You’ve heard it before: People don’t leave companies, they leave managers. Well, it’s true. Now embrace it and take a look at your managers to see if they are the reason for recent employee turnover.
If the answer is yes, you are not alone. Gallup estimates your manager accounts for 70 percent of employee engagement scores, and overall employee engagement in the United States is at 30 percent. That businesses do a poor job picking managers comes as no surprise, and those choices collectively cost billions of dollars each year, according to the 2015 Gallup report titled “State of the American Manager.”
The research yields a striking failure rate: 82 percent. That’s how often companies have poor managers. With a failure rate that high, it is little wonder that one out of two employees report they left positions due to conflict, dissatisfaction or lack of support from their manager.
Hire for Talent over Tenure
Smart organizations place talent at the core of their human capital strategy, weaving it into every aspect of how they align, attract, recruit, assess, hire, onboard and develop managers.
Most managers are promoted as an award for past performance or longevity within the organization. But leading people is quite different from being responsible for individual performance. One manager described leadership as a performance, a drama requiring appreciation for each unique character on stage. Tenure and performance in one role does not guarantee success as a manager in all those roles.
The sought-after talent combination that characterizes great managers only exists in about one in 10 people. Another two in 10 people have some of the top talents and can become successful managers with the right coaching and development.
Naturally talented managers know how to develop and engage their employees. They create enthusiastic and energized teams that focus on moving their company forward and doing right by their customers. Gallup finds that great managers have five innate traits:
1. They build relationships,
2. They can motivate,
3. They keep people accountable,
4. They make decisions based on productivity and not politics, and
5. They have the assertiveness to overcome adversity.
What do you look for when hiring or promoting? The best managers are often people who were the best team players. This means:
• They are able to lead people to a common goal, inspire performance, hold others accountable and build relationships.
• Instead of complaining about team members, they know the value of leveraging peoples’ strengths.
Strength-based cultures allow employees to maximize their unique talents and to do the work that has the most meaning for them. Studies indicate people who use their strengths every day are six times more likely to be engaged on the job and have greater productivity.
When promoted to management, these are the leaders who lead by example, who motivate performance by continuing to work in collaboration, who give opportunity for everyone to share ideas. Having built trust, they provide feedback without confrontation. Employees whose managers hold regular meetings with them are almost three times as likely to be engaged as employees whose managers do not hold regular meetings with them.
Successful managers need communication skills, the ability to engage and mobilize each employee through personal and professional development, to understand the organization’s brand, and to nurture relationships with customers, peers, stakeholders and senior management.
Managers Drive Performance
Gallup estimates that disengaged managers cost the U.S. economy $319 billion to $398 billion annually.
Companies that hire managers based on talent (as opposed to tenure) realize:
• 48 percent increase in profitability;
• 22 percent increase in productivity;
• 30 percent increase in employee engagement scores;
• 17 percent increase in customer engagement scores and
• 19 percent decrease in turnover.
Gallup research has shown that people who operate from talent can learn a role faster and adapt to variance in the role more quickly. These individuals not only produce more, but they also produce at a higher quality.
People can learn skills, develop knowledge and gain experience, but they cannot acquire talent—it is innate.
When individuals have the right talent for their role, they think and act differently than their peers. They are energized by their work, rarely thinking of it as “work” at all.
Can you spot your next managers? Give employees an opportunity to come out of hiding and be seen. Offer opportunities for focus group, think tanks and team projects to see who takes a natural lead. Allow employees to have a say in decisions and listen for great communicators and critical thinkers. Watch who motivates others to get the work done and whose energy, drive and passion creates followers naturally. Regardless of rank, tenure or position, they might just be your next manager.
Debora J. McLaughlin is CEO of The Renegade Leader Coaching and Consulting Group in Nashua, an executive coaching and leadership development company. She can be reached at 603-324-7171 or debora@therenegadeleader.com. For more information, visit www.TheRenegadeLeader.com.
Current Issue - April 2024