Recent surveys show that most senior execs don’t believe they have the right management talent in place to move their business forward in 2011. The economy and corresponding attrition are factors but it’s also important for companies to determine if their behavior is driving mediocre, under-leveraged management.
A lack of confidence in your management team can lead to isolated and poor decision-making that can have long-term consequences on your company, not to mention the health of a team. For those preparing for what they do know (and don’t know) about their prospects in 2011, management readiness will be a key success factor.
If your management team is not ready, it will need more than a superficial look to figure out why. You may have the right people, but not getting the best out of them. In the context of preparedness, here are some things to consider:
- Have you identified the key attributes needed to move your business forward?
- Do you have the right inventory of existing skills to match your business requirements?
- What organizational elements stand in the way of building an effective management team (processes, policies, cultural elements, etc)?
- What does your organization embrace (status quo or original thinking)?
- What knowledge needs to be shared and by whom?
- Does your training get your managers through the day or through their career?
We tend to put managers through rote activities and assume they know what they are doing and why. I’ve seen managers obsess over a $5 discrepancy on a P&L that won’t move the $10M needle, but they did it because they were asked to find discrepancies. The result was wasted time and effort; they missed the bigger opportunity to evaluate emerging fiscal trends and its impact on their market. Unfortunately, they didn’t know to look for the trends and when asked, they couldn’t explain it. So ask yourself, are you doling out tasks without deepening skills and responsibility?
Managers are not often empowered (not a newsmaker, I know). The decision-making hierarchy is generally well-defined and it silently communicates to your staff: stop thinking, we’ll do that for you. Analyze your approval and workflow processes and your personal practices, it is likely that there are things in place which add complexity but not value, so remove or simplify them. This pushes responsibility down and creates an environment which lets your staff do the thinking. If they make a small mistake or two along the way, that’s okay too. Empowerment is often seen as losing decision quality and creating chaos, and yet when done well, it increases morale and corporate performance.
Go beyond training managers for the basics of their job. Broaden their thinking—give managers context to the larger implications of their role, including the financial, operational, customer and legal aspects. In this case, there’s a need for formal training but there’s also a need for leaders to proactively communicate and share their knowledge. It sounds simple but not all bosses offer the context, knowledge or resources that will empower their staff and improve their effectiveness.
When you give managers greater freedom and responsibility as well as the context and tools to be more effective, they are more inclined to embrace their role and their growth and contribute in new and positive ways. Who wouldn’t want that?
