CareerJournal.com offers When Managers Neglect To Coach Their Talent which covers a principle we incorporate into our process.
“The role of people-managers — who develop talent and create sustained profits for companies — isn’t as valued as it should be,” says Mr. Harter, co-author with Rodd Wagner, also of Gallup, of “12: The Elements of Great Managing.” If it were, he adds, companies wouldn’t promote to management those who succeeded at a prior job but don’t have the foggiest idea about how to motivate people.
Blame the top executives who simply grade their managers on their financial results rather than on how well they groom and retain good employees.
The promotion based on financial results runs rampant through most sales departments. The top salesperson is often promoted out of his or her revenue-generating position and into a manager role where they are asked to coach and motivate others. As many of you know, this approach is replete with pitfalls. Yet it continues.
Sales is historically a high-turnover department, but it doesn’t have to be. The fix is to look for management talent to fill these roles, not necessarily the top revenue-generating salesperson. The two-fold pitfall of promoting a top producer is that often they do not have the best skill set for effective management and you simultaneously remove your top revenue-generator from their territory. And let’s not get started on the selling sales manager.
If you wondered why this topic is so important, I close with this:
Companies are filled with alienated employees who feel underutilized and ignored, and are either coasting or searching for new jobs elsewhere. A whopping 70% of U.S. employees say they feel either “not engaged” or “actively disengaged” at work, according to a recent survey by the Gallup Organization.
Business units with such a large number of dissatisfied employees “have more absenteeism and lower productivity — as well as 51% higher turnover rates than those with engaged employees,” says James Harter, chief scientist for Gallup’s international management practice.