By Nancy S. Ahlrichs

Conclusion: Making MOC Status a Reality

"Dwell in possibility."
--Emily Dickinson, poet

The start of this century brought with it a true break from the past: the future belongs to those who manage people well. Beyond the fact that managing people well is the number-one reason that successful companies make money,1 there is genuine satisfaction in managing better than our predecessors. Today, talent scouting, relationship building, trust building, skill building, and brand building are the core competencies for managers in all functions in any industry. No matter what additional technical knowledge you need in your position, these are the five differentiators between being an ordinary, frustrated, outdated, "manage the numbers" manager and becoming an extraordinary, respected, successful manager of choice (MOC).

Whether you are in manufacturing, high tech, healthcare, retail, financial services, education, not-for-profit, or another field, your relationship with your external customers is changing. Your customers are becoming more knowledgeable and selective by the day, and the Internet is providing the gateway to global comparison shopping. Competition in your own backyard is significant, but nearly every organization is also feeling the pressure of global hypercompetition.

As organizations and their external customers change, so the role of the manager must also change. In your role as "people

manager"--no matter what your level in the organization--your goal must be to manage better than anyone has ever managed you. Whether you work for a courier service with local customers, a utility with statewide reach, a manufacturer with national clients, or a high-tech company with potentially boundaryless clientele, you face the same set of challenges. Three external pressures on your orga-nization--rapidly changing demographics, the emergence of the employees as consumers of the work experience, and the interaction of the organization's employment brand with its product/service brand--are shaping everything about the business, including the role and expectations of managers.

Today "One Size Fits One"

A number of factors--including the steeply diminishing numbers of available full-time employees with the retirement of Baby Boomers and Veterans, increasing immigration, and higher levels of education and participation of minorities and women in the white-collar workforce--dictate that the workforce will be growing increasingly diverse. Your organization's portfolio of top talent is its single best tool to beat the competition. Success will require focusing on individual employees and managing them individually with whatever it takes (WIT) instead of "one size fits all" benefits and work arrangements. Financially successful organizations will be staffed with a wide range of "A" players, men and women of different ages, races, religions, ethnic backgrounds, sexual preferences, and physical abilities requiring different work configurations--because that is where the top talent is!

As the overall availability of full-time top talent shrinks, employees are being recognized as assets instead of liabilities. Investors are increasingly interested in information about an organization's people management strategies and retention figures. Retention of top talent is seen to reduce costs and errors, increase customer satisfaction and employee morale, and prevent work overload. Multiple studies show that the value of an organization depends less on equipment and other tangibles, and more on brand, technologies, and people.

Veteran generation and Baby Boomer employees have spent the majority of their careers in an economy that grew too slowly to support the bumper crop of their highly educated and skilled peers. The "power of size" actually worked against those two generations because employers had the luxury of hiring from such a large pool of eager qualified candidates. Two decades of organizational turmoil at the end of the last century combined with the terrorist attacks and challenges of corporate governance, however, have left four generations unwilling to commit 110 percent of their life to the work world, especially when restructurings occur in good times and bad and so many organizations want to do more with even fewer people.

An unwavering desire for work-life balance and smaller total numbers have given Gen X and Gen Y an advantage: the "power of scarcity." Their determination to excel equally in family, work, and personal areas of their life, refusal to habitually work late, and desire to be active in the community are causing employers to reevaluate job descriptions and work configurations in order to hire the best talent. The alternative is hiring mediocre but available candidates who will repel the "A" players and only attract more "C" players. Employers have become "sellers" offering their employment brand instead of "buyers" cherry-picking top talent, due to a shift in supply and demand of the number of qualified employees versus number of jobs available. This reversal of years of employees force-fitting their life around their work is a relief to most but can be a source of envy for some. As a manager of choice, you must ignore the voices saying, "No one ever did that for me." Surely we all agree that a balance between work and life is better.

While all four generations are now being recognized as assets, employees see themselves as consumers of the work experience who are able to shop their skills to a variety of employers for use in full-time, part-time, project, telework, or consulting positions. The workplace is becoming more egalitarian and less linear and hierarchical.

Size Is Not a Recruiting Strategy

No longer able to use sheer organizational size to command customer market share--or employee "mindshare" and "heartshare"--organizations are looking for a magnet to attract more customers and talented employees. Senior management teams are realizing that their brands--both for products and/or services and for their employment value proposition--determine whether customers buy and return, and whether top talent even gives them a look.

Employee treatment is the magnet that pulls top talent to a specific employer. It also determines the quality level of products and services. With longtime corporate giants crashing to the ground, maintaining high ethical standards, too, has emerged as a key value as well as a branding element. The manager's deliberate role in modeling and rewarding the implementation of organizational values will further enhance both the employment and organization brands. You are the embodiment of the organization's culture as far as your employees are concerned.

Demographic changes, the rise of the employee as a consumer of the work experience, and the importance of branding are joined with two internal forces that are shaping the role of the manager: (1) the pressure to develop new products and services through innovation, and (2) the importance of people management skills to ensure a continuous pipeline of the best people for specific tasks, whether they are currently with the organization or waiting nearby. Great people managers--MOCs--are emerging as the heroes of their organization because they are the ones who inspire their employees to listen to customers for their definition of value and go beyond existing product quality and process efficiency to create new products and services that set them apart from their global competition. MOCs understand that just as customers demand a voice in defining value in products and services, scarce top talent also demands a role in defining value in the work experience. Table 9 shows examples of the old and the new definitions.

The speed of business has accelerated, and the employee's hunger for learning and meaningful work experiences has grown. As more candidates choose to be entrepreneurs or free agents with a variety of clients (including past employers), managers will need to hire--and later rehire--the same individuals several times in different capacities (full-time, part-time, project-based, and so on). In an effort to keep more full-time employees on-site, smart managers will listen for openings and projects within and beyond their department so that prized employees can experience a "free-agent nation"

within the organization. MOCs' internal relationships with peers in other departments will facilitate the movement of top talent throughout the organization.

Soar Above Ordinary Managers

MOCs themselves will be able to move throughout the organization once they have mastered the five MOC competencies described in earlier chapters:

• Talent scouting. MOCs will be recognized for their hiring successes. Teamed with their HR partners, MOCs will out-hire their peers who fill openings with merely experienced candidates instead of focusing on the competencies of star players. MOCs will attract top talent by offering the opportunity to work with other top talent throughout the organization as well as flexibil-ity and alternative work configurations, and by ensuring that all employees have access to work-life balance benefits without fear of stunting their career options.
• Relationship building. MOCs stand out because their relationships give them access to a network of the best talent inside and outside the organization. Relationship-building skills also enable them to forge the alliances necessary with Human Resources, Marketing, IT, and other departments to ensure smoother daily operations.
• Trust building. For MOCs, 360-degree trust greatly enhances their productivity, as well as the productivity of others. Using their trust-building skills, they will be able to better communicate and elicit the intellectual and emotional engagement of their employees and peers as well as their own managers. Trusted employees, peers, and managers will not hoard information that can make the difference between success and failure with projects, other employees, or customers.
• Skill building. No one can afford to function with even two-year-old knowledge. MOCs know that exposure to new people and new knowledge is fuel for innovative thinking. Since the workplace is so dynamic, skill building can no longer be one-way, from manager to employee. MOCs teach their employees how to teach and join them in learning the latest technology, customer service techniques, financial ramifications of processes, competitive advances, and more. Certifications and other learning badges are as important for MOCs as for their employees. MOCs tap pockets of knowledge inside and outside their departments. They move themselves and their employees forward every day by constantly using different media to reinforce new learning and by building-in the use of new knowledge into performance management expectations.
• Brand building. MOCs who master talent scouting, relationship building, trust building, and skill building will become strong brand builders for themselves in the organization. As the embodiment of the culture to their own employees, MOCs understand that they are charged with modeling the organization's values every day. What they do must match what they and the organization say are their values and "how we do things around here."

Accountability is important at every level of the organization. By recognizing and rewarding all employees who not only meet financial or production goals but who refer top talent, seek community and organizational relationships, act in a trustworthy and ethical manner, and actively learn and share knowledge, MOCs develop a positive department brand. This brand quickly becomes known in the community of potential hires through the words and actions of MOCs and employees. In turn, this feeds the pipeline with top talent eager to be part of an intellectually energizing team.

Just as your external customers are demanding "interactivity, speed, individuality and openness,"2 so are your employees. As an MOC, your responsibility is to support the strategic plan and accomplish organizational goals by managing your employees' experiences, engaging their hearts and minds to do much more than the minimum. When you succeed, you will be taking an active role in reducing recruiting costs and improving internal efficiencies that create value for both your employees and your organization.

The new consumers of the work experience define values when they seek work-life balance and opt for time off rather than a bonus, or part-time telecommuting to enable family time or the pursuit of a degree. You need to listen consciously to your employees to better understand their individual motivators so that you can ignite their imaginations and reap their best efforts. Your combined use of high tech and "high touch" will enable you to rise above the ordinary to become a manager of choice.

Table 9 The New Employee Value Definition