NU 12 by KC - new paradigm

Hi Sir,

Here is my 6th NU 12 blog - changing the traditional "management style" in our office.

Thank you!

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Crisostomo, Kathleen Lizette C.

ENTREP

NU 12: New attitude / paradigm

How effective is it to use a non-bureaucratic system within your team when the entire company is in bureaucracy?

I've been managing my small operations group for only 2 years now.   Looking back, I had no idea on how to manage people when I accepted my promotion.  I tried applying the system I have been reading from my MBA books.  I learned that the trend nowadays in the workplace is having a leaner group with less decentralization, and that was what I did. 

No one in my team is allowed to call me "ma'am", "miss" or "boss".  They all call me on a first name basis.  I maintained a very lean group of 3 senior people and 1 assistant.  I allocated each one to be accountable and responsible of their own accounts and job orders to be filled.  They have to face the clients themselves, work on their own strategies and only report to me the details at the end of the day.  I let them take leaves when they wanted to and I encouraged them to always be open with their thoughts, no holds barred.  I was only looking at the macro perspective, which is meeting the team's annual revenue and reporting to our country manager and regional office for sales performance.  My team enjoyed the freedom and flexibility, but I made sure I get to hammer those who did not perform because they are accountable for their own decisions.  I was supposed to be the last resort for all decisions.  Outside the workplace, we became friends and even had personal conversations with each other.

After a few months on working on this paradigm of non-bureaucracy and a leaner environment, I noticed how my other colleagues reacted to my team's work ethics.  Other rank and file employees would call their bosses "sir", "miss" or "TL", and some only found out I am a manager because of my email signature.  They felt my team was disrespectful or that I was too casual towards my team.  Others had to really beg their bosses for approvals on leaves and would get turned down because of client demands, while they noticed one of my team members was out on a very long vacation.  They could not reach out directly to their clients because they bosses are the front liners while my team members made negotiations on their own.  My team can easily enter a company director's office without notice while others could not do just that.  In the end I realized I am the only one in the company who created this culture for my team, and that after all, we are still in the Philippines and we were raised to have a traditional, bureaucratic system.

To be very honest, I am not sure how long my work paradigm will be effective when the rest of the company is still in a traditional setting.  Even if I let my team take leaves as they please, it still needs to be approved by my Director and HR.  Even if I give them a flexible time schedule to follow a US-time client demand, office hours are still from 830 am to 530 pm.  The other managers should still be addressed with a "ma'am or a "sir" and those from other departments still call me "ma'am".  I've had a lot of people inquiring on how to move to my team but I also know a lot who would rather stick to their usual process.

I may be challenging the status quo here, but this is how I think an employee should be in the office: you know what to do, strategize how you should do it, take responsibility for your actions, then rest because tomorrow is another day.  I'm not always meeting my sales targets but I know I made a difference in some employee's life. 3.5