Management has been in crisis for some time now, and the pandemic era has only highlighted how much managers everywhere are struggling. A recent Gartner report highlights the frustrations and challenges modern managers face. Among the findings:
In this environment, it’s easy to see why managers are twice as likely to be looking for a new job than individual contributors. How can companies retain management talent in a work environment that no longer accommodates a more traditional management job description?
Here are three areas leaders should focus on as they address the modern manager crisis.
The traditional management role (before the late 1980s or early 1990s) evolved when managers were largely overseers, ensuring that workers provided consistent outputs. These managers existed in systems built on hierarchies with more narrowly defined areas of responsibility.
As business has evolved, hierarchies are less and less relevant. With the advent of agile systems, cross-functional teams, and project-based work, managers may find themselves both less relevant and more burdened with managing projects rather than people.
The pandemic era introduced new complications with remote and hybrid work. While remote work is a boon, allowing companies to hire the best employees no matter where they live, it contributes to a sense of disconnection and frustration for managers who may struggle to get their teams all in one place.
Senior leaders must address outdated organizational structures that put too much task burden on the manager level and recognize the realities of flattened hierarchies and dispersed teams. Companies can redefine the manager role to emphasize team relationships and outputs rather than task management. They can also empower their managers to question inefficient processes and look for ways to reduce their workloads. There is even room for organizations to leverage technology such as AI to automate administrative tasks and free managers to support their teams.
Culture has always been part of work. While the term “company culture” was coined in the 1950s, it didn’t become an area of focus until the 1980s. Over the last 40 years, the emphasis has moved from how employees dress and interact within a hierarchy toward organizational priorities (ESG and DE&I), public reputation, and communication styles.
As structures have flattened and information within organizations becomes more direct from senior leaders to all employees, openness and transparency (or their lack) have become vital metrics for judging a healthy (or unhealthy) corporate culture.
For managers, emphasizing culture can introduce a heavy burden. While their teams may look to them to create a healthy culture, they may get conflicting messages from senior leaders. At the same time, processes and structure may impact their ability to nurture the culture senior leaders promote.
Companies should assess their culture and address deficiencies or inconsistencies in aspirations versus realities. Managers can be a critical bridge between senior leadership and team members since they likely have a closer connection with team members. They can more accurately and effectively detect where team members are skeptical of company culture—or where they sense strong and meaningful company culture.
A century ago or more, many employers had little concern for how well their employees were faring at their jobs. The focus was on utility. Employers provided the bare minimum tools necessary for employees to do their jobs.
Utility moved into productivity, where the emphasis was on how fast an employee could work or how much the employee could produce. Managers even used stopwatches to shave minutes or seconds off employee tasks. The focus was on extracting as much from an employee as possible.
In this new era of employee experience, the focus for organizations is more holistic. Engagement and happiness are part of the employee experience, but they aren’t the whole picture. As author and futurist Jacob Morgan says, employee experience is about changing core workplace practices inside organizations around people.
Managers have to consider employee experience from both their perspective and their team members’ perspectives. For struggling managers, emphasizing employee experience from the top may ring hollow. They may wonder why they should worry about team members when their own employee experience is subpar.
Senior leaders need to remember the three key needs of every employee: to feel liked, competent, and independent at their jobs. These needs are relevant to managers as well as team members. Leaders must evaluate what is missing from these three areas to address the manager crisis. Do managers feel incompetent because they have too much to do and can’t catch up? Do they feel like they are overly scrutinized by their bosses or disliked by team members? What needs to change within the organization—design, processes, practices—that can improve the employee experience of your managers?
For over forty years, the team at Stewart leadership has provided expertise in organizational design, company culture, and employee experience to companies interested in thriving in any business environment. Our experts can help your organization improve processes, practices, and culture to help you address the crisis in management—or even avoid it altogether. Contact us to learn more about how we generate business and people results.
SELF CHECK: