15Five

To quote everyone from Damocles to Spider-Man, with great power comes great responsibility. 

It’s a truism for a reason, but it’s more relevant to managers than most. An employee’s relationship with their manager defines their workplace experience. Within companies, managers have been found to account for at least 70% of the variance in employee engagement across business units. 

That gives them exceptional power over their team’s performance, for good or bad. Company culture, policies, and values all filter through the manager, no matter how carefully they were crafted at the strategic level. 

Unfortunately, many managers aren’t as great as they could be. Ineffective management is a workplace challenge that’s having wide-ranging, harmful effects on many companies.

The cost of ineffective management

When managers are underskilled, they create stress, frustration and disengagement in those working under them. Managers can quite literally make or break an employee’s workplace satisfaction. That’s why 63% of workers with a bad manager are thinking about quitting within the next 12 months. 

Interpersonal challenges like these aren’t just subjective, individual to be dealt with at the team level. Inefficient managers have far-reaching impacts, and can devastate crucial business metrics like turnover, retention, and morale. The statistics are sobering—poorly engaged managers cost the American economy $319 to $328 billion dollars every single year. 

How bad managers hold back their team

Here are just a few ways ineffective managers can hold back performance: 

Low morale 

Underskilled managers might fail to give their team the praise they deserve for a job well done. This proves discouraging and demotivating for employees, leaving them unsure of their performance and where they stand. A self-perpetuating cycle is created as employees continue to underperform, and consequently, receive even less recognition. 

High turnover and poor retention 

Turnover rates are one of the clearest indicators of manager efficiency. Even without being overtly toxic, managers who don’t inspire their team’s best work create restless, unfulfilled employees, who eventually seek professional development elsewhere. 

High burnout 

Workplace struggles aren’t just isolated to the 9-5. Manager-related stress can take a serious toll outside of work, even leading to physical illness and burnout. When the affected workers need to take time away, other staff end up overloaded to compensate for their absence, further perpetuating the problem. 

Low productivity 

Ineffective managers often don’t provide their teams with enough clarity around roles, expectations, and responsibilities. That creates an environment where employees are not equipped to do their best work, struggling to prioritize and complete important tasks. In fact, 76% of employees shared in a recent survey that they work harder when their employer shows investment in their professional growth. 

The managerial skills crisis 

Unfortunately, these manager-related issues are not the exception. They’re a widespread issue across the American workforce. In an already tightly squeezed labor market, underskilled, ineffective managers are causing hundreds of thousands of talented people to leave their jobs. 

But while companies should certainly take the existential threat of poor management seriously, the flip side is that investing in managers is a powerful strategy to improve employee experience and company performance across the board. 

These assertions are backed up by real data.  According to 15Five’s 2022 Workplace Report, over 53.8% of Americans shared that an unsupportive manager would be a key factor behind their decision to leave. But an even larger portion felt that strong, supportive management would be an important reason to stay. 

Closing the experience gap

Frustratingly, ineffective managers often don’t perceive themselves as needing improvement—in sharp contrast with their teams’ experience. Recent 15five research revealed this experience gap and has found it to be shockingly widespread among managers and their teams. 

Recently, we conducted research into the state of the performance review, one important tool managers can use to boost performance and productivity. The report revealed that: 

83% of managers felt they were skilled at having regular performance related conversations with their team, but just 54% of those team members agreed75% of managers perceive themselves as skilled at facilitating performance reviews, but only 53% of their employees agreed68% of managers thought their review process improved relationships with their direct reports, but that feeling was shared by only 43% of their workers These figures reveal that often, managers think they’re providing feedback and guidance that empowers their people and elevates their work. 

But employees aren’t accessing that value. They may be unsure of how to express this disconnection, or even worried that voicing disagreement could jeopardize their jobs. 

Upskilling better managers 

Manager ineffectiveness is not a problem that will go away on its own. That’s why companies need to invest serious care, and effort into upskilling their managers. 

Managing people is a skill — a skill that can be taught, learned, and practiced. If your managers need attention, improving how their work is possible. Even better, doing so will create a domino effect across your entire organization. 

Because managers are such a powerful node of influence, improving their skills will positively impact many of the above metrics, all of which translate into better performance, better employee experience, and a healthier, more productive organization. 

Want to dive even deeper into manager effectiveness? Check out our eBook, Spotlight on Manager Effectiveness: Why It Matters and How to Improve It.

To learn more about how 15Five can help boost manager effectiveness, check out Transform.
The post How Manager Effectiveness Impacts Performance, For Better or For Worse appeared first on 15Five.
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March 29, 2022 – 6:02 pm /Genevieve Michaels
Twitter: @hoffeldtcom