Steve Smith Author: Managing for Success; Practical Advice for Managers The #1 Reason Why Managers Fail Employee satisfaction surveys continue to show that poor management is an ongoing problem. Bad management lowers employee satisfaction and increases turnover. And turnover is very expensive if you consider the time and cost of screening, hiring, and training replacements, plus the loss of productivity while new hires are being trained. After observing managers for 42 years at 15 companies, it became clear to me that managers often fail because they were never trained to manage. They get promoted into supervisory positions because of their technical or professional abilities, not because of any managerial competence or skills. This “hidden” problem persists in industry, government, education-everywhere. Effective management skills are very different from technical or professional skills, but few people seem to understand this or even think about it. Over the years I kept running into managers and supervisors who were competent in their technical skills (gained through education and experience), who somehow, with no training, believed they also had the skills needed to manage people and departments. They just didn’t know what they didnt know. Having technical skills does not make you a good manager. With no training, many managers learn bad management habits from past supervisors and colleagues. They manage as they had been managed, and by emulating their peers, they become poor managers themselves. If your supervisor appointed you to the position of company pilot, you would say, Wait a minute! I dont know how to fly a plane. I need training! But when you were promoted to department manager, how did you react? Did it even occur to you to ask for management training? To be effective in your role as manager/supervisor you need specialized training and education, just as you do to become an engineer, a scientist, or a pilot. Now its time for you to sit back and think about how good you really are. Chances are youre not as good as you think, even though you are doing your best. Dont be afraid to acknowledge that you dont fully know what you should be doing as a manager, why you should be doing it, or how to do it most effectively. So make the decision now to go out and get the best management training you can, regardless of how long you have been on the job. Open your mind to new ideas, learn and apply them. With good training you too can become a successful manager. Then you will be happier and so will your employees and your boss. Steven R. Smith is the author of Managing for Success: Practical Advice for Managers, a concise,150-page guide written to help managers and supervisors succeed. It is based on the author’s 42 years of industry experience at 15 different companies. For more information go to: Successfulmanaging.
Posted on: Mon, 30 Jun 2014 08:02:53 +0000
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