Senior Managers Can Be Superheroes
- Deborah (Ellen) Wildish
- Jan 30, 2024
- 3 min read
Updated: Apr 6
This article is relevant if you answer “yes” to either question below:
1. Are you (or do you plan to become) a senior manager?
2. Do you work (or have you worked) for a Corporation with a senior manager?
Let’s use Generative AI (ChatGPT) to seek answers to two questions:
ChatGPT’s response to the second question necessitates further examination. Some employees hold “perceptions and beliefs” that senior managers “possess exceptional skills and abilities, akin to superheroes” and corporate culture can shape employee expectations.
How can senior managers mold the perceptions and beliefs of their employees and positively impact corporate culture? A literature review quickly revealed three concepts: humility, vulnerability and authenticity that are genuinely expressed in both words and actions.
Maldonado, Vera and Ramos (2018) published an article entitled: How humble is your company culture? And, why does it matter? They collected data from a sample of Fortune 500 firms that searched for evidence that suggested a corporate culture of humility. They identified these “six values and norms: (1) employee development, (2) mistake tolerance, (3) transparency, (4) accurate awareness, (5) recognition, and (6) openness” that connect to a corporate culture of humility and lead to competitive advantage and success.
Cuenca, Tomei and Mello (2022) conducted a study of humility in organizational culture entitled: How to infuse an organizational culture with humility: A study of humble behaviors and practices. One finding was the relationship of corporate humility to a culture of innovation.
The pandemic led to other studies such as: Know thyself: Leading through the core of you in times of turbulence, published by Roland Yeo (2020). Data was collected to describe how leaders “behave and react in unprecedented times” and the importance of exercising the “courage to acknowledge their vulnerability.”
Finally, Steffens, Wolyniec and Okmoto et al (2021) published a study: Knowing me, knowing us: Personal and collective self-awareness enhances authentic leadership and leader endorsement. In order for leaders to be viewed as authentic and to garner support, leaders need to be seen as self-aware from two perspectives: (1) “who they are as individuals” and (2) “who they are as members of the collective [Corporation] they seek to lead”.
Let’s conclude with Merriam-Webster’s definition of superheroes. One definition is “a fictional hero having extraordinary or superhuman powers.” However, there is a second definition: “an exceptionally skillful or successful person.”
Do you recall ChatGPT’s response to the first question? It opened with: “No, senior managers are not superheroes…” This conflicts with the title of this article!
However, if we apply the second definition, senior managers can be superheroes when they:
express humility, vulnerability and authenticity to build trust among employees
listen deeply and demonstrate empathy (human feelings and emotions)
display courage and admit that they do not have all the answers
acknowledge that they cannot know how the future will unfold.
While networking with a senior manager, he shared a heartbreaking story expressed by one of his employees. The employee detailed how his life would be in turmoil should he lose his job with restructuring. The senior manager was at a loss for words. He internalized the anguish but didn’t know how to help. - This senior manager is a superhero, evidenced by his ability to recount this story.
Cinder to Flame helps Corporations solve complex challenges with strategic services that energize people, fuel a healthy corporate culture and ignite major innovation.
Senior managers who are superhero role models, foster corporate trust and psychological safety. These are two critical facets of a healthy corporate culture that unleash the creative thinking and risk taking required for major innovation.
How effective are the solutions that address your Corporation’s complex challenges? Are you ready to generate more innovative solutions?
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© Deborah (Ellen) Wildish, Cinder to Flame 2022-Present. All Rights Reserved.
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