Scientific research suggests that the single most important determinant of individual performance is a person’s relationship with his or her immediate manager. It just doesn’t matter much where the job is; Fortune 500 firm, local nonprofit, small business or at city hall. Lacking a strong relationship with a manager that sets clear expectations, that is trusting, understands strengths and weaknesses and is willing to make an investment so that performance improves, an employee is likely to perform, let alone stay.
However, managers are not usually held in high regard. Unfortunately, this country is CEO obsessed. The pictures on the cover of Fortune, Forbes and Inc. magazines are of “hard-charging heroes and visionaries.”
But when it comes to getting the most out of everyone in the company, the most critical role is that of the manager. More often than not, managers are seen as costs to be cut – overhead.
When someone is terminated or leaves the company, the manager is assumed to step in and handle the additional work until a replacement is found, if the position is to be filled at all.
Here are seven ways that a manager can become more effective in their day to day roles and prove their value to those that they supervise and those that they report to.
Start working with all of your direct reports. Don’t ignore those that you don’t like or can’t see eye to eye with; those issues should not come into play when managing someone. Spend more time with your best people simply because they are more productive and require less supervision but can benefit from coaching, which is how the time should be spent. As for the rest, spend that time counseling them as to how they can improve. Put an action plan into place for each individual and hold them accountable for meeting deadlines.
Learn the strengths of all of your people. People want to use their strengths simply because it makes them feel better; it engages them and encourages them to be better at what they are being paid to do. When your direct reports are engaged, managing them becomes less of an issue. If people have strengths but there is no effective way to utilize them in your department, it might be time to see if there are other places better suited to take advantage of what they have to offer. Help people become more of who they already are.
Don’t be afraid to discipline people who violate standards, policies and procedures. Organizations don’t create rules and guidelines in a vacuum, they are created for a reason, and supervisors have jobs to enforce company policy. When someone operates outside of what has been established, the supervisor needs to call the employee on that specific issue as soon as possible. If policies don’t exist, recommend that they be created. If those at higher levels of the organization ignore or break policies that apply to all employees, step up and mention that those that lead best lead by example.
Over communicate in all that you do. There is a disease that most employees have, at every level. This disease might never be cured, but daily doses can limit its spread. The symptoms are numerous, often surfacing through whining, complaining and shock with a dose of indignation. The disease is NETMA, which means No one Ever Tells Me Anything. Do your direct reports have this disease? It is likely that they do, which means that every important message, deadline and event must be repeated, time and time again, just in case someone might have the disease that particular day.
Understand the role of the supervisor is not to be a technical expert. All too often people are promoted to a position to supervise others because they are the best technically in a field. Horror stories abound of the best selling sales person who becomes the worst possible sales manager. Or the best engineer who is promoted to manager, and fails miserably. The skills needed in a technical role are far different than those needed in a supervisory position. Supervising is all about getting work done through the efforts of others instead of personally doing it.
The supervisor is the bridge between leadership and those that do the actually tasks required for the organization to serve clients. It is critical for a supervisor to understand the larger picture of what is taking place and will take place in their organization, and make the translation for direct reports. The supervisor, more than anyone else, needs to be clear when communicating that direct reports have a WIIFM mindset…what’s in it for me?
Meet regularly with each direct report and take the time to ask these six important questions…Do you know what is expected of you at work? Do you have the materials and equipment that you need in order to do your work right? At work, do you have the opportunity to do what you do best every day? In the past seven days, have you received recognition or praise for doing good work? Do I, as your supervisor, or someone else here at work, seem to care about you as a person? Is there someone at work who encourages your development? The answers are a mini-performance appraisal for both the supervisor and the direct report.
An excellent resource for managers at every level is Marcus Buckingham’s best selling book “First, Break All The Rules.”
Here is a question for every manager, supervisor and lead: How soon can you start asking the six critical questions to your direct reports?
