Are your managers any good at managing people? If not, have you given them the tools to do so?
Broadly speaking managers do two things. They manage the running of the section of a business they are looking after, including information, systems and numbers. The other is the people that report to them, which is a very different skill.
If you were to mark all of your managers at their competence in understanding the two areas they look after, how would they score? In my experience, the understanding of people will usually come off worst.
I was having a conversation with a contact recently, and the old adage came out that you join a company, but you leave a manager. Meaning that it is the organisation that draws you in, the product or service you represent rarely lets you down, it is the manager that will bring you to leave.
Many managers get their job as a result of being good at what they do for a long time. Sales for example, if you are good at what you do, eventually your experience and perceived seniority will create a situation where the discussion of leadership arises.
But management is a specialised skill, and very different set of tools are required.
What so many of these managers need is a tool to be able to manage their teams properly. Rather than hoping they excel naturally, if you use a good quality profiling tool like DISC (the classic 4 quadrant assessing tool – Driver, Influencer, Steadiness and Compliance) you have a full report on every member of the team. It is not a judgement or a scoring system, but a guide to productivity for the individual and for the manager to know exactly how to manage the individual.
The report I use identifies –
- Natural Style
- Adjusted Style – (How they are currently changing themselves in their current role – Great discussion to have with a direct report.)
- Strength on different workplace tasks.
- Decision making
- Communication style
- Motivations and situations that reduce them
- How others perceive them
- Primary role in a team
Gone are the days of ticking some boxes and finding out if you are one of 4 styles, D, I, S or C. The theory is the same, but sophisticated reports read like a manual to how you work and how you can manage people effectively.
Give your managers the blueprint so they can manage their people with full knowledge of themselves and more importantly, a full knowledge of what is required by the people reporting to them.
For a sample report and an explanation of its uses, please contact us.
