Business executive • MAY 11
Executive or
“supermanager”? asks Blaire Palmer
M
ost leaders don’t like being described as “Middle Managers”, but they may actually be the unassuming heroes of business just waiting to
revolutionise the way we work. Ask small children what they want to be when they
grow up and you’ll hear answers like “a fireman” or “a ballerina”. You will rarely hear a child proclaim “When I grow up I want to be a manager”. And yet most successful professionals find themselves in
management roles. At times this may seem to be a rather powerless position to hold. But it is a vitally important one, which is much under-valued. Great managers can make a business successful, and bad ones can damage it severely. Those managers who are an asset to their business have probably worked hard to address what I call the 5 Frustrations of Work. But before we look at what these are and what you can do about them, let’s look at why managers are so important.
the Business case Great managers make or save their companies money. Poor managers cost money. The financial director may look at sales figures and cost savings for a clue as to how the business is doing. But it might be far more valuable to calculate whether the business is making the most of its managers. Staff turnover – In the UK staff turnover stands at about 16%.
BLaiRe PaLMeR helps companies achieve their ambitions through their leader. She was a BBC Radio 4 producer and one of the first accredited executive coaches in Europe. More information from:
www.tamingtigers.com
At any one time about two thirds of employees are actively looking for a new job or planning to do so within the next year. This means that a great many people are not fully focused on the job in hand. Some of those could even be described as “the walking dead” – they turn up to work (most of the time) but they are just looking for a way out. When employees leave a company it costs that company a
great deal of money, not counting the cost to morale of high staff turnover, the energy-draining impact of unhappy workers who want to leave but can’t, and the length of time it takes a new recruit to learn the ropes. The number-one reason people give for leaving their job?
Their manager. People leave bad managers and stay with great ones. It is vitally important that the quality of middle management is taken seriously. Managers are far more than bureaucrats. They are responsible for the input and output of the people who do the critical jobs in the company.
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Staff engagement – It is said that the culture of an organisation
is created by the people at the top. However, most employees respond positively or negatively to the company, based on their relationship with their direct manager. Research shows that teams with a positive relationship with their manager reported higher levels of productivity, profit and customer satisfaction. Different units within the same business have recognisably different cultures; those cultures are created by the individual manager of the unit. Managers have huge influence over their people, for better or worse. Discretionary effort – People don’t put in more effort because
they get a bonus or because of performance-related pay. They put more effort in to their work because of their relationship with their manager. Money is not a motivator. Once people feel they are being adequately paid, a high salary does not improve motivation. The innate motivators include: recognition (not monetary); sense of achievement; opportunity to grow and responsibility. Clearly, managers can enable their people to experience these, or they can withdraw the opportunity. A manager who
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