Stop Managing, Start Leading | Hamza Khan | TEDxRyersonU

my name is Hamza and there's three things that you should know about me one I was born in 1987 - I love hip-hop and three I'm a horrible boss I'm a horrible boss because I used to be a horrible employee aside from my time in the Canadian Armed Forces I've never completely cooperated with the rules of my traditional workplaces the Monday to Friday 9 to 5 grind just isn't for me I'll never forget the last time that I was called out for being late at work it was very early in my career and I remember showing up one morning at 9:15 a.m. casually strolled in only to find my boss standing beside my desk arms crossed tapping his watch and disapproval Hamzah this is unacceptable I can't remember the last time you were here before 9:00 well damn good morning to you too sir did I miss anything now of course I knew that I hadn't I've been connected to my work in a dozen different ways check my calendar the night before I'd been on my email all morning I had my notifications on Facebook Twitter whatsapp or internal messaging system if my clients or my team wanted to get a hold of me they would have already done so and that's when my boss hit me with this Hamzah stock market opened 15 minutes ago what in my work have to do with the stock market this was a marketing agency I was doing graphic design I saw what was happening I was being sacrificed at the altar of office discipline so I asked a rhetorical question did something happen that I should know about and of course they knew nothing had happened I've been on Twitter all morning and I looked at the trending topics and the only thing newsworthy was Kanye West and Kim Kardashian attending a jay-z concert the night before and that's when my boss hit me with this Hamzah you being late is bad for morale it looks like you weren't pulling your weight around here ooh that one stung that one hurt and that's the moment I decided to quit the insinuation that I wasn't producing because I wasn't physically tethered to my desk I was a bit too much for my pride anyone who knows me knows that I'm highly productive I'm a consummate team player but apparently I didn't looked the part so rather than go out with a dramatic bang I left with a little bit of a sneaky whimper for my last two weeks on the job I would show up early show up every morning at 8:55 a.m. and I would sit at my desk and do one thing and one thing only I marathon movies yeah naturally I started with The Godfather great place to start I made my way over to Star Wars and what marathon would be complete without the Lord of the Rings extended version of course now every day I would leave at 5:00 p.m. I passed by his desk at 5:00 p.m. and he go like this Hamzah great job I literally sat there for eight hours and I watched movies I did nothing but that was enough for my boss and I swore from that moment onwards I'd never be managed again and managers have tried and managers have failed they've had to modify their management strategies and approaches with me and it's left me wrestling with the following paradox organizations that are growing and achieving scale require management however people myself yourself don't like to be managed which begs the question Ken Millennials be managed or better yet should millenials be managed now I mentioned that I was born in 1987 and that situates me firmly within Generation Y critics of my generation have been quick to dismiss me as many things entitled lazy disloyal unmotivated selfish and considering that I quit my job over the fact that I couldn't show up 15 minutes late every single day I suppose you could say some of those stereotypes are true but here's the thing Generation Y now accounts for more than 50 percent of the global workforce but we're built for tomorrow's workplace because we grew up in an increasingly flat and connected world were that much more resourceful innovative entrepreneurial nimble dexter's agile I've got buzzwords for Daisy all how we work and why we work is fundamentally out of sync with the expectations of the traditional workplace for instance I don't just have one employer I have a portfolio of work I don't just have one specialization I have many of them I don't stay at one place for very long I do tours of duty I don't need an office I'm connected to my work anywhere that I can get Wi-Fi so why is it that so many of us are still being managed like we work in factories now if you trace back the echoes of this particular configuration of workplaces far back enough you might actually well end up in factories the Industrial Revolution this time in our history saw organizations achieving scale in order to manage this growth we have to elect well managers in fact the entire eight-hour workday has its roots in this time social reformer Robert Owen proposed that we divide our work into three equal parts for a day rather into three equal parts eight hours for work eight hours for recreation eight hours for rest as a way to wrestle back work-life balance because at that time we were experiencing a rather adversarial relationship with our employers by the early 1900's management had become widely accepted and by the mid twentieth century we began for better or for worse - perfect management we began to develop theories about it and one such theorist by the name of Peter Drucker began to notice something he began to notice something that was a bit of a paradigm shift he saw that we were moving away from the mere production of goods and the provision of advanced services to the use and manipulation of information he coined the phrase knowledge work he said the most valuable asset of a 21st century institution whether business or non-business will be its knowledge workers in their productivity and so what we need is a new managerial contract because when you consider that when all of the value in an organization walks out of the door each evening the old command-and-control mindset is not going to work anymore the existing model doesn't make any sense it does not make sense for creative agencies it does not make sense for startups it does not make sense for think tanks it does not make sense for publications it does not make sense for anywhere where the next generation is trying to do creative work entrepreneurial work or information based work and so why are we doing this well because of tradition tradition is easy tradition is comforting tradition is ultimately limiting it stifles innovation it's doing things because that's the way it's always been done but let me tell you doing things because that's the way it's always been done is a horrible horrible reason to continue doing anything and so it behooves managers of the next generation to develop a focus on management with a distinctly Theory Y approach in order to understand and appreciate Theory Y you first have to understand and appreciate Theory X Theory X assumes a lot of things it assumes that employees are lazy that they avoid work and that they actually dislike work it's kind of like when your parents assigned you tasks or chores when you were young or do the lawn do the dishes and you'd rather be doing other things Theory y assumes the complete opposite Theory Y assumes that employees are ambitious that they're self-motivated that the exercise self-control and that they actually enjoy their physical and mental duties and that given the proper conditions an employer operating within the theory Y framework and actually help their employees achieve the most elusive part of Maslow's hierarchy of needs that little point at the top of the triangle self-actualization but that's all given the proper condition so what do those proper conditions look like well let me tell you about how I run my ships I start from a place of a hundred percent trust I provide my teams with their areas of responsibility they have their goals they have their deadlines and I assume that they're here for the right reason and that they want to work and that they will do good work I provide them with space physical and otherwise now we have an office yes you're not physically expected to be there you can work from the office you can work from home you can be in Bermuda with your shorts on for all I care as long as work is getting done on time and to a high degree of quality why is there any need for me to actually track your hours it's dehumanizing it's degrading and I believe in co-creation I believe in building things together I simply am NOT going to assign you something expect you to do it let alone do a good job I'd rather invest you emotionally in the process of producing whatever it is that we're producing and then I believe in leadership this is something I've resisted for a long time but my teams have told me time and again hums that we need somebody needs to be there who's a steward who's gonna guide us who's gonna provide us with insulation from the more harsh realities of the organization and the industry frankly and I believe in culture I believe that people want to show up to a workplace that doesn't feel like a workplace that feels more like a community where they can be among friends where they can bring their whole selves to work something I've really learned and appreciated with my time at Ryerson sa and I believe that we should create a work that is conducive create a workplace that is conducive to doing excellent work and when all these proper conditions are met what happens we do work that we're proud of we're more creative we discover meaning and fulfillment we strike work/life blend and I would hope that we ultimately achieve happiness I'm optimistic about the next generation because not only can we break the cycle I believe we will break the cycle of doing things the way they've always been done and it's gonna come from understanding a fundamental difference between outcomes and outputs and this quote in particular reminds me of this it underscores this ideas so well Antoine de saint-exupéry said if you want to build a ship don't drum up people to collect wood don't assign them tasks and work but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea a focus on outcomes versus mere outputs now I managed my first creative team at the age of 21 and this is a particularly challenging team to manage it was comprised of student staff and anyone who's managed student staff and knows what a Herculean chore it is to get them to part with their time energy and attention they've got so much going on in their lives the rigors of academia the trials and tribulations of being a student family friends co-curricular activities other job opportunities and if you're not careful about intentionally engaging them what you get is diminished capacity and so by design I had to become the lazy a fair hands-off manager that I am today without any formal training or education or prynt for that matter I defer to the closest blueprint available to me at the time the teachings of a man named Sean Carter some of you might know him as uh jay-z I've listened to all of his music I've read interviews I've watched interviews I've read books by him about him and have always been in such awe of the way he's built up rock nation one of the most successful labels over time he's a leader who manages other leaders he manages the likes of Kanye West Rihanna Jay Cole the list goes on and he does so with a distinct focus on individuals he doesn't just see the Sun he sees individuals he sees a team of artists people who are unique have their own ambitions who want to succeed on their own terms and he nourishes that and he creates an environment that has all of the aforementioned conditions like Jay I work with people who want to make classic albums I work with people who want to win Grammys I work with people who want to move the needle forward and push boundaries I work with people who are genuinely animated by their work I suppose you could say I started the game on hardmode one of the first people that I ever had to manage was significantly older than I was more skilled and more wise and naturally I was intimidated I was 21 at the time I could barely manage myself how was I going to manage this person and so I managed him the best way that I knew how I didn't I told him you're an adult and you're perfectly capable of managing yourself all I can really do is manage your workflow and your priorities and if you're down with that we can do some amazing things together and that gave me the wind in my sails to manage my next creative team at the age of 24 at Ryerson University I managed the Sigma I managed a student team that was significantly larger than my first team in fact it was so large I don't remember a single meeting where we were all physically present I sometimes had to do the same meeting twice or three times and each time there were disembodied heads around the table face dialling in via FaceTime and Google hangout and it was around this time that I really had to embrace the use of technology to foster a sense of community and collaboration and at 28 nothing has really changed I'm now managing full-time staff and imagine the exact same managing them the exact same way that I manage my part-time staff my stay staff it's by recognizing their unique behaviors and expectations and not just meeting them halfway meeting them all the way modifying the way I work to fit them versus the other way around now you're wondering has it worked humza this seems too good to be true it's a some sort of YouTube utopian workplace I mean it's not without its bumps but yes it does work I'm on my fifth creative team now people that have worked for me rather with me have graduated on to work at places that are reputable organizations large agencies leading publications media companies we've won regional and national awards and on the agency front we've worked with clients off the jump that some agencies don't pursue until four or five ten years down the road so yes it does work but how does it work comes up how did this all happen well with a lot of training a lot of support and a lot of guidance from man like Jay I raise the bar I believe that if you want to do your best work if you want your team to do their best work you have to bring out the best in yourself to bring out the best in your team you have to bring out the best in yourself I don't stand behind my team and say go I stand in front of them and say let's go I believe that you have to go to bat for your team when people work with you they want to know that they're working with somebody that has their back that's going to go to bat for them no matter what I provide training and mentorship I believe that if you're not learning you're stagnating and so I'm always on my team's case to develop personally professionally and academically and even if they outgrow my wisdom and even if they outgrow what it is that I can provide them I don't get territorial about that I push them in the right direction I help them seek other mentors and other opportunities to grow and I provide them with time space and resources I believe that your best work happens when a manager isn't breathing down your neck and I provide stretch projects these are these big audacious projects that scare you that push you outside of your comfort zone and I believe that's where the real growth happens outside of your comfort zone that's where the real magic happens and last but not least I get out of the way once I've empowered and motivated these teams I take a step back and watch them take flight and one particular quote from Jay Cole about his men JZ really helps to underscore that J never compromised or interfered in my creative process there was never a point when he was like I need to come in and play a big brother and show you how to do this he let me figure it out and it feels better to win like that now I want you all to do something for me I want you to think about a leader in your life a manager a coach a teacher friend family member somebody who would call you for advice somebody who would call you tonight and ask you for a favor they want your help with a project a task something would you do it for them yes you would would you give them your best effort absolutely in fact I think you'd go above and beyond the call of duty for them why because there's something about your relationship with this person that has put you in the right headspace to deliver something about them something about you and them that has put you in the proper conditions conducive to doing excellent work and now let's revisit the management paradox one more time growing organizations require management but people don't like to be managed so I ask what is the role of management for the next generation if organizations existed in the execution era to produce goods and to achieve skill and if they existed in the expertise era let's provide advanced services why do they exist now why do they exist in 2015 why will they continue to exist I argue that they exist to provide complete and meaningful experiences not just for the end-user not just for the customers but for you as well for me for the teams and so I argue that we're in a brand new era altogether the end of management and a refocused on leadership at every level and so what is the role of management for the next generation absolutely nothing how are we gonna break out of this catch-22 how will we dismantle this paradox how will we stop doing things the way they've always been done we're just gonna stop managing altogether and I suppose in this way yes I am a horrible boss I'm a horrible boss because I'm not a boss at all I'm just a friend I'm a mentor I'm a comrade I'm a resource I'm a cheerleader and I'm a coach and coaches don't play ball they motivate and empower their teams to win championships and then take a step back and watch them do it and so I challenge each and every one of you everyone who is privileged enough to manage the next generation please don't manage lead because you manage things and you meet people thank you [Applause]

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 1,476,408

Rating: 4.7318387 out of 5

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Cape Verde, Business, Leadership

Id: d_HHnEROy_w

Length: 18min 13sec (1093 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 24 2016