What does your company think a manager is? A manager is someone who leads and directs the work of others. Managers are frequently held accountable for the work of those who report to them. We generally expect managers to grow and develop their direct reports. But we don’t always align our programs and processes with these expectations. The way we hire managers, the job descriptions we develop, and the way we review managers sometimes send a different message.
We’ve all heard the complaint that there are people in management positions who aren’t good managers. They were the best in the organization at the technical aspects of their job, so they got promoted to the manager of the department. The reality is that managing the people in a department typically requires an entirely different skill set than doing the work of the department. So why does this happen?
Manager’s job descriptions sometimes look like a higher level version of the job descriptions of the rest of the team. Frequently the top few items under the essential duties are dedicated to the more advanced tasks that the department has to perform. The focus should be items such as providing regular and ongoing feedback and opportunities for development. When we interview managers we sometimes ask them about their ability to perform the more complex analysis and tasks in their department. Instead we should be asking them questions designed to uncover their ability to lead and influence people. When reviewing managers we shouldn’t be using the same form that we use for non-managerial staff looking solely at how well they perform tasks and manage tangible projects. We should evaluate their ability to influence their team and to bring out the best in all of their direct reports. We should rate how well they brought their team together to achieve common goals.
If we truly value managerial skills and want our managers to spend their time and efforts focused on developing their team, then we need to make sure that we communicate that expectation to managers. We do this by clearly stating that this is the most important part of their job. We need to hire for that skill set, and review that skill set. Only then will we get people who can lead a team instead of just our strong individual contributor who may cause team strife and/or burn themselves out doing too much work on their own and holding everyone else back because they don’t provide any room for growth.
What do you think? Do your managers know what their primary job is? Do your programs and processes support job clarification?
Darcy Dees, CCP works as the Compensation Manager for Rock Bottom Restaurants, Inc., headquartered in Louisville, CO. She has worked with RBR for nearly 10 years helping to develop many of the compensation and performance management programs the company uses today. She spends what little free time she has hiking and reading.
The opinions expressed here are the personal opinions of Darcy Dees. Content published here is not monitored or approved by Rock Bottom Restaurants, Inc. before it is posted and does not necessarily represent the views and opinions of Rock Bottom Restaurants, Inc.
Image: Creative Commons Photo "Making Connection" by Irargerich
Nicely put, Darcy. Processes don't manage people, managers do.
Posted by: working girl | 04/21/2010 at 12:59 AM
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Wally Bock
Posted by: Wally Bock | 04/21/2010 at 12:53 PM