How are managerial roles changing?
How are managers increasingly becoming HR managers?
What are the different types of manager today?
How does psychology predestine us towards certain types of manager?
From executive to HR manager
The team leader or executive is becoming an HR manager, and this development is part of a fairly global change in companies.
The terms used to designate these roles in companies are changing, reflecting a transformation of the company, its culture and management methods.
In the past, HR functions were referred to in terms such as “Personnel Manager”, with a very administrative vision of the function. Today, we speak of Human Resources Directors (HRDs) and Human Resources Business Partners (HRBPs), with very different concerns.
In the past, the HR function managed costs; today, it manages human capital, cares about well-being in the workplace, pays attention to the employer brand as a means of enhancing attractiveness, and keeps a close eye on staff turnover to prevent talent drain. Talent is identified so that we can pamper them and offer them a career path that makes them want to stay, and we invest in our employees.
The corporate culture is changing: the traditional top-down hierarchical models have given way to alternative models that are more collaborative, more matrix-based, with a flattening of the managerial layers. Teleworking has become part of this accelerated pace of change, with rotating offices and a sense of belonging to a company that is evolving and needs to renew and reinvent itself. The new generations are looking for a better work/life balance.
As a result, managerial roles and the associated postures are changing with it: the “executive” who used to manage staff or the “team leader” who used to check employees’ working hours is now becoming an “HR manager”, with a strategic role that is key to the company’s success.
HR manager versus traditional hierarchical manager
The notion of hierarchy is becoming less important in the relationship between the HR Manager and the employee. The HR Manager must impose less and less, and more and more encourage, motivate and unite, even if he or she has a hierarchical role.
Their posture is changing, and this can be seen in their body posture, which tells us something about the psychological development of the manager.
Whereas the hierarchical manager might have had his chin up, his torso arched, his hands on his hips, which are examples of a domineering posture, today the HR Manager, even in a hierarchical position, sees his body rounded out in his posture. They tilt their heads to show that they are listening, they round out the movement of their arms, their body leans towards the person they are talking to. He puts himself at the same level as the person he is talking to, increasingly in an adult-to-adult relationship, moving away from the father-to-child relationship, which was infantilising.
HR managers and psychology
Our psychology, the education we have received, the role models we have encountered in our lives, the protections we have put in place (…) have a direct impact on our posture: psychological, physical and managerial.
A person’s managerial agility defines their ability to use several management styles, to adapt to situations and people, to be a kind of chameleon rather than just that stiff character who systematically adopts a dominant posture. Managerial models are evolving with the times, with the new generation accelerating the need for managers to change their stance.
The balance of power is changing, and managers are no longer the ones who systematically impose. Although they may do so at times, because they sometimes need to make decisions, this is no longer their only operating model.
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HR manager and functional manager or cross-functional manager
As an employee, I may have to work with a line manager. However, I may also receive a large proportion of my tasks and responsibilities from a functional or cross-functional manager who will have no hierarchical role with me.
HR managers therefore increasingly need to evolve their posture and know how to vary the ways in which they interact with an employee. Similarly, whereas in the past it was enough to set objectives and organise work, which are the first skills deployed by an operational manager, they now need to add more strings to their bow: today’s managerial skills are broader: delegating, co-deciding, supporting change, providing constructive feedback, leading meetings in different ways depending on the objectives, keeping an eye on the balance of the team and managing stress, etc.
The Assess Manager test enables people to better identify their managerial positioning on two levels:
- In their managerial agility and adaptability: situational via leadership styles, emotional and intellectual.
- In their already acquired managerial skills, and those that need to be strengthened.
Key points about HR manager
The Assess Manager test enables people to better identify their managerial positioning on two levels:
- In their managerial agility and adaptability: situational via leadership styles, emotional and intellectual.
- In their managerial skills already acquired, and those that need strengthening.
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