Managing Managers

Management, especially front-line management, can affect turnover more than any other system. If your organization suffers from high turnover, then the first place to look is at your front-line management.

Key Management Skills

Front-line management jobs come in all shapes and sizes. On one hand, there are people with a management title, but their job involves "doing," not coaching. Their title could be a reward for good performance, an ego boost, or strategic positioning. This kind of manager does not manage. He or she is an individual contributor and should be evaluated for contributor skills, not management skills.

True front-line managers are usually coaches. That is, they are responsible for…

• Managing
• Developing
• Correcting

…the activities of the people they supervise.

Front-line managers get things done through people, not by doing the job themselves. Too many manager interactions with intelligent human beings are caustic.
Their behavior drives turnover.

Front-line managers do not have to be an expert in the jobs they supervise. They just have to know it well enough to give direction and guidance. This is not an easy skill to acquire; while some argue it can be learned, few people have the skills to coach effectively. In practice, they tend to dance around the issue or make veiled threats. None of which helps their direct reports get better.

Manager / Coach

When evaluating managers make sure they can intelligently question, discover problems, make appropriate suggestions, and get subordinate commitment. Most flounder in the coaching arena. To select or promote better managers evaluate your candidate’s abilities to do the following:

• Plan and organize complex activity.
• Coach and develop others.
• Be able to think analytically and see both the forest and the trees.
• Be able to perform the job, but not necessarily be an expert.
• Have the behaviors, interests, and motivations of a manager

Always remember that first-line managers are cited as an employee’s greatest source of stress. And stress can be a significant reason for turnover. Incoming and first-line management promotion decisions are the easiest to tackle. Forget about "promotions as a reward" and focus on "promotions based on job skills." Evaluate prospective front-line manager job skills by interviewing about past behaviors, administering tests and exercises, and watching the person perform in coaching simulations.

The bottom line: If you want to start reducing turnover, then make sure every incoming executive and manager has the right skills and behaviors for the job.

*** Adapted from a post by my colleague - Dr. Wendell Williams

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