This article relates to the Senior/Top Level management of an organization. AlphaMeasure defines senior management as the team of individuals at the highest level who have the day-to-day responsibilities of operating the organization. For many employees, this competency will target the managers occupying positions above their immediate supervisors. This competency covers topics such as strategic leadership, corporate vision, and corporate direction. Evaluating this competency can be especially useful in understanding how much your workforce favors the present direction of the organization.
This short story, A View from the Top at Sunset: Senior Management Musings, is part of AlphaMeasure's compilation, Tales from the Corporate Frontlines. It illustrates how one senior manager, on the brink of retirement, views the changes in management-employee relationships over the years.
Anonymous Submission
As I glanced at the calendar, I noticed that my retirement date was fast approaching. Reluctantly, I began to clear out my office and take home some of the remnants of my long and prosperous career. After forty years, I had, as they say, made it to the top, at the company I'd been with for my entire career. Starting with a corner cabinet, I emptied it, one drawer at a time. I 'd forgotten that some of this stuff even existed.
There were souvenirs from countless vacations, mostly from my supervisors. I'd kept them displayed out of respect, and after a while relegated them to the cabinet for safekeeping. Now, as I prepared to leave the company, I realized that I had actually become one of those supervisors. I had surpassed most of them in rank, but, in a year or so, would I be long gone and forgotten as well?
I held a shell trinket from Hawaii and thought about George, my first boss, who had passed them around on his return form vacation many years ago. George was long retired, and perhaps even deceased by now. I remembered him as a strict authoritarian who demanded respect by his very presence. People actually addressed him as 'sir'. He was very tough, but fair.
Then there were Jerry, John, and Elizabeth, all less authoritarian. But they all maintained a cool distance from the workers on the frontlines. I looked at the mementoes that I'd received from each of them, and realized how much the position I now held had changed over thirty years.
I feel very lucky to retire from the same company after so many years. Today, we hire employees who don't expect to stay with us for even five years. Back when George was in charge, people came to our company because we offered secure, long-term career potential. In return, they gave the company undying loyalty.
These days, instead of loyalty, employees give us skills and knowledge. I'll confess, I know very little about the daily tasks of the knowledge workers and managers who report to me. But they know their stuff, and get the job done as well as or better than their counterparts of yesteryear.
Yes, the relationship between Senior Management and the rest of the employee population has changed radically. I'm sure there are statistics somewhere to prove it. But I can tell you from experience that present employees view us as equals, not superiors. They rely on us to steer the ship of the company in the right direction while they man the oars. We are partners in their achievements and they expect us to make decisions that will advance their career development and prepare them for the next rung in the ladder, with our company or elsewhere.
Lately, I've found myself sitting in the cafeteria, visiting with the lunch crowd far more often than my predecessors, and I'm glad. Yes, there have been many changes, but most have been for the better, and completely necessary.
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Josh Greenberg is President of AlphaMeasure, Inc.
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