Are your managers managing? Probably not!

Our research, in partnership with the Telfer School of Business, has developed a deeper understanding of the effectiveness of managers. It shows that managers in a cross section of various sized organizations report spending only 55% of their time on value-added work. Managing subordinates is a key part of that value-added work.

Almost half of their time is consumed doing work that is not adding value in the way it should and could. We also found that while 98% of managers agree that they are held to account for their work, only 46% believed that they are delegated clear objectives with statements of quantity, quality and timeliness.

This creates a vicious circle where managers – throughout the organization – are not clear about their priorities, but their own managers are not spending the time they must spend on managerial leadership activities to set context for work, to clarify priorities, and to resolve conflicts in cross functional work.

These are frustrations shared by organizations ranging from small enterprises to multinational corporations all over the world.

The design of your organization, the effectiveness of your managers, and how well they are managing are directly tied to increased productivity and profitability. The most important relationship that employees have at work is with their immediate manager. The importance of these roles cannot be understated, but too often, management practices are not supported or structured in a way that allows for optimal results.

There are three fundamental reasons why this may be happening in your organization.

You are promoting people into a manager role for which they do not have the right problem solving capability.

Almost universally, when there is a vacancy of a team manager, the highest performer on the team is hired to fill the manager role. Sometimes this works. But usually it doesn’t. Why not? Because the highest performing team member is usually best suited for the role she or he is in. Managing requires a higher level of problem solving capability. A promotion may put them in a position where they do not have the problem solving capability – the Peter Principle in action.  

You are promoting people into a management role when they do not have the necessary managerial leadership skills.

Who teaches managers how to manage? Certainly not business schools. They teach lots of critically important fundamentals necessary for management, but not day to day management skills. So most managers manage based on how they have seen others manage, and on how they have been managed. And since most managers do not manage well, we have another viscous circle. Effective Managers^TM has distilled the 5 Requirements of Effective Managers from the most authoritative sources published. All managers, to be effective, must:

• plan,
• identify and do their own value-added work (which includes managerial leadership),
• set context for their teams and each team member,
• delegate required work precisely in terms of quality, quantity, timeliness and resource requirements, 
• establish and manage appropriate feedback loops.

You are promoting people who don’t really want to manage into manager positions.

Too often, the only way professionals and front line employees can get ahead in the organization is to apply for positions that have managerial accountability. They may not aspire to be managers, or even value the role of management, but feel it is expected of them to move up in the organization. Or they want the prestige and the pay increase, and a managerial role is the only way to obtain them. So what happens when they get the job? They focus on that work they enjoy and that has made them successful. They avoid the managerial leadership aspects of the job – to the detriment of the team. We call this Application – the valuing of all aspects of the work such that full capability is applied.

How do you avoid making these mistakes?

There are two things that must take place in every organization. These are the accountability of the CEO and the Head of HR to have in place. 

First, every position must be fully described in terms of the requirements of the job and these should be part of the position description. Manger must take the lead in doing this as they understand they subordinate roles better than anyone. HR needs to coordinate the work and to monitor its accuracy,

Second, every organization should have a talent pool process in place which assesses each managerial role against the capabilities required for success in the organization. When inside people are not qualified for vacant positions, then the same approach can be used for vetting external candidates.

Let’s get qualified managers into managerial roles, so that managerial leadership practices can lead our organizations to engaged employees, more satisfied clients, and improved productivity. Let’s get our managers managing!