Musings |
My work with leaders is focused on moving them from manager to leader. It’s the Manager is the primary book I recommend for my clients when working with either emerging leaders or senior leaders, because their manager prowess sets the stage for the ability to become a great leader, defined as someone people would want to follow.
It’s the Manager is based on a global study of the future of work. The primary finding of that research was that the quality of managers and team leaders is the single biggest factor in an organization’s long-term success.
While the book is a reference book to sit on the shelf within arm’s reach for responding to issuesas they arise, the first 13 pages summarize the research. It ends with cracking the code of getting better outcomes. “What lever do I pull to make wholesale changes in my culture so it aligns with the new will and future of work?
“Of all the codes Gallup has been asked to crack…. The single most profound, distinct, and clarifying finding — ever — is probably this one: 70% of the variance in team engagement is determined solely by the manager.”
A separate research source indicated that this lack of engagement costs between $450 Billion and $550 Billion dollars a year in the United States alone.
Further, “the percentages; 30% of managers are great, 20% are lousy, and 50% are just there – which are about the U.S. national averages of employee engagement.”
The authors recommend that if you “double the 30% to 60%, and cut the 20% to single digits… your stock price will boom. Nothing a CEO or CHRO does will authentically, structurally and sustainably change the value of your organization more.
“So what is the lever? Usually, there isn’t a single lever to create change. In this case, there is; It’s the manager.
“When you have great managers who can maximize the potential of every team member, you have delivered on the new global will: a great job and a great life.
“That is the future of work.”
