Executives Should Look For Help Before They Leap

In this article, a comparison is given between two executives who took big leaps and were assigned the task of managing a large number of staffers. One was given coach assistance after a year and the other had assistance from since the beginning of her job. Numerous executives intend to jump from managing a small number of associates to hundreds and thousands of them. It turns out to be damage to the career of executives who wish to do that as they end up failing miserably. It is favorable to take help from a professional coach who can guide well on how to successfully take big leaps. An example of a person named Evan Hanlon is given who committed the same mistake. He took a big leap of managing 80 staffers to an astounding number of 500 workers. This resulted in clashes with other executives due to a lack of experience. After one year, he sought professional guidance from the coach. Currently, companies are working for this cause with the help of acclimation coaching for example Mastercard.  This helped him improve to a great extent. Previously during his work, Hanlon used to show arrogance and had no experience managing a large number of people. Some people even had negative reviews about him, but with the help of the company, he met those people and promised to work better this time. Coaching helped Hanlon improve in a positive manner which awarded him a promotion. The article then mentions another executive who had coach advice from the beginning of her profession and was able to impress the food producers with good management skills. She appointed a lieutenant as the chief of staff who would complete tasks while she could spare time for deep thinking related to her job. When she was the vice president she had 5000 workers under her. She knew personal information about every single worker. She also conducted virtual town hall meetings with workers, to know about the problems they were facing. After her promotion in 2018, she managed 12,000 staffers and then 75,000 staffers later in the year. According to her, the most important thing between a manager and the staff is trust. To lead a successful company which has a bigger workforce it is important to have good relationship between a manager and his/her workers.
This article is important to me as it provides insight into how executives should fine-tune their management skills to manage their relationships with workers. While getting a promotion is everyone's dream, but that should be complemented with a constant learning experience and little help from others as the title of the article suggests. The suggestions and experiences mentioned in the article can come in handy for anyone aspiring to be a manager of a bigger workforce at some stage of his/her carrier.

Link to the article: https://www.wsj.com/articles/executives-should-look-for-help-before-they-leap-11585137600
Time Posted: March 25, 2020 8:05 am ET