Talent Issue? Middle Managers

Here's a lead from a Management-Issues article that caught my attention:

"The focus of many American businesses on nurturing and grooming their top-level talent is masking a growing crisis further down the management scale – with more than half admitting they are suffering from a "critical" shortage of middle managers."

Quite a bit of our client work relates to developing talent, so it really jumped off the page. I'm not surprised at the implied shock value  because headlines are supposed to grab attention. And, the survey quoted was conducted by a talent management firm whose purpose is to drill down and find out what is happening in their specialty area.

That doesn't mean that there isn't something that really needs to be addressed. Bersin & Associates  is a very solid firm and you can read some in-depth resources at their site.

For those with limited time, here are:

Some immediate thoughts

• Part of the answer lies within the opening sentence itself. Corporations have ignored the training and development of supervisors and managers for a number of years now.

• Leadership is more glamorous. Leadership is also more strategic and less results-focused day to day.

• Engagement is about employees and their immediate bosses. Performance? The same. Customer service? There's no one in the executive suite helping customers fall in love with product.

• Flat organizations give the illusion that there aren't as many managers. Not true. Someone is responsible for managing some group of people, regardless of what their new title happens to be. Check your own organization and you'll see that this is true.

• Colleges and universities are graduating thousands upon thousands every year, in all disciplines. They come out of school as raw talent.

What to do?

• If your company has a supervisory/middle-management talent problem, check out whether or not you're enabling them to learn what they're supposed to do and how to do it.

• Shift your focus from what's glamorous to what builds performance.

• If your company is reading and ranting about "Execution," look at where the employees are who have to get it done day in and day out.

• Oh--and when people start learning more and executing successfully as a result of good training and development, they'll most likely be more loyal, more engaged, and more likely to think twice before leaving.

What do you think?

Photo attribution:  people.deas.harvard.edu/.../lecture_4.html

Comments

[Kevin W. Grossman]

Agreed. And I think you're going to see new investment in T&D -- at least in the companies that get it and want to thrive.

[Steve Roesler]

Kevin, let's hope. It's been missing on a concentrated basis for too long now.

[Travis Branzell]

"Corporations have ignored the training and development of supervisors and managers for a number of years now." I completely agree! Many managers don't receive supplemental training. I think they receive much direction from upper management on how to manage their subordinates, but receive little direction or training on how to develop their skills as a leader. What’s worse is that many managers in this day and age don’t see that leadership building is important and don’t take the time to seek out the training for themselves if it’s not provided by their company.

“when people start learning more and executing successfully as a result of good training and development, they'll most likely be more loyal, more engaged, and more likely to think twice before leaving.” – I absolutely agree with this, but what’s the solution if you work as a subordinate and you are looking to receive training and development in various aspects and your manager is reluctant to provide you with the adequate training?

I had a manager once tell me that I wasn’t qualified to perform a specific task and that I should leave it up to him to complete the task. I remember thinking to myself “I’ll never be qualified unless I give it a shot and learn from the experience.” So I took it upon myself, in my personal time, to train myself on how to perform the task without my manager’s approval and submitted it to him for review. He acknowledged that I had performed the task successfully. The point I’m trying to make is that you shouldn’t let someone tell you what you are or aren’t qualified to do. If you aren’t qualified to perform a task and your supervisors are reluctant to assist you or train you on how to perform a task, then take it upon yourself to learn how to perform the task. If the system you are in doesn’t provide training and development that may be of interest to you, go out and get that training yourself. Don’t wait for that day that there is a change in the system where it promotes training, development, and learning.

[John Jorgensen]

Steve, spot on. Many organizations I have worked for and with have spent tons of cash and effort on executive search/development and not near enough on the group that directly affects their product or service.

Excellent post.

[Frode H]

Got me thinking... I find an interesting dilemma popping into my mind. You want to grow talent and build new leaders, what if you the company don't have any openings...Then you might build someone into a dead end?

Another problem is this, middle managers are often recruited within the staff and are often people that shows leadership talent, but have no leadership experience. And companies that provide less, little or no leadership training might end up with disaster people creating a crap work environment, as one leader after another fall into the samme pits.

There is a wide open market in coaching and training first time promoters, people that will lead other people for the first time.

[Wally Bock]

Congratulations! This post was selected as one of the five best independent business blog posts of the week in my Three Star Leadership Midweek Review of the Business Blogs.

http://blog.threestarleadership.com/2010/03/24/32410-midweek-look-at-the-independent-business-blogs.aspx

Wally Bock

[Steve Roesler]

Travis,

I'm going to use your strategy in a future post.

The situation you described is, unfortunately, more common than is healthy for corporations. The solution that you chose is the one others are discovering as well: I'll teach myself.

The outcome of that approach is that individuals are learning just how much they really can learn and then feeling confident to shop their resumes elsewhere.

[Steve Roesler]

John,

Well stated. I continually wonder why any organization would ignore the product/service training that will ultimately make the customer satisfied.

Baffling, eh?

[Steve Roesler]

Frode,

You touch on two very real situations.

a. If there is no room for promotion because of circumstances, there is room to grow people for the future through job rotation and "sideways" development in other areas of the company. This is consistently being done by organizations who have intentional, strategic talent management processes.

b. Coaching. The single thing that new, young hires expect from their new boss is coaching. Teaching managers how to coach may be the #1 developmental opportunity with the biggest payoff.

Thanks for weighing in on that one.