National Boss’s Day
By Keona Cambell
As National Boss's Day approaches on October 16, we're reminded of the managers who have shaped our personal and professional careers. In my experience, my past managers were critical to my development as they motivated, challenged, and coached me to pursue my goals. Managers play a significant role in team engagement and retention for any employee or organization. Research shows that:
Managers are the number one reason why people stay or leave companies. (HBR)
70% of the variance in team engagement is solely determined by the team's manager. And it's estimated that poor management and the ensuing loss of productivity costs the U.S. economy between $960 billion and $1.2 trillion annually. Globally, those costs approximate $7 trillion. (Gallup)
Today, manager responsibilities have shifted to continual organizational changes, mental health and well-being, social justice, and political issues. With this growing pressure on managers, they are experiencing burnout. To tackle this, organizations must provide managers with the resources and programs to successfully develop the skills and behaviors needed to support their teams through challenging, unpredictable times.
Ways to Support your Managers' Development
Whether supporting the managers at your organization or the student leaders on your campus, here are five impactful ways to develop your managers into successful leaders.
Start with the data - The best way to launch your manager development effort is to assess the current needs of your managers via feedback such as employee engagement surveys and performance reviews. Along with data from a needs assessment, you will be able to understand what skills managers should build on.
Align on manager expectations - Having clear expectations for managers as soon as they become managers will help them know what is expected of them in their role and how the manager role is defined in your organization.
It's a sprint, not a marathon - Great manager development initiatives take time and cannot be rushed. While an hour or day-long event may take effort, they are not as valuable as long-term executions focused on building continual learning journeys for managers via follow-up engagement and advanced development.
Build manager peer communities - Building peer communities allows managers to create a network of other managers to connect with in less formal settings. Through this, they can coach each other through their real-life experiences, confidentially discuss challenges, share tools, and practice new skills together.
Adjust and advance - To create transformative learning experiences for managers, it will take trials, errors, and piloted initiatives. These allow for adjustment and improvement of your initiatives based on evolving manager needs, engagement, and feedback.
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