365QOD-Day138

"We don't need a stupedvisor.  We need another pair of hands"- an hourly guy expressing frustration

Recently I read an INC. magazine article by Jason Fried from signals.  The title of the article was No layers of management

I am amazed at his thinking.  In the article he mentions an employee who was great employee who wanted more responsibility and a title.  The company decided that leadership in groups is rotational and that the employee needs to move on to a different role outside of the company in order to be fulfilled.

Most companies would have created a new role for a star member.  Not 37 signals. 

Most companies take their best employees and make them managers.  By taking them out of their natural environment they typically lose a great employee and gain an OK manager.

Recently I interviewed with a company for a position in which there were four project managers handling 250 jobs.  Amazing.  The manager was really a team member.  He was so overworked that he confided in me that he had only taken a week of vacation last year.  So he was really a manager in title only.  His job was the same as others except he had more responsibilities.

Today's question is:
"Can your team function without a defined leader?"