The managers are psychologists – Eric Albert – Jean-Luc Emery
Introduction
Understanding and managing human relationships is no longer optional—it is one of the essential criteria for managerial competitiveness. In today’s organizations, technical know-how is not enough. Managers must also develop emotional and relational skills.
In short:
Knowledge → Know-how → Know-being → Management (making others act).
Beyond Performance: The Role of Perceptions
It is not only results that matter; perceptions also count. For example, the pharmaceutical industry has shifted from a drug-centered role to a broader approach: disease management. From prevention to treatment, companies aim to deliver a service.
And behind every service, there are people. True competitiveness comes from employees able to create relationships and manage their own behaviors.
Change Requires Behavioral Adaptation
Managers often know management principles, yet their behaviors do not necessarily change. Knowledge is not transformation.
A motivated employee is more efficient.
Motivation is emotional; it requires energy.
But this energy is finite and also needed in personal life (family, friends, sports, associations).
Employees are paid for their work, but what do they receive in exchange for their emotional investment? Too often, they realize too late that the company has drained their energy.
One possible answer: employability. In an unstable world, companies can offer employees adaptation skills—important but, like health prevention, rarely treated as urgent.
The Manager’s Key Duties
A manager today must:
Optimize team performance.
Support employees during difficulties.
Give meaning to work.
Act as an interface between service and company.
Make decisions between different options.
Foster employee growth and advancement.
Customer demands, competition, shareholder pressure, and the rise of services force companies to embrace permanent change. At the heart of this change lie emotions.
Emotions in Decision-Making
Research in neurophysiology (e.g., António Damásio, Descartes’ Error, 1995) shows that emotions play a vital role in decision-making and meaning-making.
Managers must therefore cultivate:
Assertiveness.
The ability to inspire enthusiasm.
Self-esteem and vision of the future.
Through recruitment, teamwork, and training, these qualities become indispensable assets.
Managerial Legitimacy
For employees, a manager’s legitimacy depends on their added value:
What do they contribute?
What do they teach?
How do they help employees grow?
If these questions remain unanswered, trust erodes. A crisis of confidence may then damage the company.
The Emergence of the “Service Provider Manager”
Increasingly, the manager is seen as a service provider. Traditional annual interviews, focused only on numbers, fail to capture the whole picture. Feedback is often subjective, fragmented, or unreliable.
To address this, a tool imported from the US has spread: the 360° assessment.
The 360° Assessment
The principle is simple: the employee is evaluated by their entire ecosystem—superiors, peers, collaborators, and internal customers. Often, the employee also self-assesses. The results are compared and then discussed in a face-to-face meeting.
This approach allows:
Recognizing the manager as a service provider.
Forcing managers to consider how others perceive them.
Allowing employees to express themselves anonymously.
Identifying areas for improving managerial skills.
However, caution is required. The 360° does not replace individual interviews. Results should not be taken literally, whether positive or negative. It can be a shock, but when used wisely, it becomes a powerful development tool.
Conclusion
In a world of constant change, managers must also be psychologists. Their role goes beyond technical expertise to include relational intelligence, emotional awareness, and behavioral adaptability.
To sustain competitiveness, companies should not only evaluate individuals but also systematically assess teams. Because at the end of the day, performance is human.
