What makes the dream work, as the leadership ranks are thinning.
Management has decided to eliminate management, it seems. A new trend is emerging, as bureaucracies are flattened – and teams must move forward within a new structure. With recent trends in white-collar layoffs, the future of work is being built on self-directed teams. Cuts are driving change. Yahoo!News has declared that the six-figure job market is facing a “white-collar recession.” Bloomberg Intelligence says global banks will cut up to 200,000 jobs in the next three to five years. Within shrinking labor markets, the need for career autonomy and flexibility is increasing. For companies like Meta, Bayer, GE and 3M, the shift away from management is a step toward new demands for workers. How can you prepare for a new normal where management means something different than it ever has before?
Self-Leadership is the New Management
Author and leadership expert Steve Denning has researched new management structures. He notes that many high-performing teams are not led by managers. Key results emerge when management steps back, allowing the team to self-organize. “What generates the energy and passion of self-organizing teams, and their eventual high productivity, is that members enjoy the opportunity to organize their own work and contribute their full human potential to the collective,” he shares.
Layers of management are reduced in pursuit of greater profitability, efficiency – and empowerment for employees. But moving to a self-directed structure is not as easy as writing a request to ChatGPT. Workers want to know who is in charge when managers are being let go. Who judges between budget allocations, product launch dates, legal approvals? Who will have the authority to sign off on your next vacation request? The answer depends on the organization, but greater autonomy is emerging as the way forward. In a world without managers, opportunity arises. An opportunity for you to increase – and enter into – self-leadership. These three vital self-leadership skills will help you prepare for the future of work—and prove your career.
With management gone, the self-governing workforce arrives
In self-governing teams, according to Denning’s research, “what to do” is often more difficult than actually doing the work. The ability to identify choices and challenges is central to the team. This objective emphasizes the importance of persuasive communication. In this way, others may subscribe to a proposed course of action—but discussion and discourse are part of the new normal. To thrive in this evolving environment, employees must focus on developing the following self-leadership strategies:
- Determination: Are you good at making decisions? Structure can reduce or even eliminate the need to make decisions. However, removing the management hierarchy means that everyone has to make decisions. Responsibility is shared, not dictated. Your success rests on your cognitive abilities, not management oversight. The future of work requires employees who can see the rules (railings) and innovate across them – seeing new opportunities not just old regulations. Disclaimers will no longer work – ownership is what is required, at every level. Navigation involves critical thinking, evaluating available information (including that questionable output from ChatGPT), and taking responsibility for results. Decision-making will shift to the individual, based on the needs of the team, when moving to a self-directed workforce. Here’s how the Project Management Institute explains the difference: “Teams led by managers are defined and guided by someone from the outside. A manager appoints a project manager and the project manager becomes the boss of a team. The team does whatever the manager tells them to do.” In the self-directed team, you are the CEO of a brand called You. Your choices determine your success, based on the impact you create for your team. What decisions do you need to make to enable this impact?
- Collaboration and Cooperation: Success in self-directed teams depends on effective collaboration. Building strong interpersonal relationships and fostering open communication are essential to achieving collective goals. So how do you do this? It turns out that cooperation and collaboration use the oldest tool in business: the conversation. In self-directed teams, notice that “self” isn’t really what matters most. Ambition takes a backseat when no one needs or wants to be a manager. Progress comes from advancing projects. Evaluation is based on performance. Surprisingly, self-directed teams emphasize selfless service, not selfishness. The project or task is what matters – not office politics, promotion or positioning. Collaboration is critical to the success of self-directed teams. Where will self-directed teams fail? Within toxic cultures. Rigid companies cannot compete in the new order. If you’re not finding cooperation and collaboration, look at your culture – and be prepared to change.
- Self-Reliance and Initiative: Projects must follow SMART objectives: goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timely (urgent). Teams must be organized around objectives, and involving others in creating those objectives is key. In manager-led teams, expectations determine behavior. In self-directed teams, agreement drives behavior. Moving from expectations to agreement is an exercise in confidence and initiative so that you can share your ideas in a way that is persuasive—and resistant to criticism. In my consulting work with companies undergoing digital transformation, creating a culture of agreement (not expectation) is key. After all, in the self-directed team there is an egalitarianism of ideas (everyone has an opportunity to contribute – as opposed to listening to the boss for instructions). This emerging democratization of the workforce means you need to own your voice and your ideas – share them with initiative and confidence in your communication.
What leaders can learn from established self-directed team management systems
Sophie Thatcher from the Yellowjackets.
The concept of self-governing groups is not entirely new. For example, boarding schools offer a parallel, where students live away from parental supervision. Unlike that flashback from an episode of Yellow jacketsa natural discipline and leadership emerges for youth in prep school. At Northwestern Academies of St. John, a boarding school in Delafield, Wisconsin, students learn and demonstrate personal responsibility. “Boarding school life requires students to step outside their comfort zones and become more self-reliant.” The same can be said for the self-directed workforce. And maybe for the characters going forward Yellow jackets? I’ll leave that up to you to decide.
Despite initial concerns about potential disorder, students often develop unspoken systems of collaboration and cooperation, establishing a natural order among themselves. As adults, we have an even greater capacity for creativity and collaboration within self-directed teams. Concerns about disorder must be replaced by a deeper understanding of human nature. We are determined to cooperate. Our ability to communicate, not organizational hierarchy, is what built the world around us. This phenomenon illustrates the human ability to self-organize and adapt, which has existed long before Henry Ford built the first assembly line. Management is evolving to get us back to what we do best, when ownership, empowerment and self-leadership take charge.
