You manage a business but you lead people

Management is for business and leadership is for people. This coming Thursday and Friday, that will be on February 4 and 5, we shall meet you via the digital platform, for the biggest HR event, dubbed as The Twin Summits of Organizational Justice (the new name for Employee Relations And Engagement) and Total Rewards (the new buzzword for Compensation and Benefits).

We used to hear the term Personnel Manager and then Human Resources Manager. To me both terms are wrong. First of all, personnel should not be managed. They should be led. Managing means planning, organizing, and controlling. The verb “manage” comes from the Latin and Spanish term “manus” or hand. And when you use your hand to make things move and push them or pull them, that is manipulation. It is offensive to the intrinsic dignity of the human being. You do not plan the life and career of another, or plan the performance of an employee. You lead him by identifying the company goals and business objectives over a given span of time. You motivate him and inspire him to hit the goals and objectives using their wisdom and creativity. Motivating and inspiring is leadership, not management.

The term Human Resources is also wrong. People are not resources that can be used, abused, and misused. They are human beings with a human will and a human intellect. You cannot plan their actions or organize their thoughts. You cannot manipulate their decision-making or make them virtual robots. They have freedom of choices on how to achieve the goal that you pointed out to them. They are not machines or computers that can be programmed to do things according to strict standard operating procedures. They should never again be called human resources but people who can be considered our Human Capital, even as we have Financial Capital, and other forms of capital. This is the credo of our Movement for Organizational Justice, to respect every human person in the business or any other kind of organization.

It has been observed that the Filipino employees are overmanaged and underled. Business owners and their management teams spend too much time planning the movements of their human capital. Their work is too structured, they are put inside boxes and these human beings always find themselves virtually choked. Managers bind their own people with too many restrictions and rules that stifle their spontaneous creativity and passion. Too many controls and regulations transform human beings into machines and robots. They often find themselves penalized or even dismissed if and when they use their creative powers to invent new solutions to old problems. The old ways of “managing” people were very restrictive and anti-developmental. There is simply too much planning, organizing, and controlling. There is no inspiring, no motivating, no determined decision to lead, rather than manage.

It is our focus in the Movement for Organizational Justice to shift from people management to people leadership. Management should transition from the ingrained culture of fault-finding to a new paradigm of positive reinforcement. People should be trusted otherwise, we should have never hired them in the first place. People should be mentored not charged immediately for incompetence and negligence. People should be counselled, instead of being suspended or dressed down in public and threatened with firing. People should be coached instead of cursed for ineptitude and sloth. We should veer away from Theory X or the dictatorial style of leadership. We should gradually shift to Theory Y, the more democratic and collaborative style. Bridging between Theory X and Theory Y is Theory Z, which is the situational style where people are treated as unique individuals. Different folks, different strokes.

All these and many more will be taken up, discussed, and debated on this coming twin summit on Thursday and Friday. Do not be left behind. Be there and hear global, regional, and local experts share with us the best and more productive ways in leading, not managing, people.