How the role of the manager is changing: less supervision, more collaboration

What do you learn from analysing 35 million online job postings, 1 million newspaper advertisements, 6 million CVs and half a million comments from potential candidates in the period between 2007-2021? This analysis was made by Lethian Zang, professor of Business Administration at Harvard.

The data revealed relevant aspects of how the role of the manager has radically changed. Here are a few: managerial job offers that required collaborative skills and experience increased threefold between 2007 and 2021. In contrast, job offers that included supervisory skills decreased by 23%. The use of collaborative phrases in newspaper job advertisements increased by 15% between 1980 and 2000. Before 1980, references to collaboration were scarce. The number of management resumes mentioning supervisory experience decreased by 8% between 1985 and 2015, while those highlighting collaboration increased by 37%. References to supervisory tasks in Indeed.com reviews decreased by 22%, while references to collaboration/teamwork skills increased by 28%.

We thus have proof that the role of the manager is transformed, forever. Study author Letian Zhang says that 'we don't need army commanders, we need basketball coaches, real coaches'.

I don't think this is new; rather, I think this study presents granular evidence of the skills required of modern managers. Collaboration, cooperation: essential ingredients for building trust. Why then have they become so important? I offer some food for thought. In the past, managers had to solve complicated problems requiring deep technical knowledge. Now the problems are not 'only' complicated but have become complex: cooperation with others is required to solve them. Nobody has all the technical skills to solve a complex problem, so we must have the cognitive ability to connect the dots, and the personal ability to collaborate. As an executive coach, I have found that everyone has internalised this concept but few are able to translate it into concrete actions with authentic ways of collaboration. I have often heard people say: 'I copied my colleague in my email' thinking that collaboration is adding a cc to one's messages. I share two examples, only changing the name for confidentiality reasons.

I was personnel manager for many years at the European Bank, World Economic Forum and World Bank. In this role I often collaborated with many famous head-hunter companies. With one of these companies the relationship was very intense and I had monthly discussions with their representative Marco, who was competent and knowledgeable. Two or three times a year we would organise a working lunch together, often exchanging leadership books, and when I left the organisation, I informed Marco who replied: "Have they already found your replacement?": that was all he said. A few months later I visited him with a copy of my book as a gift. When I entered his office he abruptly asked me what I wanted from him and that he had no time to chat. I was dismissed in less than a minute: obviously I have not heard from him since.