In 2012, Zappos got rid of all of their managers.
Why? They decided the company was saddled with too much bureaucracy, which was suffocating its innovative, entrepreneurial spirit. So they eliminated all of their managers in favor of a new structure called “Holocracy” (a self-management operating model in which everyone is autonomous and no one has bosses).
Blaming managers for bureaucracy and suffocated innovation is so trite.
But their solution is equally inane. By eliminating their managers, they eliminated their powerhouse in the middle of the organization.
Managers have two vital and powerful roles in every organization:
- to propagate the message from the top
- to develop people’s leadership from the bottom
Managers are the gateway to a company’s success, not the barricade.
What Zappos should have done is prepared their managers to be effective. Instead they hurled them off the bus.
What are you doing to prepare your powerhouse of managers?