Management must be earned, then learned

Apr 1, 2004 12:00 PM, By I. Gregg Van Wert

I'm working with a client who is frustrated by a problem common to small, entrepreneurial firms: His managers have not been trained to manage.

He's refreshingly candid in taking responsibility for the problem. “I promoted each of my managers based on their performance as technicians and operators,” he says. “What I failed to recognize is that raw talent doesn't compensate for deficiencies in a manager's communication and leadership abilities.”

His answer to this problem has been to look outside the company for his most recent upper-level hires. While he has correctly diagnosed the problem, his solution is missing the fundamental point. The issue is not about the advisability of promoting from within. Rather, the problem is that he is not doing enough to equip the selected individuals with the evolving management skills they need to capably lead.

How many times did I, as CEO, promote people solely in recognition of their long-term performance? How many times did I promote because I recognized something in an individual that reminded me of me? Or because I was concerned that, in not promoting, I would lose someone of value to the organization?

The truth is that recognizing and rewarding performance with higher responsibility is simply good business. Good intentions turn bad when ongoing management development is neglected, or worse, ignored.

Looking for leadership

The problem my client faces is his failure to understand that employees look to supervisors for leadership. Natural leaders are few and far between. Most managers, like most employees, need nurturing in order to be effective in their jobs.

Ask my client what his greatest challenges are, and he'll fire back the usual litany of concerns about advancing technologies, commodity pricing and overcapacity. Missing among his top concerns is any reference to the declining confidence his employees have in their supervisor's leadership.

Speaking with this CEO reminds me of the story of the shoemaker's children. The exec has been so devoted to maintaining the skills of his technicians in their narrow fields of competence that his managers are left with leadership abilities that lack relevance to the needs of a 21st century workforce. The unfortunate result for this company and countless others like it is an unnecessary level of organizational stress caused by great technicians who will ultimately fail because they haven't been taught how to communicate, delegate, mediate and cultivate the personal best from each of their direct reports.

Learning is ongoing

Rarely do I encounter managers who are required to participate in advanced training that will make them more effective in their work. Rarely do I see companies investing in executive coaching designed to identify managerial weaknesses and strengthen competencies. The need for both clearly exists.

I'm frequently asked by clients to assess employee attitudes and perceptions. Here is a sampling of the questions I typically ask:

Does your supervisor provide meaningful feedback on your performance?
Do you and your supervisor jointly establish goals for your future performance?
Do you consider your supervisor more of a coach or a dictator?
Does everyone in your department feel personally responsible for satisfying customer expectations?

Correlating the employee's responses with information about a company's management-development practices consistently illustrates that printers that invest in upgrading management skills fare better on the bottom line than those that don't. And doing so doesn't require huge investments in weekend management retreats.

Share experience to improve skills

Companies of any size can provide mentoring so that new managers have experienced advisors they can turn to when needed. CEOs who are invested in the learning process schedule time to counsel managers and identify their development needs. They use popular business books as the basis for informal meetings that engage managers in discussion of best practices. And they involve key staff in frequent discussion about important issues and opportunities that face the company, to build a shared perspective that helps new managers gain leadership experience.

In my opinion, the difference between firms that succeed and those that fail is the degree to which their CEOs are willing to support ongoing management development. Happily, my client no longer views such investments as soft costs that, in the context of all the company's budgetary constraints, are held in reserve and expended last, if at all.

As he says: “Given the pace of technological and market change, I need to know that my managers have more than just raw talent and a desire to advance in their jobs. I need to know they are equipped with leadership skills that will support this business five, 10 years from now. They are willing to learn — I have to be willing to teach them.”

I. Gregg Van Wert is founding principal of The Haven Group. E-mail him at ivangpr@aol.com.