By Kathleen Quinn Votaw
If I asked you to change offices with the person down the hall, your first question would probably be “Why?” It’s human nature to want to know what’s behind the decision-making process and how changes will affect us. How amazing, then, that most managers never bother to tell why much of anything is happening in their organizations. We tend to hire and promote managers based on their technical skills and business experience—or even on their seniority. Few check to see whether new managers have even an inkling about human nature.
These new managers may be good at identifying problems and finding solutions, but they can’t execute effectively unless they have the full cooperation of their people. Without understanding and consideration of the people side, managers will be met with resistance, apathy, productivity loss, turnover, delays, and/or cost overruns—any of which can damage customer relationships. This is especially true during high growth and change conditions, the continuous states of today’s businesses. Your managers need the ability to lead.
When leadership goes missing
Without knowing how to lead, even the best managers can fail to meet expectations because they:
- Can’t motivate their teams
- Are intimidated by others who have more expertise or experience
- Lack the skills and confidence to overcome obstacles
- Avoid challenges and problems
- Can’t provide the vision to achieve desired results
It seems unfair to leave well-meaning managers with the emotional trauma of failure when what most of them need is training. Developing your managers is the first step in predicting change, preparing for it, and executing to meet internal and external challenges to growth. Managers who aren’t trained in leadership skills cannot grow your business and should not be leading a team.
If you build your people, you’ll build your business
Leadership, which is at the heart people skills, can be learned. Every one of your managers needs to be trained in core leadership skills such as communication, planning and goal-setting, delegating, and resolving conflict.
Managers who are also leaders ensure that their teams understand both business issues and goals, and motivate them to support solutions and participate in change initiatives. They understand that they can’t simply provide information; they need to create a dialogue with employees that generates innovation and efficiencies, and eliminates barriers to success.
Managers who are leaders mentor, coach, recognize and reward, and celebrate their people—if you teach them how. They can begin by learning to answer the simple question “why?”
Kathleen Quinn Votaw is founder and CEO of TalenTrust, a Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) firm that helps companies accelerate their growth by hiring exceptional talent. TalenTrust LLC is located in Golden, CO. Kathleen is president of the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG), Denver. Reach Kathleen at kvotaw@www.talentrust.com or 303-838-3334 x5.
This article is the second in a five-part series on the “5 mortal blows guaranteed to kill your culture,” inspired by A&P CEO Sam Martin.