As the economy has become more challenging and unpredictable, workers are being asked to do more with less. The consequences, of course, are employee disengagement, burnout, and higher turnover. All of which make matters even worse!
These teams are being asked to do more with less by the leaders of the organization. The leaders don’t take these decisions lightly and generally don’t enjoy having to cut head count. Employees know that, but it doesn’t really help the situation.
There is, however, a “hidden” negative consequence to this issue of doing more with less.
The “hidden” negative consequence is the toll it takes on the managers of those teams. The Gallup Organization just released a study examining this issue.
https://www.gallup.com/workplace/349484/state-of-the-global-workplace.aspx
According to the study, the drop in employee engagement cost the world economy $438B in lost productivity in 2024! Gallup says the primary cause was a drop in manager engagement. And as manager engagement drops, so does team engagement, thereby compounding the problem.
The study goes on to say that the manager engagement issue especially affects managers under 35 years of age and female managers. Overall, manager engagement fell from 30% down to 27%. That means that almost ¾ of all managers are not feeling engaged!
What can leaders do to reverse this trend and improve manager engagement?
Provide Training on How to Manage
Most managers are people who were great individual contributors. After all, they’ve proven they know how to get the job done! The reality, however, is that technical competence isn’t enough to be an effective manager. Clearly, a good manager needs – among other things – to be able to oversee their team’s work and provide guidance, properly allocate resources, and help their team deliver quality results on time.
Because many of these skills don’t automatically come with being a good individual contributor, leaders need to train their managers on how to manage others.
Provide Training on How to Coach and Mentor Others
In addition to those skills mentioned above, managers also need to be able to coach and mentor their team members. Developing subordinates doesn’t only make them more valuable, enhance engagement, and increase productivity, but it also makes them more promotable and drives manager engagement.
It is essential that leaders teach managers how to coach and mentor their team members.
Provide Continuing Personal Development
When a manager develops team members it helps improve engagement, productivity and job satisfaction. The same things happen when leaders develop managers.
People don’t want to feel stagnant and/or stuck in their current role. They want to continue to grow, expand their skill set, and prepare for advancement.
If leaders want managers to stay engaged and committed (as opposed to simply being compliant), they need to provide development opportunities for them.
Have an “Open-Door” Policy
The final suggestion for helping managers stay engaged is for leaders to have an open-door policy. In other words, make it comfortable for managers to come to their boss with questions, ideas, and problems without feeling they’ll be criticized or judged.
Having an open-door policy allows both the manager and leader to grow and connect. People want to be heard and respected. Knowing they can come to their boss with questions and/or ideas helps accomplish that.