Don't Punish All Of Your Best Workers With The Burden Of Management.

Now, attempt at a sticky title aside, I’m not saying that people management is a burden for everyone. Clearly it’s not.

I am, however, saying it probably is for some people. And some of these people might be people that you’ve promoted to positions of management.

The challenge of managing hybrid teams?

Currently, 70 percent of managers say that they don't feel skilled, trained or confident enough to manage a hybrid workforce. 

We also know that the manager-worker relationships account for 70 percent of the variance in engagement levels within an organisation. It's the key contributing factor - above pay, wellbeing or work location.

It's so important to remember. that such a widespread hybrid working environment is still a relatively new phenomenon. 

If you think back to the early days of lockdown and enforced working from home, it was such a huge upheaval to all of our previously held certainties about work.

In response to that, probably in large part driven by fear and sheer adrenaline, there was such a groundswell of creative, sometimes wacky, sometimes viral solutions to keeping teams connected and engaged. This was hugely intentional.

I'm not saying that the solution to our current engagement problem is to get teams back together for virtual weekly sing-alongs. 

But re-discovering that energy and sense of intent about how we keep our teams engaged would be a wholly positive movement. Once things become normalised, it’s easy to start going through the motions again, where the pandemic had been a huge, slap round the face call to action.

There's now a danger that work is becoming something that people simply log into and log out of at the end of the day. With no intrinsic connection beyond.

All the while, 51 percent of the global workforce are either actively seeking or watching for new jobs. 

So there's a big responsibility for our managers, and we have to ensure that we have the right people in place. 

And for those managers that maybe do see their management duties as a bit of a burden or a distraction from the day job, it’s particularly dangerous. The hybrid working environment provides ample opportunity to hide from these responsibilities.

You're less often physically present with them. Your contact with the team as a whole is likely, most often, virtual.

We’ve heard new managers say stuff like: “Yeah, I was a bit reticent about the promotion - I didn't know whether I wanted to manage people, but you know what, nothing's really changed. I just get on with my job other than a couple of Teams calls, which I lead each week.”

This is not, in any way, intended as a diatribe against managers. More a call to action for organisations responsible for promoting and developing them.

It’s crucial to have a more intentional approach. Organisations have to ensure that they get the right people in positions of management - for the sake of those people and the people that they’ll be managing. 

Managers are effectively the guardians of engagement levels in an organisation - and therefore productivity and high performance.

We need to think about how we reward high performers

It seems that the principle way that we reward great work within our organisations, apart from bonuses, is with promotion. Generally, promotion to positions of management.

Is this the best way for us to be selecting the guardians of our engagement levels? A highly people focused job.

 The transition CAN be rough.

Somebody is recognized for their work because they're very passionate about it and do their job exceptionally well.

Their reward is a promotion to a job that’s all about people development, building high trust relationships and creating an environment that’s safe, collaborative and inspiring. 

Oh, and they don’t get to do the job that they know and love any more. They need to coach others to do it.

This is an entirely different skillset and can be bewildering.

Maybe for some people that move is perfect.

They thrive on the change as it gives them the opportunity to learn and grow where they may have felt they were stagnating.

For others it might not be right and there should be no judgement attached to that. They no longer get to do the thing that really got them out of bed and made them tick. Perhaps people management was never something that they really connected to or felt inclined to do.

Now you could argue that no one's holding a gun to their head. They have every right to turn the promotion down.

But that's quite hard to do because:

1. You're saying no to more money, and let's face it, we could all do with a little bit more money. 

2. It might feel like you're saying that you’re not ambitious. You might worry that after this, your chances to develop and grow with the company are over. 

I really like the distinction that Kim Scott makes between Superstars and Rockstars:

The Superstars

“Superstars” have a steeper career trajectory as they are driven by new challenges, growth and pushing the boundaries. They are probably more suited to being promoted to positions of management. Their voices and presence are probably more easily heard and felt within businesses. Superstars are needed, but it’s not practical to have a business full of them. Otherwise, who’s taking care of the now?

The Rockstars

According to her, the “Rockstars” are the “rocks” of your team. They are reliable, enjoy their work, perform well and aren’t interested in promotion. It’s wrong and judgemental to perceive them as lacking in ambition or drive. They’re crucial for stability. They’re crucial for maintaining excellence and taking care of what is rather than always looking to what next. They help to ground your business.

They are where they want to be. It’s so crucial not to overlook those people or reward them by taking them away from what they do so exceptionally well.

In the process, you start the process of their disengagement. 

And placing them in a central position of responsibility for the engagement of others is a dangerous mistake. 

Disengagement breeds disengagement.

So I'm going to leave you with three key questions that I think answering will massively help in solving this challenge of empowering the right people to manage and engage their teams. I'd love to hear your thoughts:

1. How do we find more creative ways to reward the highest performers in our organisation? For some, promotion to management will be just right. For others, it won't be.

2. How can we be more intentional in working out the criteria we're after for people in positions of management? Managers are so crucial role in ensuring engagement levels and therefore the business's performance.

3. For our managers, how can we create a continued program of support, upskilling and empowerment? So much can be said for the importance of having more meaningful conversations with their team each week. How do we, effectively, coach them to better coach their teams, keeping them engaged?