Your Managers: Secret Weapon Or Achilles Heel?
By David Lee
Reprinted from The Employment Times
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
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).
Second, review with your managers the
twelve factors identified by
1. “I know what is expected of me at work.”
2. “I have the materials and equipment I need
to do my work right.”
3. “At work, I have the opportunity to do
what I do best every day.”
4. “In the last seven days, I have received
recognition or praise for doing good work.”
5. “My supervisor, or someone at work, seems
to care about me as a person.”
6. “There is someone at work who encourages
my development.”
7. “In the last six months, someone at work
has talked to me about my progress.”
8. “At work, my opinions seem to count.”
9. “The mission/purpose of my company makes
me feel my job is important.”
10. “My fellow employees are committed to
doing quality work.”
11. “I have a best friend at work.”
12. “This last year, I have had opportunities
at work to learn and grow.”
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.
-----------------------------------
[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
Click
Here for more articles by David Lee
About the Author: David Lee is a
consultant, speaker, and executive coach. The founder of HumanNature@Work, he has worked with organizations and
presented at conferences throughout
For More Information:
David Lee, President
HumanNature@Work
P.O. Box 430
Bar Mills, Maine 04004
Tel: 207-929-3344
E-mail: info@HumanNatureAtWork.com