Succeeding with Agile

The Leadership Role of the Functional Manager

Functional managers have always been leaders. Broad leadership trends over the years have affected individual style. While I was growing up, for example, my father managed Sears stores. This was back in the era when Sears was the world’s largest retailer. My father’s management style was very much top-down. He would establish goals, quotas, and other measurements; communicate them to store employees; and then measure each employee against those targets. This was also an era when prevailing wisdom was that a good manager could manage anything. My father should presumably have been able to take his experience managing a retail store and manage a bank or manufacturing operation with equal skill. My ...