How to lead
A Business
Stop Managing, Start Leading | Hamza Khan | TEDxRyersonU
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my name is Hamza and there's three
things that you should know about me one
I was born in 1987 - I love hip-hop and
three I'm a horrible boss I'm a horrible
boss because I used to be a horrible
employee aside from my time in the
Canadian Armed Forces I've never
completely cooperated with the rules of
my traditional workplaces the Monday to
Friday 9 to 5 grind just isn't for me
I'll never forget the last time that I
was called out for being late at work it
was very early in my career and I
remember showing up one morning at 9:15
a.m. casually strolled in only to find
my boss standing beside my desk arms
crossed tapping his watch and
disapproval Hamzah this is unacceptable
I can't remember the last time you were
here before 9:00 well damn good morning
to you too sir
did I miss anything now of course I knew
that I hadn't I've been connected to my
work in a dozen different ways check my
calendar the night before I'd been on my
email all morning I had my notifications
on Facebook Twitter whatsapp or internal
messaging system if my clients or my
team wanted to get a hold of me they
would have already done so and that's
when my boss hit me with this Hamzah
stock market opened 15 minutes ago
what in my work have to do with the
stock market this was a marketing agency
I was doing graphic design I saw what
was happening I was being sacrificed at
the altar of office discipline so I
asked a rhetorical question
did something happen that I should know
about and of course they knew nothing
had happened I've been on Twitter all
morning and I looked at the trending
topics and the only thing newsworthy was
Kanye West and Kim Kardashian attending
a jay-z concert the night before and
that's when my boss hit me with this
Hamzah you being late is bad for morale
it looks like you weren't pulling your
weight around here ooh that one stung
that one hurt and that's the moment I
decided to quit
the insinuation that I wasn't producing
because I wasn't physically tethered to
my desk I was a bit too much for my
pride anyone who knows me knows that I'm
highly productive I'm a consummate team
player but apparently I didn't looked
the part so rather than go out with a
dramatic bang I left with a little bit
of a sneaky whimper for my last two
weeks on the job I would show up early
show up every morning at 8:55 a.m. and I
would sit at my desk and do one thing
and one thing only
I marathon movies yeah naturally I
started with The Godfather
great place to start I made my way over
to Star Wars and what marathon would be
complete without the Lord of the Rings
extended version of course now every day
I would leave at 5:00 p.m. I passed by
his desk at 5:00 p.m. and he go like
this
Hamzah great job I literally sat there
for eight hours and I watched movies I
did nothing but that was enough for my
boss and I swore from that moment
onwards I'd never be managed again and
managers have tried and managers have
failed they've had to modify their
management strategies and approaches
with me and it's left me wrestling with
the following paradox organizations that
are growing and achieving scale require
management however people myself
yourself don't like to be managed which
begs the question Ken Millennials be
managed or better yet should millenials
be managed now I mentioned that I was
born in 1987 and that situates me firmly
within Generation Y critics of my
generation have been quick to dismiss me
as many things entitled lazy disloyal
unmotivated selfish and considering that
I quit my job over the fact that I
couldn't show up 15 minutes late every
single day I suppose you could say some
of those stereotypes are true but here's
the thing Generation Y now accounts for
more than 50 percent of the global
workforce but we're built for tomorrow's
workplace because we grew up in an
increasingly flat and connected world
were that much more resourceful
innovative entrepreneurial nimble
dexter's agile I've got buzzwords for
Daisy all
how we work and why we work is
fundamentally out of sync with the
expectations of the traditional
workplace for instance I don't just have
one employer I have a portfolio of work
I don't just have one specialization I
have many of them I don't stay at one
place for very long I do tours of duty
I don't need an office I'm connected to
my work anywhere that I can get Wi-Fi so
why is it that so many of us are still
being managed like we work in factories
now if you trace back the echoes of this
particular configuration of workplaces
far back enough you might actually well
end up in factories the Industrial
Revolution this time in our history saw
organizations achieving scale in order
to manage this growth we have to elect
well managers in fact the entire
eight-hour workday has its roots in this
time social reformer Robert Owen
proposed that we divide our work into
three equal parts for a day rather into
three equal parts eight hours for work
eight hours for recreation eight hours
for rest as a way to wrestle back
work-life balance because at that time
we were experiencing a rather
adversarial relationship with our
employers by the early 1900's management
had become widely accepted and by the
mid twentieth century we began for
better or for worse - perfect management
we began to develop theories about it
and one such theorist by the name of
Peter Drucker began to notice something
he began to notice something that was a
bit of a paradigm shift he saw that we
were moving away from the mere
production of goods and the provision of
advanced services to the use and
manipulation of information he coined
the phrase knowledge work he said the
most valuable asset of a 21st century
institution whether business or
non-business will be its knowledge
workers in their productivity and so
what we need is a new managerial
contract because when you consider that
when all of the value in an organization
walks out of the door each evening the
old command-and-control mindset is not
going to work anymore the existing model
doesn't make any sense it does not make
sense for creative agencies
it does not make sense for startups it
does not make sense for think tanks it
does not make sense for publications it
does not make sense for anywhere where
the next generation is trying to do
creative work entrepreneurial work or
information based work and so why are we
doing this well because of tradition
tradition is easy tradition is
comforting tradition is ultimately
limiting it stifles innovation it's
doing things because that's the way it's
always been done but let me tell you
doing things because that's the way it's
always been done is a horrible horrible
reason to continue doing anything and so
it behooves managers of the next
generation to develop a focus on
management with a distinctly Theory Y
approach in order to understand and
appreciate Theory Y you first have to
understand and appreciate Theory X
Theory X assumes a lot of things it
assumes that employees are lazy that
they avoid work and that they actually
dislike work it's kind of like when your
parents assigned you tasks or chores
when you were young or do the lawn do
the dishes and you'd rather be doing
other things Theory y assumes the
complete opposite Theory Y assumes that
employees are ambitious that they're
self-motivated that the exercise
self-control and that they actually
enjoy their physical and mental duties
and that given the proper conditions an
employer operating within the theory Y
framework and actually help their
employees achieve the most elusive part
of Maslow's hierarchy of needs that
little point at the top of the triangle
self-actualization but that's all given
the proper condition so what do those
proper conditions look like well let me
tell you about how I run my ships I
start from a place of a hundred percent
trust I provide my teams with their
areas of responsibility they have their
goals they have their deadlines and I
assume that they're here for the right
reason and that they want to work and
that they will do good work I provide
them with space physical and otherwise
now we have an office yes you're not
physically expected to be there you can
work from the office you can work from
home you can be in Bermuda with your
shorts on for all I care as long as work
is getting done on time and to a high
degree of quality why is there any need
for me to actually track your hours it's
dehumanizing it's degrading and I
believe in co-creation I believe in
building things together I simply am NOT
going to assign you something
expect you to do it let alone do a good
job I'd rather invest you emotionally in
the process of producing whatever it is
that we're producing and then I believe
in leadership
this is something I've resisted for a
long time but my teams have told me time
and again hums that we need somebody
needs to be there who's a steward who's
gonna guide us who's gonna provide us
with insulation from the more harsh
realities of the organization and the
industry frankly and I believe in
culture I believe that people want to
show up to a workplace that doesn't feel
like a workplace that feels more like a
community where they can be among
friends where they can bring their whole
selves to work something I've really
learned and appreciated with my time at
Ryerson sa and I believe that we should
create a work that is conducive create a
workplace that is conducive to doing
excellent work and when all these proper
conditions are met what happens we do
work that we're proud of we're more
creative we discover meaning and
fulfillment we strike work/life blend
and I would hope that we ultimately
achieve happiness I'm optimistic about
the next generation because not only can
we break the cycle I believe we will
break the cycle of doing things the way
they've always been done and it's gonna
come from understanding a fundamental
difference between outcomes and outputs
and this quote in particular reminds me
of this it underscores this ideas so
well Antoine de saint-exupéry said if
you want to build a ship don't drum up
people to collect wood don't assign them
tasks and work but rather teach them to
long for the endless immensity of the
sea a focus on outcomes versus mere
outputs now I managed my first creative
team at the age of 21 and this is a
particularly challenging team to manage
it was comprised of student staff and
anyone who's managed student staff and
knows what a Herculean chore it is to
get them to part with their time energy
and attention they've got so much going
on in their lives the rigors of academia
the trials and tribulations of being a
student family friends co-curricular
activities other job opportunities and
if you're not careful about
intentionally engaging them what you get
is diminished capacity and so by design
I had to become the lazy a fair
hands-off manager that I am today
without any formal training or education
or
prynt for that matter I defer to the
closest blueprint available to me at the
time the teachings of a man named Sean
Carter some of you might know him as uh
jay-z I've listened to all of his music
I've read interviews I've watched
interviews I've read books by him about
him and have always been in such awe of
the way he's built up rock nation one of
the most successful labels over time
he's a leader who manages other leaders
he manages the likes of Kanye West
Rihanna Jay Cole the list goes on and he
does so with a distinct focus on
individuals he doesn't just see the Sun
he sees individuals he sees a team of
artists people who are unique have their
own ambitions who want to succeed on
their own terms and he nourishes that
and he creates an environment that has
all of the aforementioned conditions
like Jay I work with people who want to
make classic albums I work with people
who want to win Grammys I work with
people who want to move the needle
forward and push boundaries I work with
people who are genuinely animated by
their work I suppose you could say I
started the game on hardmode one of the
first people that I ever had to manage
was significantly older than I was more
skilled and more wise and naturally I
was intimidated I was 21 at the time I
could barely manage myself how was I
going to manage this person and so I
managed him the best way that I knew how
I didn't I told him you're an adult and
you're perfectly capable of managing
yourself all I can really do is manage
your workflow and your priorities and if
you're down with that we can do some
amazing things together and that gave me
the wind in my sails to manage my next
creative team at the age of 24 at
Ryerson University I managed the Sigma I
managed a student team that was
significantly larger than my first team
in fact it was so large I don't remember
a single meeting where we were all
physically present I sometimes had to do
the same meeting twice or three times
and each time there were disembodied
heads around the table face dialling in
via FaceTime and Google hangout and it
was around this time that I really had
to embrace the use of technology to
foster a sense of community and
collaboration and at 28 nothing has
really changed I'm now managing
full-time staff and imagine the exact
same managing them the exact same way
that I manage my part-time staff my stay
staff it's by recognizing their unique
behaviors and expectations and not just
meeting them halfway meeting them all
the way modifying the way I work to fit
them versus the other way around now
you're wondering has it worked
humza this seems too good to be true
it's a some sort of YouTube utopian
workplace I mean it's not without its
bumps but yes it does work I'm on my
fifth creative team now people that have
worked for me rather with me have
graduated on to work at places that are
reputable organizations large agencies
leading publications media companies
we've won regional and national awards
and on the agency front we've worked
with clients off the jump that some
agencies don't pursue until four or five
ten years down the road so yes it does
work but how does it work comes up how
did this all happen well with a lot of
training a lot of support and a lot of
guidance from man like Jay I raise
the bar I believe that if you want to do
your best work if you want your team to
do their best work you have to bring out
the best in yourself to bring out the
best in your team you have to bring out
the best in yourself I don't stand
behind my team and say go I stand in
front of them and say let's go I believe
that you have to go to bat for your team
when people work with you they want to
know that they're working with somebody
that has their back that's going to go
to bat for them no matter what I provide
training and mentorship I believe that
if you're not learning you're stagnating
and so I'm always on my team's case to
develop personally professionally and
academically and even if they outgrow my
wisdom and even if they outgrow what it
is that I can provide them I don't get
territorial about that I push them in
the right direction I help them seek
other mentors and other opportunities to
grow and I provide them with time space
and resources I believe that your best
work happens when a manager isn't
breathing down your neck and I provide
stretch projects these are these big
audacious projects that scare you that
push you outside of your comfort zone
and I believe that's where the real
growth happens outside of your comfort
zone that's where the real magic happens
and last but not least I get out of the
way once I've empowered and motivated
these teams I take a step back and watch
them take flight and one particular
quote from Jay Cole about his men
JZ really helps to underscore that J
never compromised or interfered in my
creative process there was never a point
when he was like I need to come in and
play a big brother and show you how to
do this
he let me figure it out and it feels
better to win like that now I want you
all to do something for me I want you to
think about a leader in your life a
manager
a coach a teacher friend family member
somebody who would call you for advice
somebody who would call you tonight and
ask you for a favor they want your help
with a project a task something would
you do it for them yes you would would
you give them your best effort
absolutely in fact I think you'd go
above and beyond the call of duty for
them why because there's something about
your relationship with this person that
has put you in the right headspace to
deliver something about them something
about you and them that has put you in
the proper conditions conducive to doing
excellent work and now let's revisit the
management paradox one more time growing
organizations require management but
people don't like to be managed so I ask
what is the role of management for the
next generation if organizations existed
in the execution era to produce goods
and to achieve skill and if they existed
in the expertise era let's provide
advanced services why do they exist now
why do they exist in 2015 why will they
continue to exist I argue that they
exist to provide complete and meaningful
experiences not just for the end-user
not just for the customers but for you
as well for me for the teams and so I
argue that we're in a brand new era
altogether the end of management and a
refocused on leadership at every level
and so what is the role of management
for the next generation absolutely
nothing how are we gonna break out of
this catch-22 how will we dismantle this
paradox how will we stop doing things
the way they've always been done we're
just gonna stop managing altogether and
I suppose in this way yes I am a
horrible boss I'm a horrible boss
because I'm not a boss at all I'm just a
friend I'm a mentor
I'm a comrade I'm a resource I'm a
cheerleader and I'm a coach and coaches
don't play ball they motivate and
empower their teams to win championships
and then take a step back and watch them
do it and so I challenge each and every
one of you everyone who is privileged
enough to manage the next generation
please don't manage lead because you
manage things and you meet people thank
you
