BAD MANAGERS?
I’m sure you’ve heard it;
People leave managers, not companies
The phrase is generally believed to originate with the book First, Break All the Rules: What The World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently (1999), by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman; two researchers from the Gallup Organization. Yet as a people manager, I’ve always felt the phrase People leave managers, not companies may be true on the surface, but it disguises a deeper truth;
People may leave managers, but companies create and sustain bad management culture, and company leadership is responsible for company culture.
In the the 2013 summary of the State of the American Workplace report, there’s a quote from Gallup CEO, Jim Clifton that summarizes perhaps the key insight from the research;
“The single biggest decision you make in your job — bigger than all the rest — is who you name manager. When you name the wrong person manager, nothing fixes that bad decision. Not compensation, not benefits — nothing.“
I’ve followed the Gallup research for many years, and their annual State of The American Workplace report is the definitive ongoing data-driven study of what is most important for effectively managing in the modern workplace. And while the 2017 Gallup report has some additional insights based on current research, one result still holds true–good managers are critical to your organization’s success.
BAD MANAGERS OR BAD MANAGEMENT?
I’m not saying that there are no bad managers. People may leave bad managers, but companies create and sustain bad management culture. Our organizational culture–the values, beliefs, policies, procedures, actions, norms and many other factors that embody the unique social environment of our organization– defines our managers. Unless our organization supports, or better yet demands, good management the results are what we have today, i.e. a staggering 70% of the U.S. workforce actively disengaged, looking elsewhere, or just collecting a paycheck. By Gallup’s estimates, the cost of this disengagement due to “bad managers” runs from $450B-$550B annually. That’s billions, with a B.
We are all contributors to our company’s culture. But defining, changing, and reinforcing an organization’s culture is arguably the number one responsibility of senior leadership and to a degree a company’s board. So what can organizational leaders do to create good management culture and by extension good managers? Ultimately it’s about creating people focused organizations.
LAY THE CULTURAL FOUNDATIONS
Good management cannot exist without senior leaders providing a solid foundation for what it means to be a good manager, and the research is clear; being a good manager means focusing on the success of the people being managed. At Sea Change Insights our core management principles are called ACEIC (pronounced ace-ik).
- Articulate a Compelling Vision: Our purpose is to inspire people to contribute their greatest efforts.
- Cultivate Excellence in People and Teams: Managing people is about helping them to realize their greatest potential and applying that to the needs of the organization.
- Enable Teams to Achieve Great Things: Our responsibility is to enable teams with the information, tools, autonomy, and authority to take independent action.
- Innovate and Challenge: The role of management is to create an environment where innovation thrives—where the generation, evaluation, and execution of innovative ideas is integral to the operations of the organization.
- Connect People, Processes, and Ideas: Managers are responsible for nurturing and growing the relationships that are essential to being a thriving employee and an exceptional human. We help connect the right people with the right ideas and the right information to be most effective.
ACEIC defines the ethos of Sea Change Insights and provides a starting point for discussion with clients about how they can evaluate their managerial practices and culture. But whether you use ACEIC or establish other core principles, a clear people-focused approach is critical to success.
HIRE THE RIGHT PEOPLE
“Decisions on people and especially its promotions affirm what an organization really believes in, really wants, really stands for.” – Peter F. Drucker
This is a key conclusion from the Gallup data; successfully managing people requires a certain set of skills. Some people naturally possess them, others can attain them with training and coaching, and yet others are unlikely to develop them regardless of how much training or coaching they receive. Perhaps the most important product of their research is their seminal work 12: The Elements of Great Managing, also known as the Gallup Q12 ®. For those of you who have been involved with employee engagement programs, you may recognize the 12 as the defining metrics for many of those programs. What makes the GallupQ12 ® interesting is that it is not a list of 12 management practices. It’s a list of 12 statements used as an assessment tool to measure employee engagement and work-group productivity. High scores correlate with higher employee engagement, productivity, and effective management.
How does all this pertain to hiring the right person? Most of 12 elements are focused on people–interest in people, inspiring people, caring for people, focusing on their development, and facilitating and removing barriers to their success. Hiring or promoting the rightperson should be based on their interest in people.
HIRE PEOPLE MANAGERS INSTEAD OF TECHNICAL EXPERTS
While this is really an extension of Hire the Right People, it demands its own discussion. The skills that make someone an excellent software developer, sales person, nurse, engineer, doctor, etc.—are not necessarily the same skills required of a good manager. Technical expertise is excellent to have, but it should not be the primary criteria when selecting a manager. Managing people is about people. Your focus fundamentally shifts from being the best nurse you can be (or lawyer, or X-Ray Technician, or salvage diver, or…) to making sure that those people on your team are the best nurses, lawyers, or nurse-lawyers (I actually know one!) they can be to most effectively deliver on the needs of the organization. You switch from doing to making sure that your team has everything they need as individuals and team members to be successful doers that get the job done, whatever that job may be.
Yet we often promote people for reasons reflective of their technical aptitude instead of their potential to effectively manage people. Review management job postings on your favorite job board or social media site and compare the technical requirements to the managerial requirements. I spent much of my career in the IT world, and we are perhaps the worst offenders, but it’s common across industries and positions. “Looking for Sr. IT Director! Must have 10 years deep hands-on experience with technology X, 7 years with Framework Y…oh, and hopefully a couple years of managing people in some capacity or at least maybe you’ve seen people being managed or something…” I exaggerate for effect, but it’s not far from reality.
REINFORCING THE FOUNDATION
“You get what you reward.” – Bob Nelson
You’ve laid your foundation, you’ve focused your hiring practices on finding managers with people expertise, what’s next? Whether these changes represent a transformation or a minor cultural adjustment, realizing the long term value requires ongoing review and reinforcement. In some ways reinforcing the change is the most difficult, but also the most important. It’s the time when initial enthusiasm (positive or negative) has waned, you’ve helped people navigate the changes and accept new behaviors, and people return to their daily operational tasks. How do you ensure the changes stick? Success can be measured by answering questions such as;
- Have we aligned our processes and procedures to ensure manager success in our people-focused culture?
- Are we including people-centric measures in our evaluation process?
- Are we rewarding and promoting managers who demonstrate good management? Are we correcting instances of bad management?
- Are we using tools like the Gallup Q12 ® to assess our effectiveness?
I have observed a number of companies where managers’ performance expectations contained very clear people-focused measures, but when it’s time for distributing rewards—such as pay increases, bonuses, or promotions—those criteria seem to hold almost no weight in defining who wins. To paraphrase the Peter Drucker quote above- the decisions affirm what the organization wants and what it wants, what it is choosing is bad management. Your rewards, processes, metrics must reinforce the goals of your transformation.
GREAT MANAGEMENT JOURNEY
Granted, this article is an oversimplification of a complex subject. Culture and people are hard to change, but with the right tools, guidance, and the commitment to succeed companies can realize enormous benefits. Decades of research from companies such as Gallup and the Great Place to Work Institute show benefit realization in areas such as;
- Lower Absenteeism
- Lower Turnover
- Less Shrinkage (Theft)
- Fewer Employee Safety Incidents
- Increased Wellbeing
- Increased Trust
- Fewer Quality Incidents (Defects)
- Higher Productivity
- Higher Sales
- Higher Profitability
And in the end aren’t those the obvious measure of a company’s success—productive engaged employees producing higher quality products with higher sales and profitability than your competitors? So the next time you hear someone talk about a bad manager or notice your turnover ratios increasing, it might be time to ask yourself, “What are we doing to ensure we have a culture of good management?”
David Kirkpatrick helps organizations achieve excellence through consulting, coaching, thought leadership, and key insights. He can be reached at dkirkpatrick@seachangeinsights.com