer continue alone.
Self-deception
If we fell into the dreaded self-deception (which Goleman talks about), perhaps only a good coach could get us out of it: it depends on the symptoms. Let's remember some traits of managers who deceive themselves, not without saying that they are happily a minority:
- Arrogance. People's judgment in terms of white-black. Thirst for power. Excessive worship of the ego. Obsession with appearing perfect. Boasting. Inability to admit mistakes or criticism. Narcissism. unrealistic.
A study by Robert E. Kaplan relates these traits to executives who fail after having previously achieved some success, and this may be related to something Seligman tells us. Martin Seligman, promoter of the Positive Psychology Movement, says that optimistic and happy people (perhaps because of the successes achieved) are disproportionate in the analysis of their achievements and failures, and have an exaggerated notion of their abilities; on the other hand, the least happy people (typically less “contaminated” by poorly digested successes) are more fair in their own evaluation and in the analysis of their achievements.
We bet on happiness, but it seems that there is a pending issue in the digestion of successes and failures. Of course, managers characterized by the features in the list above seem to need an external coach to contribute to their re-education.
These managers may be a minority, but they are a serious risk to their organizations.
Finished
Organizations must be committed to a good quality of work life for managers and workers, and there are numerous elements that contribute to this, as well as there are important obstacles.
We have met large organizations with medium-low satisfaction of their people, but in which healthy microclimates could be distinguished, apparently attributable to the director of the section or department.
Let us remember it now, because we have not done it before: a manager-leader will pursue efficiency and self-satisfaction, along with those of his area of influence.
But there are elements of an endogenous nature, which we can control to a greater extent.
Even in unfavorable environmental conditions, one can still find professional satisfaction. It will be said that autotelia is more typical of knowledge workers than managers, but the idea of manager is evolving a lot.
I think Peter Drucker said (maybe he still holds it) that 90% of what we call management is making things difficult for collaborators.
The idea is, of course, very Drucker's, and it underscores the need to advance in the evolution of the role of the manager, perhaps along the lines of Servant Leadership and well-understood empowerment.
A reflection-introspection effort is convenient for everyone, but especially for managers; It is an effort to align with the perception of new realities, with service to the community, with the improvement of quality of life and with the continuous increase in efficiency or performance in the area of influence.
Do not worry about needing help for this, because it is not easy.
If the reader has come this far, we appreciate your presence; and we will also appreciate, for enriching, the dissensions or comments that come to us.
