Top manager in a sector in crisis, a priesthood?
Planes grounded, confinement requires, the health crisis has hit the aeronautical sector in full flight. Today, it’s time for activity to take off again. But how to get employees dreaming and on board when uncertainty hovers, blue sky prospects are struggling to emerge, and it is no longer the time to play on compensation, bonuses and other career advancements? It is the delicate but no less challenging mission of managers to activate other motivation levers. In these turbulent times, Mathilde, n-2 of the Comex of a French industrial aeronautics giant, dedicates herself to it on a daily basis.
After almost 20 years of career in the group, it supervises nearly 800 people, including a majority of technicians and mechanics. Recognized by management for her professionalism and managerial flair, Mathilde, with her feet on the ground and her head in the sky, keeps faith in the future. “The situation is cyclical and not structural. A great responsibility obliges me. I have responsibility for souls, in addition to operational production issues. », she slips soberly. Is it possible to motivate the troops without relying on financial or statutory recognition? Contrary to popular belief, “These traditional levers do not allow mobilization over time. Crisis or no crisis, I work above all on the intrinsic motivations of my employees”confides the manager who cultivates the taste of others.
The power of the collective
To grow its operational or support teams, Mathilde relies “about accountability. On the one hand, empowerment gives teams latitude, on the other hand, accountability involves holding them accountable for their action”. It’s not carte blanche!
Accountability principle: be able to justify their actions responsibly.
The manager relies on a key principle which is subsidiarity.
Subsidiarity principle : as long as an employee can carry out a task, there is no reason for his N+1 to do it for him. On the other hand, if the situation exceeds his capacities, it is up to the employee to dare to “delegate” this task to his superior if he considers that it is in the interest of the department or the company.
“It is essential to bring the decision to the right level. I neither want nor can be omnipresent. My responsibility is to organize the framework, therefore to ensure that my employees have the right skills and follow the appropriate training to be able to make decisions. I don’t have a technical background, which makes this approach easier.”. Concretely ? “I have set up “business club” type networks which bring together volunteer employees who are particularly competent on industrial issues. They develop proposals between peers and are thus empowered outside the vertical hierarchical channel”. Mathilde believes in “power of the collective which multiplies the quantity of power”. Where we understand that at this level, you have to know how to gain height…
Transparent communication
Since the company is doing badly, what discourse does it adopt with its troops? “Reassuring is not reassuring. I believe in management by intention. It is important for me to give meaning, to say things, to explain the decisions taken by the management committee, to communicate the financial figures and the operational results”, says Mathilde. We feel the experience.
Results at the rendezvous
Does it work, even in times of crisis? If the collaborators, one expects it, wish the return of the increases and promotions, “for nothing in the world would those who are involved in these accountability initiatives go back. They became actors. Their motivation, a factor of efficiency, translates into good operational performance”observes Mathilde, who minimizes her success by insisting on the “just common sense” of his methods.
Manager, a profession in its own right
When asked about the time spent building and implementing these approaches, his response bursts out: “At my level of responsibility, a manager must devote most of his time to the teams. It is a question of ethics”. Mathilde admits going through moments of doubt and questioning. However, every morning in the field, the manager, a woman in a masculine and technical world, shows relentless listening, empathy and sensitivity. Have “load of souls” seems to be a vocation.
The opinion of Hélène Beaugrand, professional coach at Kotchi
“Like so many managers, Mathilde can find herself in permanent tension between her strong personal values and the expectations of the company. Crisis or no crisis, one of the manager’s roles is to give meaning to getting teams on board, while dealing with paradoxical injunctions – to produce or achieve as much, more or faster, with fewer resources. Accountability must be exercised at all levels, starting with the Comex. It consists on the one hand in formulating the meaning, setting the course, setting the objectives, on the other hand in playing a role of accompaniment and support of the n-1 and n-2, in a process of listening and positioning aid that goes beyond the purely technical dimension. It is up to the Comex to ensure that the balance is fair enough not to endanger either Mathilde, Mathilde’s peers or collaborators, or the Comex. However, tension remains inherent in life, inside and outside the company. Faced with issues that do not call for rational resolutions, it is important to seek the best balance to be aligned with who we are. »