June 2008

 

Strong people managers are critical to the retention of talent across the organization. However, some of these people managers lose sight of their value and impact on retention. They fall into traps that diminish their contribution and dilute employee commitment. Are these traps self-evident? Not always. Here are several common management traps that surface within an organization.

Stagnation. Managers with limited career movement often breed stagnation. Having neither received, or taken advantage of, professional development and internal movement over the years, these managers are slow to encourage or advocate for growth and movement among their staff. Performance suffers and attrition often prevails in their group.

Accumulation. Capable managers often accumulate groups and direct reports as a result of reorganizations and downsizings. They become weighted down in the logistics of managing a more diverse and demanding set of functions. A span of control of eight or more direct reports make it difficult to address "staff concerns" with any regularity. Morale and productivity suffer.

A "Captive" Mentality. Savvy managers know the value of hiring complementary talent and invest heavily in retaining that talent. Out of self-preservation, they rarely encourage or support lateral moves or promotions and may even undermine a direct report's efforts to explore internal opportunities. These captive managers often leverage staff initiative to ensure their performance objectives. 

"Pass Through" Pressure. Managers who willingly take on new initiatives without counting the cost and impact to their staff create increasing pressure and stress below them. They feign a "can do" attitude to their supervisor but in reality foster burnout and frustration within their ranks, eroding trust and commitment.

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These management traps limit strategic vision and accelerated change. Developing strong people managers at all levels of the organization is the real "secret sauce" that drives growth and profitability by retaining the talent you need most, longer.

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