Management Training Resources: Are You Cut Out To Be A Manager?

Have you read the recent article (Why So Many Workers Hate Their Bosses) posted on the CMI network where Jay Robb, a freelance writer, comments on a book by Bruce Katcher, entitled “30 Reasons Employees Hate Their Managers: What Your People May Be Thinking And What You Can Do About It”?

Pretty strong stuff, and perhaps a little sensationalist in order to sell newspapers/books?

Maybe – but you only have to run a search for “bully bosses” on you tube and it comes up with 368 videos. Type in “bad bosses” and there are 29,600 videos to choose from! In some of the management forums or newsletters I visit the threads which are discussing how staff can “manage upwards”, or maybe trying to uplift and inform readers with resource management training materials and articles about conflict management skills often end up with literally dozens of posts from people who are clearly deeply disenfranchised in their work. OK – some of them may be “serial whingers” – but in my experience, having worked with thousands of employees across dozens of different types of organisation, everyone has some experience of a “bad boss”; can quite clearly tell you what makes them “bad”; and it’s the same reasons which come up, time and time again.

Katcher has run staff satisfaction and engagement surveys since 1993 and found staff have issues including feeling disrespected, unrecognised, unable to voice opinions openly, frustrated at what they see as poor decision making and uninspired by de-motivating leadership. Interesting that the massive Gallup research looking at hundreds of organisations and hundreds of thousands of employees, also finds these same issues as being the most critical in terms of management performance.

Both Gallup and Katcher cite similar reasons for this failure of management: promoting people because they were good at their previous job or because of length of service, rather than their ability to connect positively with others; a culture which is permeated with “control” type of management, so leading to controlling bosses spawning similar clones, or lack of adequate training to hone the required management skills.

This so strikes a chord with me.

I started out in the classroom, many, many years ago. Within weeks of standing in front of dozens of high energy, expectant and unforgiving teenagers, one question formed in my mind which was to go on to shape much of my last 35 years of work as a teacher and manager: “How do I engage, motivate and enthuse these bright individuals to bring out their full potential?”

Believe me, there were many young student teachers I saw come into the classroom who were brighter and more academic than me – but they could not teach to save their lives. Managing others in the workplace demands no less skill than that of the classroom.
Motivating, enthusing, tapping into “discretionary effort”, is a skill set requiring some very specific behaviours and attitudes, and, actually, some understanding of human psychology.

Some individuals have an almost intuitive understanding of how to connect positively with others; how to forge good relationships and how to produce peak performance. Some have the raw potential to be able to develop this skill set – but require a desire to learn and grow and practice those skills until they are second nature.

And – in my view – some are simply not “cut out” to be managers. They take the post because it is the only way of gaining status or more money, or it’s “expected” of them, but once there they feel distinctly uncomfortable and often feel frustrated and harassed.

Perhaps this is best illustrated by the comments of one of my participants at a recent workshop helping managers understand more about how to motivate others. The group had considered motivation, worked on some of their own motivational drivers and we’d come to the final part of the session where we were reflecting on the concept of talents, talent management, and how an understanding of this can help develop staff in a meaningful and productive way. Suddenly an MD of a company piped up : “I realise now I just want to be left alone! I’ve spent the first part of this workshop thinking I’m not interested in any of this, my top motivational drivers do not lend themselves to wasting time trying to engage other people -and this is too much like hard work! So what do I do?”

The group answered for him: “Find someone who is and let them do it for you!”

This is a classic case of “square peg, round hole”. Bottom line? In such a situation both manager and staff are unlikely to be performing at their best – and actually, are probably both aware of this fact and uncomfortable about it. (This particular individual decided to step back from managing and expressed relief he could get on with “what I’m good at”.)

There are implications for all organisations in terms of talent management; in terms of training and in terms of structuring so they can reward talent in the most appropriate way, which may, or may not be promotion to managing others. In my experience, managing and developing others is a complex, yet richly rewarding activity – but it is not for everyone.

As Katcher and Gallup show, it’s a bad idea to do nothing, because the statistics show more people leave bosses, not companies. If they don’t leave, they keep showing up, but become 9 to 5ers, doing just enough to keep out of trouble.

Perhaps we should all be asking: “How can we more effectively fit square pegs into square holes?” and allow those with the talent to be managers to take on the challenge, and those who do not, more effectively utilise the talents they do have?