IS MANAGEMENT TRULY DEAD?

We have been tricked!

The Industrial Revolution which ended in 1840 was noted by  a manager's role to assign work, evaluate quality and efficiency.

These managers did not really know how to hire workers, establish a culture that increased productivity and solve problems.

They learned on the job.

Now we have MBA education, primarily based on management theory and case studies. Do MBA's make effective managers; i.e. add value to achieving strategic goals?  No.

But they do learn on the job when their manager is more of a mentor who understand each person as an individual.

Mark Fisch was an excellent mentor manager.  One day he stopped to tell me about my confusion as to his role.  He stressed, "it is to cause you to be successful".  And his process was to coach me to be independent of him, to answer my own questions, to know what action lead to success.

That is why I dropped the word manager and became a coach.

IMPORTANCE OF BRANDING YOURSELF

After intense listening to others introduce me at meetings, I began to hear what made me unique.

It was not my title, profession or who I worked for.

But I found at cocktail parties, people were interested in how I get CEO's more competent keeping focusing their staff on what is most important. To be forward thinking [strategic] rather than reactive to what challenges are in front of them

Last Sunday night we were at a friend's house for dinner.  Many were small business owners.

The last thing they would want to hear is that I am an Executive Coach. Likewise, it didn't matter to me what profession the guests represented.

So I talked about a 2nd generation owner who hated having his son in the business and the opposing view of the son's mother [spousal stress].  That is chaos, stress and exhausting.

What made compelling conversation was when and how we can stop parenting our kids. In public companies it is the same thing but labeled as managerial power.

So..."Alan, what is it you do? In family businesses I coach to reduce chaos, stress and exhaustion."

Thus begins my brand.

Myths of Coaching

When I asked 10 executives what their perception of the coaching process is, I received 8 different answers.

 "How do you select an executive coach?"

Best answer: experience a coaching session before selection!

Subsequently, I am offering a 30 minute coaching session to create that experience

 To do so, simply email me at:

AlanBooth@mags.net