The new generation of skilled workers deal in knowledge and relationships. With high expectations of the companies they work for and a low tolerance for boredom, these employees can be a challenge to hold on to. It's up to managers to learn what makes them tick.

David Rock (University of New York) recently posed the question: “Is it time to reinvent the manager?” on his recent tour of South Africa. His premise was that the nature of work has changed profoundly over the past 100 years, from labour management at the turn of the century, to process management over the past 50 years, to knowledge worker management in the current context - people who need to think and interact with people for a living. He argues that knowledge worker management takes a different set of skills to those needed in the process world – managers need to evolve or they will cease to be effective.

So how do managers reinvent themselves? David Rock highlights three key competencies for the knowledge worker manager. They need to get their people to think better, become master communicators in order to circulate and sell ideas better, and become master facilitators of relationships, tough conversations and client service.

Getting people to think better is a tough ask. There is an infinite number of potential connections and wiring in each person’s brain, and so every minute, any attempt to ‘model’ a thought process is doomed to fail – that’s where process thinking no longer helps us. A thought manager has to learn how to get people to think new things, make new connections and continuously innovate. In the hospitality industry, there’s seldom a day that doesn’t require some sort of ‘deviation from the service script’. Customers always find the one thing to ask for that never can be anticipated, and people often have to think on the fly about how to meet customer needs, or find a way to manage their expectations differently. People who have been encouraged to think in response to customer challenges are most successful in this space.

Coaching is a clever way to get people to think, and to improve their thinking over time. This has been a much-touted approach over the past few years, and almost everybody pays lip service to it, although few people can actually do it well. It may have been used as a minor tool in the management toolkit in the past, but it has never been more imperative that managers get a real handle on it. A much larger portion of their time should be dedicated to challenging their teams to make new connections - to approach relationships and customer service in a ‘thinking’ way, rather than in a knee-jerk reaction to the environment.

Becoming a master communicator in order to circulate and sell ideas better is also paramount to success. Because the product of thinking is ideas, which are intangible until captured in another person’s mind, the knowledge worker manager needs to get really good at communicating and cross-pollinating ideas and concepts. Firstly, because colleagues need to bounce off each other’s thinking in order to evolve, and secondly, because knowledge workers are in the business of selling their thinking – the ability to communicate ideas becomes paramount.

Tough conversations are part of the everyday job of a manager’s work, and relationships can be damaged if these conversations are not managed well. If the working relationship does not survive, this could affect the level of the individual’s compliance, and their ability to manage customers positively and constructively after the conversation. I have often seen ‘tough’ conversations taking place in the background in a restaurant, only to see the manager walk away thinking she’s achieved her objective, while the waiter finishes his shift scowling and mumbling at all who will notice. I don’t need to spell out what impact that really has on the customer experience! In the ‘old days’, compliance to rules and regulations was a matter of course; nowadays, it’s more a matter of priority. When effective partnerships and relationships are formed, delivery into the customer space is seamless and bubbling with the positive energy that is so necessary to keep things working well!

The best restaurant manager I have ever seen in action, a chap called Amon Jack, was an absolute master at these conversations. He used to call all his people together for a “buzz session” 20 minutes before opening time. Together, they would problem-solve issues that had arisen during the previous shift, and talk about anything that may impact the customer experience in the shift they were about to begin – menu changes, special events, staff shortages, etc. He took the conversation away from being personal and blaming, and into the motivating realm of being solution and team-oriented. He would remind everyone to watch their team mates, and if anyone “fell off the bus”, he would remind them of the importance of getting the team member “back on the bus” so that it didn’t impact everyone’s experience of the shift negatively.

A few years ago Time Magazine ran an article on a study that was done on the “happiness factor” (TIME February 2005). What is fascinating about its conclusion is that the only common factor attributed to the happiness level of individuals in general is the quality and quantity of relationships they experience. If this is indeed the case, then a strong retention factor that can be influenced by an effective manager is the facilitation of good relationships within teams, by consciously building an open, communicating, nurturing culture that makes people feel a sense of glue to a company that goes beyond pay packets, perks, and contracts.

I have to cite Amon Jack again when it comes to building the happiness factor in the hospitality arena. He has a very playful and motivating style of management. He worked really hard at helping his waiters see the value in marketing themselves as part of the customer experience. His challenge to them was to come back with a ‘job offer’ from tough tables. All that really meant was delivering an exceptional customer experience to the point that they realised they were not selling food, but themselves. Amon always laughingly told his staff that people didn’t come to their restaurant because they were hungry. He said that guys who could afford their meals in his restaurant also had bulging fridges at home. Why would they attend his restaurant if they had their own food, unless they wanted something more? He charged his staff with delivering that. Every time a waiter received a job offer, he’d call Amon, his boss, and get the customer to repeat the offer to him. Everyone would have a good old belly laugh, and the waiter’s self esteem would soar.

Sometimes a waiter would be so challenged with a particular table that he’d come over to Amon, and bet him that he couldn’t squeeze a job offer out of them. Amon would then don an apron, get himself introduced as the new waiter, and work the table until he got the job offer himself! Of course, all the restaurant staff would all be watching to see if Amon could work the table enough to get the offer, and it would be a huge laugh for them all when he pulled it off (or didn’t, as the case may be). He always found a way to engage himself, his team, and his customers in a way that made everyone laugh, and build relationships that went well beyond the “exchange of food”.

Achieving the ‘X’ factor when it comes to delivering a differentiated customer experience has everything to do with the engagement of people in a business. And people engagement is all about managers who have figured out how to reinvent themselves from being people who simply manage tasks to being people who get the best out of their people. A lot of that ability comes with a systemic management development culture where people are developed beyond their technical skills, into the realm of personal development. Managers who learn more about themselves, the impact they have on other people, and the skills to build relationships and manage people in a way that empowers and grows the people around them, will be the people who take organisations and their people forward in a world of customers who demand much more than ever before - beyond nougat and rose petals on the pillow, beyond ‘thank you’ letters on the bedside table, and beyond attentive greeters in the foyer. Reinvent your managers, and you reinvent what it is that sets you apart.

Avocado Vision has been helping managers reinvent themselves for many years. We have seen, first hand, the transformation that occurs in the customer experience when managers become more effective managers of people. For more information go to www.avocadovision.co.za

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