Vision Statement: Find the Real Power in Your Organization

Data and analysis by Michael Segalla and AIMM Consulting Visualization by Nicholas Felton In a perfect world, managers’ authority and engagement would reflect their positions in the organizational hierarchy, rising as people climbed up the ranks. But when we mapped the responses that more than 3,000 managers gave to a battery of questions about their sense of responsibility and their actual authority, we saw a world filled with underengaged and surprisingly powerless managers. Worse, we identified unexpected hot spots—and dangerous vacuums—of power. Where are yours? Survey your managers and roughly plot out their answers on a map like the one here, and you’ll start to see the power patterns in your organization. One Company’s Management Power Map Here’s the power distribution for an actual midsize U.S. real estate company. One Company’s Management Power Map Click here for a larger image of the graphic. How to Read This Chart To plot organizational power, we ranked individual managers on three dimensions, based on their responses to our survey questions. Left Axis: Sense of Responsibility How much responsibility do you think you have? Right Axis: Hierarchy Where do you fall in the org chart? Color: Objective Authority Do you have the authority to hire, fire, and set salaries, budgets, and strategies—or have a strong say in those decisions? A: Untapped potential. What do you do when you have young, highly committed managers: throttle them back or give them the lead? Why keep your Ferrari in the garage? Trust these people. Ultimately, they’ll increase your bottom line, but if you don’t harness their energy, they can become costly drags on the firm. Empower them now, or lose them later. B: Dangerous deadwood? High-level managers who lack a strong commitment to the firm are often disaffected. They may have been passed over for a top job. Or perhaps they were never pushed to really contribute to the firm’s policies. When managers in this section of the grid show up in brighter colors—meaning they have real authority—it’s a dangerous situation. With power but no sense of responsibility, they can become malcontents who sabotage strategy or operations. Watch out for people who fall here, and address signs of trouble immediately. C: Branch power. The unusual high-power center found lower in the organization represents branch managers at this company. Though they may not have impressive titles or be aware of how much responsibility they shoulder, these managers are quite powerful. Give them recognition to keep them engaged, and be sure to train them to use their power wisely. Regional Power Dynamics Cultural Differences in Distribution When we looked at the responses of managers around the world, we saw that the concentration of power varied greatly by region. North America Fairly and widely distributed power Overall, power and engagement are balanced in North American firms. Compared with managers from other regions in our sample, North Americans shared power across the widest range of levels. The vertical shape and progressive bright-to-dark color pattern here are close to the traditional ideal. Europe Managerial apathy Power in Europe is concentrated among a few managers. Relatively high-level managers in the upper section of the map do not accept the responsibility that comes with their positions. (Note: In Asia managers fall between the North American and European models.) Local Staff Versus Expatriates Power Pitfalls to Beware of Maps that plot expatriate managers against local managers reveal the difficulty executives face when moving from their own culture to a new one. Expats Embarrassing power Expatriates often come into a foreign office with more authority than local managers who are at the same job level. This puts expats in a tricky position. They may have more authority but less power because of strong local labor laws. What’s more, the expats’ success will depend on the local staff, who might have little incentive to help them—but lots of power to do them harm. Locals Who’s this? All local management maps will reveal quirky pockets of power. Being unaware of them, an expat manager can waste time and lose effectiveness, by courting local managers who have bigger titles, instead of those who truly have the power to help him succeed.

Vision Statement: Find the Real Power in Your Organization

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