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Click here for the free report "61 Questions To Transform Your Workforce" |
David
Lee
Consultant
Speaker
Author
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AR
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Your
Managers: Secret Weapon Or Achilles Heel? |
| By
David Lee |
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| Reprinted
from The Employment Times |
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On the subject of what influences
employee productivity and retention, customer
loyalty, and bottom line profitability, 2 million
employees have spoken. And what do they say?
According to a study spanning more than 25
years, when results from employee surveys are
compared to these measures of organizational
success, the message is clear… the key
to your organization’s success is the
quality of your managers and front line supervisors.
It All Comes Down to Your Managers
and Front Line Supervisors
This finding comes from research conducted by the Gallup Organization in
an attempt to identify what organizational factors most strongly predict
organizational success. From this study, which has now involved over 2
million employees, 12 factors emerged as the strongest predictors of organizational
success in terms of employee retention and productivity, customer loyalty
and organizational profitability.
In analyzing their findings, the researchers at Gallup discovered that
an employee’s rating of these 12 critical factors was more strongly
influenced by their supervisor than the organization as a whole. They found
that the same company could have departments and divisions where employees
gave these 12 critical factors high ratings, while the ratings from employees
in other departments and divisions were consistently low.
They also found that in some companies where the overall score was very
low, pockets of excellence existed. Even though the overall organization
didn’t do well on the survey, some departments and divisions showed
scores rivaling those found in world class, highly profitable companies.
Thus, employee responses were influenced more by “local factors” -
their supervisor or manager; than by “global factors” – the
organization as a whole.
The bottom line, take away message of their 25 year study is pithily stated
in the title of an interview with the two primary researchers, published
in Fortune magazine. The title, and take away message: “It’s
the Manager Stupid.”
Curt Coffman, the lead researcher states: “What becomes clear from
this investigation is that while we tend to celebrate 'great’ companies,
in reality there are only great managers. In fact, it is on the front line
that the hard work of building a stronger workplace gets done.”
Employees Don’t Leave Companies, They Leave Managers
Coffman and his colleague Marcus Buckingham state that although working
at a company listed in Fortune magazine’s “100 Best Places
to Work” lists is great, it would be better to have a great supervisor
and work at a “not so great” company than to work at a great
company and have a poor supervisor. Coffman and Buckingham also make clear
the critical role managers play in an organization’s ability to retain
talented people. “If you have a turnover problem look first to your
managers,” they assert. “People leave managers, not companies.”
To An Employee, Their Supervisor
Is The Organization
The power each of your managers and front line supervisors has to influence
the morale and productivity of the people they supervise is similar to
the power each employee who interacts with your customers has to shape
your reputation in the marketplace. To the customer, the employee that
interacts with them is your organization – for better or for worse.
To your employees, their supervisor is your organization – for better
or for worse.
Thus, your frontline supervisors and your managers play a huge role in
your organization’s success. Therefore, it is crucial that you ask: “Is
our management team our secret weapon or our Achilles Heel?”
How Companies Make Their Managers Their Achilles Heel
For many organizations, the fact that managers play such an important role
is reason for concern. These are the organizations that make the classic
mistake of promoting people to supervisory positions based on technical
expertise rather than people skills. They compound this error by scrimping
on management development training. By doing this, they have a team of
managers who haven’t been properly prepared to do the very challenging
task of trying to bring out the best in others.
Improperly selected and inadequately trained managers often inadvertently
create an environment that, at best, hampers employees from performing
at their true potential. At worst, improperly selected and inadequately
trained managers bring out the worst in their workforce.
How to Make Your Managers Your Secret Weapon
So, what can your organization do about this? Here are six things you can
do to get started.
First, make sure everyone in management understands the central role they
play in the issues that concern them the most: employee retention, productivity,
customer loyalty, and overall profitability. Have them read First Break
All the Rules by Curt Coffman and Marcus Buckingham (or listen to the Books
on Tape version if they’re not big readers). |
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| Second,
review with your managers the twelve
factors identified by Gallup’s
research as most strongly predicting
organizational viability. These factors
are identified by an employee’s
response to these twelve statements: |
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1. |
“I know what is expected
of me at work.” |
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| 2. |
“I have the materials and equipment
I need to do my work right.” |
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| 3. |
“At work, I have the opportunity
to do what I do best every day.” |
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| 4. |
“In the last seven days, I have
received recognition or praise for doing
good work.” |
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| 5. |
“My supervisor, or someone at
work, seems to care about me as a person.” |
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| 6. |
“In the last six months, someone
at work has talked to me about my progress.” |
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| 7. |
“In the last six months, someone
at work has talked to me about my progress.” |
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| 8. |
“At work, my opinions seem to
count.” |
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| 9. |
“The mission/purpose of my company
makes me feel my job is important.” |
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| 10. |
“My fellow employees are committed
to doing quality work.” |
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| 11. |
“I have a best friend at work.” |
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| 12. |
“This last year, I have had opportunities
at work to learn and grow.” |
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Third, have your management
team estimate how their direct reports would
respond to these twelve items, using a scale
from 1 to 5 (1= strongly disagree, 2= disagree,
3=neutral, 4=agree, and 5 = strongly agree).
Fourth, better still, survey your employees
about how they feel about these factors. The
Gallup Organization has this survey available
for organizations to use.
Fifth, have your management team brainstorm
about what they can do to make sure all of
these factors will get 4’s and 5’s.
Have them generate a list of practical strategies
for each. Better still, involve your front
line employees in this process.[i]
Sixth, invest in management development. Remember,
great managers are the key to your organization’s
success. If you scrimp on their development,
you are shooting yourself in the foot. Make
sure they are your “secret weapon,” not
your Achilles Heel.
Give Your Managers The Knowledge and Skills
They Need
Give your managers the training they need to
do their jobs well. Help your managers learn
what motivates and what de-motivates employees.
Help them learn the communication skills that
lead to constructive, empowering conversations
with employees. Help them develop the ability
to inspire high productivity, world class customer
service, and fierce loyalty.
Provide them with an environment where they
can feel safe enough to look in the mirror
and honestly assess their interpersonal strengths
and weaknesses, and provide them with the coaching
to work these through.
By making sure all of your managers understand
the critical role they play in your organization’s
success and helping them develop the knowledge
and skills to make sure their impact is positive,
you will be doing the same thing that successful
companies all around the world do to stay successful.
You will be making your management team your
secret weapon. |
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[i] When
going through this process with management
teams, I always get raised eyebrows over
Item 11 – “I have a best
friend at work.” This factor doesn’t
mean an employee’s boss should
be their best friend. Rather, the Gallup
researchers discovered that the #1 factor
keeping people from leaving a company
when they were feeling temporarily dissatisfied
was the relationships they had with co-workers.
They didn’t want to lose the close
friendships and the camaraderie that
were linked to their workplace. Thus,
the solution to making sure Item 11 gets
a high score isn’t taking one’s
employees to the Pocono’s, but
rather creating an environment that promotes
teamwork, esprit de corps, and fun. |
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About the Author: David Lee is an internationally recognized authority on organizational and managerial practices that optimize employee performance. He is the author of Managing Employee Stress and Safety, as well as dozens of articles on employee and organizational performance that have been published in trade journals and books in North America, Asia, Europe, and Australia. For information on his programs and service, click here.
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