Stop Overcomplicating It: The Simple Guidebook to Upping Your Management Game
Stop Overcomplicating It: The Simple Guidebook to Upping Your Management Game
Russ Laraway wades through all of the competing opinions, complex frameworks and advice out there on how to be a better manager, creating a simple, data-backed leadership toolkit.
Outline
- WHY ARE MANAGERS FAILING?
- WANT TO BECOME A BETTER MANAGER? FOCUS ON THE “BIG 3” ELEMENTS OF LEADERSHIP
- HOW TO MEASURE EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT & MANAGER PERFORMANCE.
- WRAPPING UP: TO RETAIN YOUR TOP TALENT, FOCUS ON YOUR MANAGERS.
Pick up Russ Laraway’s new book, titled “ When They Win, You Win” and the first sentence is sure to grab your attention: “Managers are failing everywhere, and no one is helping.”
WHY ARE MANAGERS FAILING?
There are plenty of frequently-touted theories for why managers misstep but Laraway unpacks a few sneaky reasons managers are struggling that aren’t always cited.
1. Style over substance.
There’s no shortage of content out there about management and leadership — and that’s precisely the problem, says Laraway. “I call it the lunch line problem. There are so many different management frameworks out there, and you just pick and choose whatever resonates in the moment.”
2. The system for choosing managers is broken.
Laraway sees a negative pattern crop up across the board — from mom-and-pop restaurants to global enterprise companies. “We tend to select managers either based on their tenure or because they were the best individual contributor on the team.”
WANT TO BECOME A BETTER MANAGER? FOCUS ON THE “BIG 3” ELEMENTS OF LEADERSHIP
If employee engagement is directly tied to business results, and managers are the single biggest factor in employee engagement, it became critical for Laraway to clearly articulate the specific behaviors that power up employee engagement levels on the team.
- Direction: Good managers ensure that every member of their team understands what is expected and when.
- Coaching: Good managers coach their people towards success, helping them improve.
- Career: Good managers invest in their people’s long-term career goals and aspirations.
Set direction.
“Direction-setting anchors the team to an aligned result through the combination of two long-term elements (purpose and vision), and two short-term elements (OKRs and ruthless prioritization).”
Provide coaching.
“Coaching enables team members to achieve those desired results. It comes in two forms: coaching to improve what’s not working, and coaching to continue what is working.”
Consider their long-term career.
“Career is the most overlooked element, but it is critical to employee engagement. A manager must do more than help employees succeed; they must help them discover their long-term vision for their careers.”
HOW TO MEASURE EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT & MANAGER PERFORMANCE.
To gauge manager performance, Laraway leans on two surveys: employee engagement surveys and manager effectiveness surveys.
It doesn’t have to be complicated — employee engagement surveys have stuck around for a reason.
“Engagement is strongly correlated with business results.” For starters, he recommends setting up a straightforward engagement survey with employees answering each question on a five-point scale:
- Overall, how satisfied are you with [Employer] as a place to work?
- How likely are you to recommend [Employer] as a place to work?
Drill down deeper with manager effectiveness surveys
“Managers account for at least 70% of the variance in employee engagement scores across teams.” To measure management behaviors effectively, include these questions on a five-point scale:
- How clear is your manager's communication of what is expected of you?
- How often does your manager provide you specific praise for good work?
WRAPPING UP: TO RETAIN YOUR TOP TALENT, FOCUS ON YOUR MANAGERS.
Every company wants to retain its top talent. According to Laraway’s research, the single biggest factor that most directly correlates to employee attrition is whether or not folks believe their manager cares about them as human beings.