The role your managers play in the workplace is possibly the most significant in terms of the impact it can have on your business’s productivity, which is why we should all be mindful of the mantra, ‘People leave managers, not companies’. Your managers have the most direct influence on the teams that they have responsibility for, alongside how they align their performance and achieve your company’s goals. In other words, they play a pivotal role in how they shape your organisation’s culture.
The role of a manager
Understanding the role that your managers play is important. The late Peter Drucker, a renowned management consultant, divided the job of a manager into five basic tasks:
- They set objectives for their teams and decide what work needs to be done to meet goals.
- They organise the work to be done, selecting the people needed to undertake the work.
- They motivate and communicate with their teams.
- They measure performance by establishing appropriate targets and objectives.
- They develop people to ensure that they are the company’s most valuable asset.
Once you have a clear understanding of what the roles of your managers are, you can examine how their performance can either positively or negatively impact the people they manage and the effects that this can have on your business.
Goal setting
How well an employee performs has a direct influence on productivity. Setting clear job roles, goals and objectives and tracking employee performance can ensure that productivity is on track. Whether we agree with it or not, we all like boundaries as we know what is expected of us and what our specific obligations, duties and responsibilities are. How we communicate these and monitor them as managers can have the most impact on your teams and how they perform.
Regular communication systems
A well thought out system for regular employee meetings can offer a platform for assigning objectives, measuring success and supporting team members. Even though most businesses understand the importance of appraisals, research tells us that even though 94% or companies perform appraisals, only 2% of employees rated them as excellent and 70% of employees feel that their managers do not provide them with clear goals and objectives. Using a strategy for continuous employee monitoring can help improve employee engagement and offers managers the opportunity to identify underperformance at the earliest opportunity. Employees that feel that their manager is invested in them and their performance and improvement are more likely to feel engaged.
How businesses can help their managers be successful
Research tells us that many managers are uncomfortable communicating with employees in general, whether it be face to face or over the phone. Investing in soft skills training and assisting with communication methods can help them to overcome these barriers and in return, improve their own management performance. Managers need to understand that each individual team member is not only different from each other, but also from their manager, and how they communicate with their individual team members will have a dramatic effect on employee performance overall.
Poor management can not only have a direct effect on a team’s performance but can also be extremely damaging to morale and productivity throughout an organisation. Poor management can lead to worker stress and can be directly related to poor work/life balance. Poor communication skills and a lack of understanding of the soft skills needed to be a successful and influential manager are the most common reasons for reduced productivity and can breed a less energetic workforce with no real commitment to quality, resulting in a high worker turn-over rate which all have a negative impact on business. Equipping your managers with the skills they need to be successful will improve your workplace culture, which will encourage an engaged and committed workforce.
