Don't Punish All Of Your Best Workers With The Burden Of Management

With INTENT: our 5 minute deconstructions of the current trends to inspire healthy rethinking and reconstructive action.

by Chris Wickenden, Chief Creative Officer at FROM:TODAY.

In this episode, Chris uncovers the essential strategies for effective leadership in today's hybrid work landscape. With 70 percent of managers admitting to not feeling skilled, trained or confident enough to manage a hybrid workforce, Chris highlights the crucial link between strong leadership and engaged teams, urging organisations to rethink traditional approaches to talent management and development programmes.

Transcript

[00:00:00] Don't punish all of your best workers with the burden of management. Now, sticky title aside, I am not saying that management or people management is a burden for everybody out there, but I'm saying that for some people it might be, and some of those people might be people that you promoted to positions of management.

So what we know is that currently 70 percent of managers Let's say that they don't feel skilled or trained or confident enough to manage a hybrid workforce. We also know that the manager worker relationship accounts for 70 percent of the variance in engagement levels within an organization. It's the number one factor.

And I think it's really important to remember. that such a widespread hybrid working environment is still a relatively new phenomenon. And those expectations from workers are there to stay. People want [00:01:00] that flexibility, that comfort to be able to work when and where they want. It's not going away. And if you think back to the early days of the lockdown, um, there was such a, a creative and an intentional response to that.

Need to work from home. It's probably driven by fear But there were all sorts of creative sometimes wacky ways in which teams were coming together to ensure that they stayed connected They stayed engaged and i'm not saying that the solution to this engagement problem and managerial Empowerment problem is to get teams back together for virtual weekly sing alongs But, I think it's really important, there's a danger, there's a danger that work is becoming something that people see that they log into and log out of at the end of the day.

And all the while, we've got up to 51 percent of the global workforce either actively seeking or watching for new jobs. work. So there's a [00:02:00] big responsibility for managers, and we have to ensure that we have the right people in place. And for those managers that maybe do see their management duties as a bit of a burden or a distraction from the day job, that is really dangerous because the hybrid working environment provides ample opportunity to kind of hide or shirk those responsibilities.

Uh, because of the fact that you're not present, you're not with them in the space together. And you might get a situation where somebody would say, yeah, I was a bit reticent about the promotion, didn't know whether I wanted to manage people, but you know what, nothing's really changed. Um, I just get on with my job.

And, you know, a couple of Teams calls, which I, I lead and, uh, I lead most of the conversation on Slack or whatever, but nothing's really changed. And this is not meant to be in any way a diatribe against managers, but I think the key is to be. Work out how we can be more intentional in [00:03:00] ensuring we get the right people in positions of management Because they have such a crucial role.

They're effectively the guardians Of engagement levels within our organization and therefore productivity and high performance Etc. It's absolutely central and at the moment It seems that the only way that we reward great work within our organization apart from bonuses Is Is a promotion generally to a position of management and what that results in is Somebody that generally has been recognized for their work because they're very passionate about it.

They do their job exceptionally well Uh, they're brilliant at it and that's infectious it gets recognized and then they're rewarded With a situation where they do that work a lot less And their main responsibility is in building relationships with their team, who are then responsible for doing that work.

Creating an environment where people feel comfortable to [00:04:00] share openly, they feel safe, they feel that they're able to collaborate, they feel connected to purpose and all of that stuff. And maybe for some people that move is perfectly right and they thrive on it and it gives them that extra level of Engagement because it's a the change that they were waiting for but for some people it might not be right and maybe they're finding that they're now in a position where They no longer do the thing that really got them out of bed And that they really connected to and that this management of people was never something that they've been inclined or that keen to do Now you could say well, you know, no one's holding a gun to their head.

Just say no You But that's quite hard to do. It's quite hard to do because number one, you're saying no to more money, and let's face it, we could all do with a little bit more money. And number two, it might feel like you're saying yes to them being perennially overlooked. You've turned down a promotion and there's all sorts of a connection or Thoughts that go along with that about not [00:05:00] being ambitious and that nobody should turn down a promotion etc So it's really hard to do and I really like the distinction that kim scott makes in her book radical candor between rock stars and superstars So you have superstars that generally have a a steeper career trajectory.

They're inspired by by quick change, uh, pushing the boundaries and promotions and they thrive in that environment. And then you have the rock stars who thrive in the work that they do. They're very passionate in what they're doing and ensuring excellence in quality. And they aren't motivated by promotion.

They are where they want to be. And it is so crucial not to overlook those people. So I'm going to leave you with three key questions and I'd love to hear your responses. So number one, How do we find more creative ways to reward the highest performers in our organization? For some people, promotion to management will be just right, but for some it won't.

Number two, how [00:06:00] can we be more intentional in working out the criteria that we're looking for in people for positions of management? Because it is a crucial role in ensuring engagement levels and therefore the business's performance. And number three, for our managers, how can we create a continued program of support, upskilling and empowerment?

How do we effectively coach them to better coach their teams and get the most out of them? As always, I really look forward to hearing back your thoughts. You can get in touch with me on LinkedIn or chris at fromtoday. com. Thank you very much. See you soon.