Management
managers. Is this the ‘elephant in the room’ that makes it so difficult for our management programmes to succeed? I believe so. Are the huge long-term cultural and behavioural issues at play in many large organisations also a contributing factor? I believe that they are.
So, what can we do? Here is some advice for fellow trainers:
Know what ‘good’ looks like: Become content AND subject-matter experts
It seems like few of us actually know for certain what ‘good’ looks like when it comes to people, management, or leadership performance. It’s soul-destroying to see junior training designers go straight to Google as their first port of call in response to a request for some management training. It’s too important to put in the hands of somebody with no management experience, but that’s what seems to happen. If only 2 out of 10 managers are any good, the cost to business is staggering, but that also means we have a huge opportunity. By figuring this out we can start to add value.
Be outcome-driven: Help ‘get the right people on the bus’.
Kirkpatrick agreed that it is very difficult to measure Level 4 results. What if that’s because we are not diligent enough in our needs analysis?
Management guru Ram Charan says “Get the right people on the bus” in his book, The Leadership Pipeline. It’s not enough to simply deliver some training. The overarching desired outcome is that we increase the percentage of good managers.
This is so directly connected with business results that it would be insane not to make this a strategic imperative for the business, and not just HR or the training department.
We can make a start by writing a generic job description for all managers. It is no wonder that many new managers fail to make a successful transition when no clarity is provided about what the role of manager entails. Clearly defined role expectations provide us with a firmer platform for training content, as well as greater accountability, which might just help training to stick…
Start from the top AND the bottom: “Contain the Elephant”
There is an old saying about leadership which goes, “A fish rots from the head down.” Many of the thousands of managers I have developed came up to me after a one week training programme to ask if their boss could go on it too! There are four things we need to do, all of which are mutually inter-dependent:
1. Coach and develop leaders to understand and value the right management practices. Leaders frequently find it just as hard to delegate tasks as their managers do. Encourage them to make good management a strategic imperative.
2. Develop all employees with management in mind. Teach employees how to manage their manager and ensure that they know what needs their manager should be meeting. Teach them how to contract this with their boss. Also, be explicit in teaching employees what skills and behaviours they need to master in order to be considered as a potential manager.
3. Don’t just teach managers the right skills. Coach and teach them how to overcome the barriers that prevent them from ‘letting go’ of their old behaviours in order to make an effective transition into their new responsibilities.
Many large organisations are shockingly ill-equipped to turn this around, and until this becomes a critical business strategy, there will be little real inclination to act. It will only be when companies hit crisis point in the imminent war for talent that there will be any significant reaction, and by then, it could be too late.
For those companies that do act now, they will realise significant competitive advantage in the next ten years.
Kieran Hearty is an Executive Coach, Consultant and Leadership Speaker with over 30 years’ experience across international technology and financial services companies.
Kieran is author of the business book ‘How to Eat the Elephant in the Room’.