Managing by objectives or by dictat

Managing-by-objectives is a much more effective leadership tool than a command-and-control dictatorial approach. Dictat invariably leads to micro-management, intrusive-chaos and demotivated employees who do not feel respected or trusted. But management-by-objectives is also very hard to implement for those of us who have been used to a command-and-control structure, where ‘…people will do as they are told…’ is an often used mantra.

Effective leadership requires shifting from concentrating on attempting to create order and discipline to achieve results, to an approach where power is devolved and people are given the right to make changes, amendments and alterations, within the framework of agreed clear broad goals and specific, realistic, time-bound, measurable objectives; often called freedom-in-the-frame. Such an approach will almost certainly lay stronger foundations for improved productivity and performance.

In an agile enterprise, leaders will effectively delegate details of daily operations to those who: have agreed ownership of challenges and processes; is accountability for actions; and have responsibility for their part of the enterprise. Self-restraint by managers and freedom-in the-frame approaches ought to be tools for leaders who aim to enrich others’ work lives, engage more effectively with those they are responsible for, enlighten employees with the enterprise’s purpose and vision, enable their colleagues to contribute their full potential and empower through effective delegation; this applies to senior management all the way through a hierarchy to supervisors of small teams.

To change the behavior of others, leaders must first change their own behavior; how they think and feel. This is perhaps the greatest challenge of all when attempting to create an agile culture geared to handle rapid change and transformation through effective management-by-objectives. And changing our own behavior starts with the small things; atomic-level shifts in our attitudes and actions.

Sending an email without a face to face conversation, talking at someone, sharing snippets of information, or gossiping, and participating in a meeting are not elements of dialogue or collaboration, nor do they indicate interdependencies at their best; these are limited signs of cooperation and make demands on us to change our attitudes and behaviors.

Do our people simply co-exist in the workplace, only tolerating each other even when they have similar or complementary roles, but they never really interact? Can we help our people shift their attitudes and behaviors, making their work more effective and ensure they enjoy their work-experience, fulfilling agreed objectives? Are we encouraging reluctant cooperative discussions in our enterprises due to our dictatorial approaches?

Or can we lay the foundations for an environment where we generatively listen to each other, co-create objectives and relate to each other with trust, secure in the knowledge we are interdependent on each other? Embracing authentic collaboration and security in our interdependence on each other through reflective and generative dialogue, based on clear management-by-objectives, is much bigger than just grudging cooperation between teams and employees.

Generative dialogue, collaboration, and celebration of interdependencies are critical mindset-tools of management-by-objectives. These help us with invention, innovation, imagining and implementing. These tools unlock how we think and feel, influencing how we behave. This approach will make work lives more pleasurable and more productive.

Management-by-objectives will uncover a greater return on your investment in one of your key resources; your people. Agreeing on objectives through a SMART process (objectives which are specific, measurable, agreeable, realistic and timebound) will stimulate greater collaborative interest in each other.

Through agreeing objectives, we will almost always uncover new concepts and generate new ideas which no amount of individual reflection would have uncovered. We begin seeing the world from more than our individual perceptions, creating platforms for future sustainable success in an ever-changing environment.