What Does A DeepSmarts Manager Look Like?

In a period of instability, change and turmoil are buffeting the front-line managers now more than ever. There are restructures, redundancies and re-focusing happening in many organisations right now. Front-line managers have always had one of the toughest roles in any organisation; caught between the day-to-day operational needs of their team on the one hand, and the increasing pressure of top-down demands for increased productivity and reduced costs on the other.

There will be some people, however, who will see this as a real opportunity to shine. These are the DeepSmarts Managers. They will have certain characteristics that you will recognise when you know what to look for; and with the right culture and appropriate style of development, these are the people who will ultimately drive your business into the next decade, the 2010s and beyond, leaving behind the tradition of ‘command and control’ style management.

So just how will you recognise these future leaders?

• They are wearing the T-shirt! They are instinctively aligned with the organisation’s Purpose Framework – its Vision, Values and Goals
• They are in-tune with their team member’s mind-set and engage with them before looking to improve their skills and knowledge
• They identify best practices in their team/operation and promote it throughout the organisation for everyone’s benefit
• They set up and facilitate channels of communication so that intelligence can be accessed and shared, quickly and easily, as and when it’s needed
• They don’t settle for hitting targets or meeting deadlines, they are looking for continuous improvement as their normal way of working
• They naturally take personal ownership and assume accountability for themselves and their team
• They trust their people to do the right thing and train accordingly
• They role-model the most effective behaviours and consistently set the expectations for their team, their peers and their boss
• They act as both coach and mentor not only to achieve the required levels of competence and behaviour but to build on-going career development and succession planning
• They are Changing the State of the Art