Breaking the Rules of Management

There’s a general understanding that when people leave an organisation, they are actually leaving their manager. Obviously there are exceptions to the rule and all sorts of reasons why people change jobs. However good ‘people managers’ tend to retain good staff and bad managers tend to lose good staff.

So what makes the difference? Can you distinguish good managers from bad? More importantly, what do excellent managers do differently compared to the rest? The polling organisation Gallup have used their vast quantity of organisational survey data to see if there are answers that stand up statistically. They identify what ‘rules of management’ these excellent people managers break all or most of the time (see the reference to Marcus Buckingham’s book below).

Firstly, the best people managers select for talent. Talent is defined as

a recurring pattern of thought, feeling or behaviour that can be productively applied

The more general management rule is to select for experience, qualifications and skills. However, experience is not always relevant nor necessarily an accurate predictor of future performance. Qualifications can be obtained through training and skills can be learnt. Talent is either there or not. Talents required vary with the role – so you need to know which talents are most critical in any given role, and how to identify them

Secondly, the best managers define required performance outcomes and do not dictate how employees achieve those outcomes. That way, management control is more hands-off – remote control – and employees can use their own strengths and take responsibility for delivery.

Thirdly, excellent people managers focus on employee’s strengths. That is far more effective than the usual ‘rule’ of fixing weaknesses. Individual development plans that highlight where staff are performing badly is not a great motivational tool. Managers should manage around weaknesses and as much as possible, make those weaknesses irrelevant. It’s better for managers to spend time with their best people and identify why they are so good, rather than the common practice of spending large amounts of time with poor performers, who may never be very good.

Lastly, the best managers take time to identify where people fit best. The usual promotion route is not the best for everyone – Laurence Peter’s Principle that people are promoted to their level of incompetence occurs far too frequently. Organisations need to be creative in rewarding people for what they do best and not set a hierarchy and corresponding increasing salary scale that moves people outside their real expertise and excellence in performance.

At an organisational level, the quality of people management can be ascertained from a simple employee survey of just 12 questions. It’s not difficult – but it does take courage to break the standard rules. Isn’t great performance worth that risk?

Ref: Buckingham, M (2005). First, Break all the Rules. Pocket Books. ISBN: 1-4165-0266-1