by Astrid Davies | 11 Mar 2024 | Leadership Matters
“People leave managers”. It’s an old saying but it’s largely true. A bad manager can be the difference between enjoying work life and it being intolerable. In this article, we explore the transformative power of learning from bad managers. It really can be the way to build and grow as a successful, popular and effective manager.
Managers are almost always a significant influence over our working life. They can be mentors, guiding lights or, often, stumbling blocks in our journeys toward success. Yet, even from the less-than-ideal managers, we can glean valuable lessons. We can then shape our own management approach using those lessons. For instance, we may learn about the importance of knowing your core values and then sticking to them. Or, alternatively, we may learn the dangers of ignoring your own core values to try to fit into a corporate culture where you will never be happy as a result. We may even learn how to treat a team, because of the poor way in which we have been treated.
A client recently confided in me that much of his leadership journey to date had been informed by seeing managers behaving badly in his early career, and deciding he wanted to do the opposite! That has had a potent impact on this particular client. Specifically, it has given him clear ethical standards, a warm and trustworthy communication style and, increasingly, an ability to introduce boundaries for his team and himself, which protect their time and wellbeing and still get results. And they love him for it.
A model which can explains this
There is a handy leadership training model which can explain this in five easy stages. The SCARF model, conceptualised by David Rock, offers a framework to understand the social dimensions that influence human behaviour in organisational settings. SCARF stands for:
Status
Certainty
Autonomy
Relatedness, and
Fairness.
Each element represents a fundamental driver, representing a motivation to move away from a perceived threat (negative), or towards a perceived reward (positive).
SCARF and bad managers
Given we are positioning this article in the negative motivation space, let’s work up an example of a bad manager. Imagine a tyrannical manager who disregards feedback and micromanages every aspect of their team’s work. Such behaviour undermines Status, leaving team members feeling undervalued and disempowered. Certainty dies too, because unpredictability becomes the norm. That is likely to lead to increased anxiety and discomfort across their team (and probably elsewhere). That in turn leads to decreased performance. Autonomy is stifled, which in turn stifles creativity and puts a halt to innovation in any meaningful sense. Relatedness suffers because the operating environment is fraught with control and fear, damaging trust. This lack of trust, in turn, may result in biases coming into play. Favouritism or arbitrary decision-making may be tools in the bad managers’ armoury. This, of course, will compromise any perception of Fairness. Our old “friend” affinity bias kicks in, where cliques form and some workers are “in” with the boss, while others are seen as somehow lesser. All in all, not a great working environment.
Conversely, let’s imagine a leader who embodies the opposite traits. This leader recognises the impact of their actions on Status, fostering a culture where every contribution is acknowledged and valued. Certainty is provided through clear communication and transparent decision-making processes. Autonomy is encouraged, empowering individuals to take ownership of their work and explore innovative solutions. Relatedness thrives as the leader engenders a sense of belonging and camaraderie within the team. None of that affinity bias nonsense. Fairness will be seen to be all around, ensuring equitable treatment and opportunities for all. Again, no cliques or favouritism. Whether taught or inferred, this leadership development will have been incredibly positive, not only for the manager but for their team too.
Learning from Bad Managers
You can see how it could be possible to learn from the bad manager in this way. It doesn’t take a lengthy leadership development programme to instil this learning. It might only take one unpleasant or disillusioning encounter to create a learning opportunity that lasts a lifetime. Most commonly, however, it is a series of repetitive disappointments and irritations that build layers of learning.
Each interaction, each frustration, can be a negative if taken at face value. However, any manager intent on personal development will choose to take negative events as a catalyst for growth and self-discovery. As humans, we learn resilience in the face of adversity, adaptability amidst the chaos. In the leadership development space, this all explains the importance of empathy in leadership.
It pays to be a good leader
Through these experiences, we form and develop our values and aspirations, shaping the kind of leader we aspire to be. It was this that offered my client his inspiration – and his success. In essence, it is possible to learn positives from negative experiences. This can create an empathetic leader. This, in turn, makes for a leader that others turn to and that teams don’t leave. Put bluntly, it pays to be a good leader.
Bad managers are not the ones that shine a light for us to follow. Rather, they cast a shadow that throws what we want and would prefer into stark contrast. That contrast means we have a double choice. Not only can we move away from the challenge – or even threat – of a bad manager and leave them behind, but we can also leave behind their kind of behaviours. This gives us the reward of freedom from a bad manager, and also offers our teams the possibility to work for a manager who behaves better, leads better, is better to be around. Ultimately, it’s an ethical choice.
I am grateful to my client for his honesty and openness, not only in sharing his story with me, but also in embracing the learning. His commitment to that learning is something his teams enjoy. They enjoy it so much they stay. And that’s the proof, really, isn’t it?
by Astrid Davies | 19 Feb 2024 | Leadership Matters
In the first half of this series, we explored some “low hanging fruit” for keeping your workforce. Here, we are looking at investing to keep your top talent.
“Investing” may sound like this is where the cost-effectiveness of our first article ends. That isn’t so. Investing is putting time and money and effort into an activity, so that you reap the rewards richly and for years to come. As a matter of fact, investing in your people will often yield better and more sustainable impact results than throwing cash at a problem.
Executive Coaching: tailored support to help you recognise and retain talent
Let’s start with something that can be done in-house or by accessing external support, at modest cost: Executive coaching. With its personalised approach, this is a strategic tool for retaining top talent. It communicates a clear message: your organisation is invested in the success of your leaders. How does it do this? By providing tailored guidance to key individuals within the organization, executive coaching enables individual leaders to have the opportunity to “press pause” and leave the hurly-burly of the inbox behind for some dedicated headspace.
In today’s hectic business world, time to think is often listed as one of THE things missing from leaders’ lives. This investment not only enhances leadership skills but also instills confidence and a sense of value in employees, making them more likely to stay and contribute to the organisation’s growth. And let’s be clear, this works for the high achievers and your top talent. In addition, it works for everyone else!
There are two ways you can offer executive coaching. You can hire a professional external coaching provider (like us). Always look for trained, qualified, experienced and preferably accredited coaches.
The other alternative is to offer coaching by your workforce, for your workforce. This has the obvious complexity of perceptions, hierarchies and workplace interpersonal skills. It is, however, an excellent way to offer personal development to your workforce in a way that works for the whole organisation. This is not something just for HR because “they’re the people people”. It is important that coaching is offered only by properly-trained staff. Those can be everywhere from the Board to the contact centre, and anywhere in between. It will require investment to have your people trained. However, once trained they will be able to offer you a return on that investment, every single day.
Management Consulting: external support for an holistic approach
This is for the organisation where you suspect you may need more of an overhaul than coaching, mentoring and basic courtesy will achieve. Management consulting involves investment to keep your top talent. External advisers focus on your organisational culture and performance. Internal talent development and how best to do it will no doubt feature as part of their recommendations. When organizations prioritise the growth and development of their employees, they signal a commitment to building a sustainable and thriving workforce. An external pair of eyes can sometimes see what is hiding in plain sight for you. This is particularly so, if you are not giving yourself the headspace to consider all your options.
A canny way to make external consultancy work well for you as an investment, is to identify ambitious and thorough high-performers from your workforce. Then offer them the opportunity to work alongside the consultants. This knowledge transfer can really pay dividends. This is because the individuals will feel valued and are likely to give of their best as a result. This in turn will help their best to improve still further.
And if they feel valued and their work is appreciated, you stand a good chance of keeping them for the longer term. That is good news for your organisation and for your workforce, because they will share their skills and knowledge, building a consultant mindset which will underpin continuous improvement across your organisation. And who doesn’t want that?
Business Management: integrating keeping your top talent into the every day
Sometimes a spin-off from external consultancy is an alteration to your organisation’s business management. This gives you the opportunity to embed talent development in your organisational objectives and cultural structure. Put simply, it helps you embed growing your people while you grow your business. Where there is a culture of feeling valued, supported and empowered, workforce turnover can be much lower. This makes investing to keep your top talent something you can grow from within.
Leadership Training Programmes: investing to keep your top talent
The final section of this article is perhaps where you might have thought we would start. Structured leadership training programmes are a well-trodden path. On the face of it, they appear a proactive way to retain staff by investing in their continuous development. When organizations provide access to high quality and relevant leadership and management courses, they empower employees to acquire new skills and stay current in their roles. These programmes can not only enhance current job performance but also prepare employees for future leadership positions within the organisation.
Please note my caveat: “high quality and relevant leadership and management courses”. The internet is full of generic, “sheep-dip” courses which are cheap, offered for a quick buck to woo the unsuspecting into more lucrative (and just as generic) management courses. These are most definitely not the way to go. Investing in these is not investing in your talent. Instead, it is investing in an expensive sticking plaster, which is never going to stem a haemorrhage (metaphoric or of your staff).
I would always advocate bespoke leadership and management development courses, where you have been very specific in your commissioning brief, and where you and the provider monitor the programme progress constantly. You may even end up tweaking the programme to get the best out of the programme, so you get the best out of your people.
Ultimately, you will get what you pay for, in terms of developing your people. To enable your workforce to mentor one another, they will need training so they keep safe boundaries and are effective. To coach one another will require the same.
However … it will cost nothing to acknowledge your workforce for their effort and commitment. And for this acknowledgement to be genuine and heartfelt. Although that costs nothing, it can mean more than the most expensive consultancy programme ever could.
Investing to keep your top talent is a choice. I would argue it is a wise, prudent and forward-thinking choice, so long as you have the money to invest. Organisations that prioritize the growth of their internal talent pool (in both size and quality) create a workforce that is not only skilled but also deeply committed to the success of the organisation.
And this is key. The talent pool includes EVERYONE. You may have identified your top performers, but by widening the developmental opportunities out to everyone, you build an inclusive culture. This is crucial to deliver psychological safety at work – one of the first stages is for people to feel that they belong and are welcome. Nail that, and you will have a culture that grows and retains talent for you.
As ever, if you would like to discuss any of the issues in this article or its previous half, please feel free to book a conversation with me or to drop me a line. It’s so important to get more corporate cultures valuing and growing talent. Let’s make leadership easier, together.
by Astrid Davies | 1 Feb 2024 | Leadership Matters
In the competitive landscape of today’s business world, retaining top talent is a key challenge. There is increasing volatility in the recruitment market, whether you want to cite The Great Resignation, Quiet Quitting or even Gen Z/Alpha. Better then to harness a proven strategy for employee retention. That is investing in leadership development programmes to nurture and grow internal talent.
There is much to discuss. As a result, this article is the first half of a two-part series. In this half, I explore the quick wins that your organisation can put in place, to start the process (or stem the tide). We will explore some compelling reasons why developing your own talent is not only a wise investment but also a powerful tool for retaining staff. And over the two articles, we will explore the various facets of leadership development that contribute to creating a workforce committed to staying with your organisation for the long haul.
Performance Management: Recognition and Retention
Let’s start with the simplest element of any leadership development programme: Performance management. However, although it should be the simplest place to start, in too many organisations this is a massive stumbling block. Too few managers and leaders are competent (let along confident) at giving feedback. Add to this a general reluctance to give people positive feedback, and you have a recipe for haemorrhaging staff.
What is so difficult about saying, “Thank you” and “Well Done for …”? It is basic courtesy. In addition, it is a manager being specific about good performance. Humans of any age will gladly repeat behaviour for which they receive praise. “Reward the good stuff” is a key parenting technique, which is left at the door in far too many workplaces.
There are some perverse notions of “strong” leadership out there, which would have you believe that if you thank your staff and recognise their efforts regularly, you are soft and weak. In fact, I would argue that managers are weak if they do NOT observe basic courtesies and rely instead on some outdated machismo.
So, let’s agree that we can all use this first step toward improved staff retention. Recognise your in-house talent when it performs well, and it will stay in-house longer. When you go further and add in goal-setting, incentivised performance recognition and the opportunity to grow and develop as leaders, you are likely to have a winning retention formula.
Building Loyalty through Mentoring:
Another quick win on in-house leadership development is Mentoring. This can play a pivotal role in fostering loyalty among employees. When organisations invest in structured, formal mentoring programmes, they are demonstrating a commitment to the professional growth of their staff.
Through one-on-one guidance, seasoned professionals can impart valuable insights, share the all-important “corporate memory”, and instill a sense of belonging in their mentees. This personal investment in an employee’s development creates a strong bond, with the mentor and their employing organisation. This, in turn, makes them more likely to stay with the organisation over the long term.
It is important to note here that poorly-organised, casual mentoring by leaders already past their enthusiasm “best before” date is not what we are looking for. Quite the reverse. Mentors need to be inspiring, authoritative and nurturing. That is not always a commonplace in organisations. It is worth developing your in-house mentors to be the best they can be, with mentoring training and supervision. It isn’t costly and it could actually save you huge recruitment agency bills.
Nurturing Leadership Skills: A Recipe for Employee Loyalty
Similarly straightforward is having a formal plan for leadership development throughout your organisation. Make sure it reaches across all departments, silos and sites. At its core, it will focus on cultivating essential leadership skills within the existing workforce.
To be clear, I am saying this is straightforward, but a lot of employers make it complicated. There needs to be a cross-organisational understanding of what you want your leadership development to achieve. It is impossible to be successful without that – how do you know when you’ve got to “good”?
As a simple rule of thumb, providing opportunities for employees to enhance their communication, decision-making, and problem-solving abilities will build a stronger, more resilient and more effective workforce. Essentially, it’s about leading from within an ethical framework. Your more senior employees will be more confident and competent, which will enable them to lead better. Better-led employees are more likely to stay with a company that values their growth, contributing to long-term stability and success. Leadership is all about retaining top talent too.
So, in this first half of the series, we have looked at a few simple (and cost-effective) ways to build up your workforce’s appetite to stay with you. In the next article, I will explore some of the ways that investment can really ramp up your options (and potential outcomes).
I hope this article has been useful to you and has triggered some thoughts. Please let me know what you have tried, in your firm (via comments or the get in touch button on my website)
And, as ever, if you want to discuss anything in this or any of my articles, my calendly’s available so please feel free to book a conversation with me. Let’s make leadership easier, together.
Image credit: https://pixabay.com/users/startupstockphotos-690514/
by Astrid Davies | 11 Jan 2024 | Leadership Matters
Management plays a pivotal role in successful, busy organisations. As I have argued elsewhere, management forms the very foundations of those organisations. However, misconceptions about management persist, shrouding its significance and effectiveness in myths. In this blog post, we’ll do a little light management myth-busting.
We’re going to debunk three common myths about management, to reveal the truth about the important role management plays.
Myth 1: Management is the Hidden Blocker in the Organisation
Contrary to popular belief, management is not the invisible hurdle obstructing progress within an organisation. Instead, it serves as the backbone and foundation, providing structure and order. It’s thanks to management that leaders have the data on which they base their strategic decision-making. Effective management ensures that tasks are efficiently delegated, resources are best used, delivery is monitored and targets are achieved. Essentially, management is the glue that holds different parts of an organisation together. Management does just that; it manages. This means it handles all the operational challenges facing the organisation. The most effective managers achieve this by fostering collaboration and exploring synergies across the organisation.
By addressing concerns head-on, management in fact acts as a catalyst for problem-solving rather than a hindrance. Successful organisations acknowledge the value of transparent communication and proactive management, dispelling the myth that management is a hidden blocker. It could even be the case that this myth persists most in unsuccessful organisations. Might there be a causal link here?!
Myth 2: Management is “The Clay Layer”
Another myth is that management is where dreams go to die. This is actually really unfair. In reality, management serves as the fertile ground where dreams are nurtured and transformed into actionable plans. A skilled manager facilitates a constant and positive communication exchange, between strategic leadership and operational delivery teams. It is important for management to be able to translate the strategic vision from the leadership. This translation means the strategic vision can be broken down into practical tasks, which helps the vision to actually be delivered.
Importantly, these same managers are also responsible for feeding back from delivery teams. For instance, this feedback can be used to inform future plans, generate more practical innovation, or even persuading the leadership that their plans simply won’t work! This is really important for employee engagement. Delivery teams and their managers feel heard and valued when their feedback is used to inform their organisation’s future direction. Employee-guided organisations have long been held up as the Holy Grail of employment practice. It is very difficult to have an employee-guided organisation without managers.
Rather than stifling creativity, effective management cultivates a culture of continuous improvement and adaptation. On the contrary, it encourages employees to dream big while providing the necessary support and guidance to turn those dreams into reality. In this way, management is not a clay layer but actually an enabler of success.
Myth 3: Management is “Leadership-lite”
I still hear people talk about management as if it’s an inferior stepping stone to the ultimate goal, Leadership. I find this mindboggling in its narrowmindedness. It is in fact a hangover from when “management” meant just monitoring, checking on people and generally watching over every minute detail of front-line operations. As mentioned above, it is wrong to believe that this role was inferior, somehow subordinate to leadership. This kind of view assumes management is merely a watered-down version of true leadership.
On the contrary, effective management involves planning, organising, and coordinating resources to achieve specific strategic goals. It is a massively responsible role. This is the tactical implementation of leaders’ broader strategic vision. Put simply, it’s the sharp end. Without solid management, visionary ideas just don’t happen. You won’t get effective leadership without effective management to deliver the vision.
Recognising the equal value and importance of management and leadership is essential for a successful organization. As should be obvious from what you have read above, I believe firmly that management and leadership are complementary. By working hand in hand, they provide a balance which ensures the vital flow of information, ideas and feedback. It is symbiotic. Leadership inspires and sets the vision, management makes sure that vision becomes reality. Neither can succeed without the other.
This bit of management myth-busting is important, to me but also to any leaders seeking to run a successful organisation. Far from being a hidden blocker or dream-stifling clay layer, management is actually the driving force that turns aspirations into achievements. It is not a diluted version of leadership but a vital partner in a symbiotic pursuit of excellence. Furthermore, any effective leader will be effective partly because they can also manage. There are many managers who will never be senior leaders. There are, however, no senior leaders who are effective who have not been a half-decent manager. Effective leadership thrives on knowledge and skill. Hopefully, this management myth-busting will highlight the value of management after all.
If you would like an informal conversation about any issues raised in this blog, please contact us and let’s have a chat about making leadership easier.
Photo-credit: Unsplash
by Astrid Davies | 7 Jan 2024 | Leadership Matters
The foundations of a building are the most important part of the structure. Similarly, the foundation of an organisation is good management.
Both are the base on which the entire entity stands. Both are responsible for bearing the brunt of the stresses and strains. And the integrity of both the building and the organisation depend on the quality of their foundations. The management is responsible for setting the tone of the organisation, and it is responsible for ensuring that the organisation is able to withstand the pressures of its marketplace
In this blog post, we’ll consider the importance of strong foundations in management and leadership.
The foundations – starting at ground level
When you start to build a building, you don’t start with the roof, do you? Obviously enough, you begin with the foundations. You make sure the foundations are robust and complete enough that they can support the whole building. Those foundations also have to bear the weight of the building AND everyone and everything inside it. Any fault in those foundations will show in cracks, instability and, if it is not addressed, the whole building toppling to the ground.
It may be stressing the metaphor, but bear with me here. Without effective management, any organisation will struggle to function. Management may not set the vision and direction, but they definitely influence the tone within an organisation. Management creates the day-to-day culture. Not only this, but managers all need a high level of skills and the right attitude, to enable the organisation to tolerate the stresses and strains it will face in its regular operations. Without this, an organisation will struggle to function, or at least function effectively and productively. The culture can become acrimonious, overly-competitive and, ultimately, so divided that it fails to function. When that happens, you can bet that the whole organisation will struggle to continue. One thing is for certain: no organisation has survived having brilliant leadership but underperforming management.
Management – why it’s the foundation
When you have effective management in your organisation, you don’t notice it. Just like the foundations of a building, you don’t spend much of your day wondering at its effectiveness. You assume it’s there and that it works. It leaves you free to admire the windows (services) the design (structure) and yes, even that roof (your leadership). I would argue that this is an unfortunate state of affairs. By ignoring management and taking it for granted, you are storing up potential trouble. My company focuses on the importance of management for this very reason.
When you focus on the management in your organisation and celebrate their importance (rather than take them for granted or, worse, view them as “the clay layer” that gets in the way of your brilliant visionary planning), you are effectively taking a jackhammer to the foundations of your organisation’s success. Instead, how about investing in your managers? Offering them training to hone their skills is an investment, certainly. However, it is also prudent. This is because your managers’ skills are the currency of your organisation. By helping them improve their skills, you help them build their confidence alongside their competence. In turn, this contributes to a confidence across the organisation. And this is very important because it encourages a collaborative culture, not a competitive one. This is where I am starting to move away from traditional “measure what’s important” management gurus.
Modern Management – the good foundation your organisation needs
Modern management theory emphasises the importance of strong foundations in management. As I set out above, current thinking holds that the foundation of an organisation is its management. By making sure your managers have up to date skills, that match the needs of your workforce, you are shoring up those foundations.
On the other hand, older management theorists thought that the most important function of management was to supervise and measure. Those skills are still relevant, certainly. In addition, I would argue that making sure your teams feel well-led, supported and valued require your managers to have a good grasp of a lot of other management skills. Managers need to be able to read their people. Your managers need to be able to translate corporate vision-speak into practical deliverable plans. And most of all, your managers must be competent at the interpersonal basics: saying please when asking for work done; thanking their staff for work well done; ensuring the credit goes to the people who did the job, not the manager taking all the limelight.
Where is leadership?
Leadership is often seen as the Holy Grail, the ultimate career destination. I think this is a flawed premise. For a start, not all managers are cut out to lead. That doesn’t mean they are anything other than super managers, motivating their happy teams to deliver well against targets. On the other hand, not all people in leadership roles can manage. Note the language here; I do not call such people leaders. That title only goes, at least in my book, to those who can also set organisation-wide strategic visions and purpose. This “big picture” context provides the essential context, for your managers to deliver.
So, to circle back around to our metaphor, if you want an organisation that is built on firm foundations, you have to have managers throughout your organisation who can manage – and manage well. The required skills are really important for your managers to have, and even more important for your organisation that they have them and use them regularly.
How will you ensure the managers in your organisation are your reliable, invaluable foundations? If this has made you think about the management in your own organisation, and you would find it helpful to talk over your thoughts, please contact us. Let’s have a no-obligation chat and see what you need.
