Author Peter Drucker wrote
extensively on the subject of management and yet he remained skeptical of
management – “So much of what we call management consists of making it
difficult for people to work.”
“He head-butted an employee –
‘because he was annoying’.”
“She stood over an employee
for two hours until she agreed to sign an appraisal she disagreed with.”
“He kept kissing people on
top of their heads.”
Just some of the submissions
to a People Management survey earlier
this year, looking at what HR thought of managers in their respective
organizations.
Managers often get a bad
reputation, somewhat driven by the type of comments highlighted above and a
feeling in some quarters that managers don’t add value.
But are we being totally fair
if we subscribe to this view?
In most instances a manager’s
role is pretty diverse; managers are asked to communicate vision, act as a
coach, mediate in disputes and assume accountability for business results -
often with the background of being promoted into a managerial role having been
a technical expert in their previous role, rather than necessarily having demonstrated
leadership and management capability.
Is it any wonder that a
number of managers then underperform.
So what can we do to help
managers in the workplace?
Organizational Culture –
culture and values are intrinsically linked to management behaviours, do the
priorities set at the C-suite level encourage the type of behaviours you want
from your managers or the opposite? There is not necessarily a right or wrong
in terms of your organization’s management culture, however there should be
synergy across the organization. It is also worth remembering that in tough
economic times the need for “good” management is probably more important than
in times of plenty.
Good management can turn
organizations from good to great, help drive change and engage and empower
employees.
Management Capability – consider
some form of management training, ideally as people come into the job – don’t
wait 20 years to enroll someone on their first management program, you wouldn’t
allow a bus driver to drive a city bus without passing their driving test! At
Bluegem Learning we have worked with managers from a wide range of businesses
internationally to help build management capability on a range of subjects from
what motivates people, performance management, coaching, how to have difficult
conversations and personal resilience to name but a few. And the results ….
By using the techniques learned on one of our
programs, one participant reduced absenteeism in her team by 15%, saving her
organization $18,000 over 3 months.
A second participant improved production by 10%
during a production run and brought the project in ahead of time and under
budget after using the coaching techniques practiced on another program.
Self Awareness – look
at increasing managers self awareness of how they behave in the workplace and
how they can interact even better with others. There are a range of useful
tools on the market, one I particularly like is the MiRo behavioural assessment
- managers gain insights into behaviour, motivations, communication and
relationships, make better decisions, deal with change and personnel more
effectively. So what do people say …
“Using MiRo in our team building activity has
allowed us to understand ourselves, our colleagues and the dynamic that drives
our team. Everyone found the results both accurate and enlightening, and
together we have created strong strategies for moving forward as a high
performing team.”
Proper Incentives – ensure
that the rewards and compensation system you have in place rewards the
behaviours you want displayed by your managers and isn’t puling people in the
opposite direction. People will only demonstrate particular behaviours if there
is a good reason. If a Sales Manager simply receives a target-related bonus
where is the incentive to focus on motivating and developing their team,
however if the latter is built into their bonus package, how much more of an
incentive does it become to demonstrate those behaviours?
