One of the benefits of my work as a management consultant is that I have the opportunity to meet with many top notch executives. I recently had the pleasure to re-connect with one executive, Tom, who I had the opportunity to work with over 15 years ago. He has continued to advance through his organization, and is now a senior executive in one of Canada’s largest banks. We had a wonderful meeting where he shared with me his progress and how the accountability-based management principles that COREinternational shared with Tom all those years ago are foundational in how he carries out his work. What particularly struck me are his continued use of CORE’s 3-tier management system and the role of the Manager-once-Removed (MoR). NOTE: The MoR is your manager’s manager). An MoR’s accountabilities include management of the talent pool two levels down; ensuring these employees are treated fairly by the organization. The MoR also provides mentoring to these employees and ensures there are successors to key roles. MoRs also ensure their direct employees are providing effective managerial leadership.
Tom described his passion for developing people and supporting their personal and career growth. He knows all of his employees two levels down —who they are, their current roles and career aspirations, how they are performing and their potential for promotion. To support his leadership work, Tom maintains an open physical environment to complement his approach to leadership. Tom makes himself available not only to his direct reports and their people, but also to his entire organization by maintaining a work-space in the open and with his team thereby being visible and accessible. Tom described his passion for mentoring particularly when his employees thrive within the bank, or even thrive after they have sought external opportunities. He has a true passion for seeing people progress and succeed, challenging them to be the best they can be and ensuring he, and the managerial systems, enable them to progress.
In a day and age when trust in organizations is seen as a rare commodity, Tom continues to demonstrate how principled leadership, utilizing trust enhancing tools and systems, can create an environment where employees thrive while achieving great results for the business.
The following article explains how Tom’s leadership made a difference in the management of a call centre by applying accountability-based-management principles.