So How Do You Really Feel About Management?
Full disclosure: I'm a manager, and there are days when I wish I were nearly anything else.
So it was reassuring to see a recent i4cp survey - to which there were 675 respondents - showing that most folks agree that being a boss is tough. What wasn't so reassuring is that a lot of employees just aren't impressed by their current management teams.
Overall, six of 10 respondents to the April 2009 survey said that managers tend to have "tough but fulfilling" jobs, while almost nobody thinks managers have easy jobs. One respondent clarified, "It can be tough and fulfilling or just tough."
But management isn't an Olympic event where you get a lot of points for degree of difficulty. Too much is riding on managers, and they have to earn the respect they get. Slightly fewer than half of respondents think that the overall management in their organizations is above average, and that number drops to two-fifths when you're asking only non-managers.
Some participants were downright harsh. About 15% said their companies' overall management is either "barely deserving the name ‘management'" or just plain "hopeless," a proportion that rises to 19% among non-manager respondents.
But not all managers are created equal. "Some are very good; some are very bad," stated one participant. Another elaborated, "For most of them, dodging bullets and carrying an extinguisher around is a must. For the successful ones, they anticipate things, plan ahead, work towards goals, and balance multiple tasks at once with ease."
To find out which kind of managers people prefer, i4cp asked participants to choose between easy-going and tough. More than a third (34%) opted for "easy-going" over "tough" (9%), but the majority didn't like either of those two options. Nearly 57% selected "other" and elaborated on their own idea of a preferred manager.
Most people recognize management as a complex process. They want a mix of managerial qualities, with fairness, consistency, balance and flexibility being among the most widely cited characteristics.
In another question, participants were asked to write in one positive word to describe managers. The top answer was "leadership," followed by "supporting" and "mentor." "Motivating," "inspirational" and "responsible" were other top words. Asked to provide a negative word, the main choice was "micro-manage," followed by "controlling," "selfish," and "arrogant."
Given the challenges of the job and the negative feelings people often associate with it, it can be difficult to understand why anyone becomes a manager. To get an idea, i4cp asked current managers why they took their jobs. The number-one answer wasn't about higher compensation or promotion offers - though those play a role. The top-rated answer, by far, was that they want to "make more of a difference in my organization." Two-thirds of managers gave that answer, a figure that rises to 70% in large companies.
This is bound to strike some skeptical non-managers as self-serving, "Oh, sure," they might think, rolling their eyes, "it's all about 'making a difference' rather than about money or power." But I'd say there's a good deal of truth to it. For many people, management is just too hard a job to do without the "fulfilling" part of being able to help the organization or make some other kind of difference in the lives of others.
Still, plenty of people don't want to take on the role of boss. In fact, when non-managers were asked if they wanted to become a manager, fully two-fifths said they didn't. The top reasons were that they think there's no work/life balance, followed by the notion that there's just "too much stress." In write-in answers, one participant said, "It seems to change people for the worse," and another summed up being a manager this way: "thankless job, stressful, between a rock and a hard place - conflicting interests." Some were clearly speaking from experience: "Been there; done that," one noted.
i4cp Recommendation: HR professionals and executives should keep in mind that managers aren't driven solely, or even mostly, by compensation-related matters. What they want is to make a difference. To do this, they need the proper skill sets and enough latitude to do their jobs well.
Yes, plenty of money has been poured into leadership development programs over the years, but organizations need a clear picture of whether managers are receiving the skills they need most. After all, with over half of i4cp respondents saying their overall organizational management is so-so or worse, there seems to be considerable room for improvement.
Managers should be trained, among other things, to provide both support and motivation to those with whom they work. Some of the attributes of so-called "servant leadership" seem to be particularly attractive to employees. By contrast, leaders who seem self-serving or overly controlling are seen in a negative light.
But this makes management sound easier than it is. In the course of day-to-day leadership, things are seldom so clear. The desire to empower can be viewed as indecisiveness, and the desire to hold people accountable can be seen as micro-management. So, managers need real-world experience, proper guidance, and the wisdom to know when they can't please everyone with a decision. Management will always be a tough job, but knowing how to do it well will make it more fulfilling.
So it was reassuring to see a recent i4cp survey - to which there were 675 respondents - showing that most folks agree that being a boss is tough. What wasn't so reassuring is that a lot of employees just aren't impressed by their current management teams.
Overall, six of 10 respondents to the April 2009 survey said that managers tend to have "tough but fulfilling" jobs, while almost nobody thinks managers have easy jobs. One respondent clarified, "It can be tough and fulfilling or just tough."
But management isn't an Olympic event where you get a lot of points for degree of difficulty. Too much is riding on managers, and they have to earn the respect they get. Slightly fewer than half of respondents think that the overall management in their organizations is above average, and that number drops to two-fifths when you're asking only non-managers.
Some participants were downright harsh. About 15% said their companies' overall management is either "barely deserving the name ‘management'" or just plain "hopeless," a proportion that rises to 19% among non-manager respondents.
But not all managers are created equal. "Some are very good; some are very bad," stated one participant. Another elaborated, "For most of them, dodging bullets and carrying an extinguisher around is a must. For the successful ones, they anticipate things, plan ahead, work towards goals, and balance multiple tasks at once with ease."
To find out which kind of managers people prefer, i4cp asked participants to choose between easy-going and tough. More than a third (34%) opted for "easy-going" over "tough" (9%), but the majority didn't like either of those two options. Nearly 57% selected "other" and elaborated on their own idea of a preferred manager.
Most people recognize management as a complex process. They want a mix of managerial qualities, with fairness, consistency, balance and flexibility being among the most widely cited characteristics.
In another question, participants were asked to write in one positive word to describe managers. The top answer was "leadership," followed by "supporting" and "mentor." "Motivating," "inspirational" and "responsible" were other top words. Asked to provide a negative word, the main choice was "micro-manage," followed by "controlling," "selfish," and "arrogant."
Given the challenges of the job and the negative feelings people often associate with it, it can be difficult to understand why anyone becomes a manager. To get an idea, i4cp asked current managers why they took their jobs. The number-one answer wasn't about higher compensation or promotion offers - though those play a role. The top-rated answer, by far, was that they want to "make more of a difference in my organization." Two-thirds of managers gave that answer, a figure that rises to 70% in large companies.
This is bound to strike some skeptical non-managers as self-serving, "Oh, sure," they might think, rolling their eyes, "it's all about 'making a difference' rather than about money or power." But I'd say there's a good deal of truth to it. For many people, management is just too hard a job to do without the "fulfilling" part of being able to help the organization or make some other kind of difference in the lives of others.
Still, plenty of people don't want to take on the role of boss. In fact, when non-managers were asked if they wanted to become a manager, fully two-fifths said they didn't. The top reasons were that they think there's no work/life balance, followed by the notion that there's just "too much stress." In write-in answers, one participant said, "It seems to change people for the worse," and another summed up being a manager this way: "thankless job, stressful, between a rock and a hard place - conflicting interests." Some were clearly speaking from experience: "Been there; done that," one noted.
i4cp Recommendation: HR professionals and executives should keep in mind that managers aren't driven solely, or even mostly, by compensation-related matters. What they want is to make a difference. To do this, they need the proper skill sets and enough latitude to do their jobs well.
Yes, plenty of money has been poured into leadership development programs over the years, but organizations need a clear picture of whether managers are receiving the skills they need most. After all, with over half of i4cp respondents saying their overall organizational management is so-so or worse, there seems to be considerable room for improvement.
Managers should be trained, among other things, to provide both support and motivation to those with whom they work. Some of the attributes of so-called "servant leadership" seem to be particularly attractive to employees. By contrast, leaders who seem self-serving or overly controlling are seen in a negative light.
But this makes management sound easier than it is. In the course of day-to-day leadership, things are seldom so clear. The desire to empower can be viewed as indecisiveness, and the desire to hold people accountable can be seen as micro-management. So, managers need real-world experience, proper guidance, and the wisdom to know when they can't please everyone with a decision. Management will always be a tough job, but knowing how to do it well will make it more fulfilling.