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Why Managers Fail

WHILE MANAGER DEVELOPMENT is a critical issue for most organizations, many managers are still unclear as to their role, or do not have the knowledge, skills, or experience required to perform their role effectively. Widespread problems continue to exist in organizations because of a lack of coherent and integrated principles and practices relating to people at work – problems of compensation, layering, organization structure, systems of work, career development, poorly defined role relationships, inadequate leadership, poor planning, and dysfunctional behaviors. People still manage to do their work, but it is not done effectively. Renowned Canadian psychoanalyst and organizational psychologist Elliott Jaques articulated this at the 2002 Mid-Winter Conference of Consulting Psychology Division (XIII) of the American Psychological Association when he said, “The problems resemble back pain. Muscles get knotted up and may hurt and create discomfort, they may de-energize and cut down creativity, but people can still get on with their work, even though not as well as they might have done. So it is with management. People get tied up in psychological knots, and may get hurt and de-energized, but it does not preclude them from getting on with work. The fact that managerial organizations have been as successful as they have is due to the constructiveness and spirit of their people, who enjoy working, enjoy working together, and enjoy work opportunities however limited, and who rise above the shortcomings of organizational structures and managerial processes to make things work.” Jaques goes on to suggest that, even in the best companies, people “are at most 50% to 60% as effective as they could be,” and in public sector organizations less so.

So why does this occur?

The issues often start at the very beginning of a manager’s career. Their managerial journey usually begins by working hard to become a competent specialist. They get promoted to a managerial role or have management accountabilities thrust upon them because they have performed well in a specialist role.

When appointed, they are often underequipped for the managerial role they are given. The knowledge and skills necessary to perform their role have to be gained on the job, over time, and largely through trial and error. Even when trained to be a ‘manager,’ the training is often piecemeal and a mix of models, practices, and theories which individuals struggle to bring together into a meaningful and implementable framework for their managerial work.

To make things worse, their own manager has often been ”developed” under the same process, and the organization’s senior leadership team has failed to provide the required systems of work to support good managerial leadership practice.

The causes of ineffective individual performance may originate in the organization but in the end they are owned by the manager.

Organizational Causes of Poor Performance Effectiveness

There are four causes directly attributable to the organization’s leadership team. These are:

1. Lack of a clear definition of the role of a manager

A. Some organizations do not have a clear and common understanding of the role of a manager. If fact, often senior management have conflicting views of what a manager should know and do. In these circumstances, how can an individual manager understand their role in an organization?

2. Lack of organizational models

A. Some organizations have not identified the knowledge, skills, and behaviors their managers need in order to lead, manage, and develop people effectively. As a result, they do not have standards to establish a benchmark for good practice. Therefore, managers don’t know what standards are required by the organization.

B. Some organizations have identified the individual capabilities required but fail to communicate these to managers. As a result, managers are unaware of what is expected.

C. Some organizations have identified the individual capability requirements and communicate them to managers, but they fail to make sure managers have the required capabilities and deliver them. They assume that managers deliver on those expectations and do not assess each manager against the required criteria to ensure a standard of performance.

3. Lack of systems of work to support managers in their managerial work

A. Managerial work requires the organization to provide effective systems of work to enable managers to be successful, such as recruitment or performance effectiveness systems. Some organizations do not provide these systems for managers, or they are poorly designed or implemented and often not integrated.

4. Lack of role models

A. Managers of new managers may not have the knowledge, skills, and experience required themselves. As they were also developed on the job, they do not have the capability to develop their own direct reporting managers. Even if the manager is effective, they cannot pass on this knowledge to their direct reporting managers because they are unaware of how they have been effective.

Individual Manager Causes of Poor Performance Effectiveness

There are five causes directly attributable to managers themselves. These are:

1. Lack of understanding of the role of a manager, or the knowledge, skills, and experience required

A. Some managers don’t understand the role of the manager, or know what knowledge, skills, and experience are required to lead, manage, and develop people effectively. They do not have a coherent standard to benchmark themselves against.

2. The manager does not value managerial work

A. Valuing the work is about the person’s level of interest, commitment to, and sense of involvement in what they do. To perform at a high standard continuously, a person must value their work. If a manager does not find value, is not interested in, or finds no enjoyment in managing people, they are unlikely to be able to sustain effort over time, or to excel in their role. As managers are often promoted from being a competent specialist, it does not automatically mean they want, or even value, the role of a manager.

3. The manager does not have the mental capacity to solve the complex problems of managerial work

A. In essence, this refers to the manager’s cognitive ability to assimilate data and information, and to exercise sound judgment in the face of ambiguity and uncertainty. It is a critical, threshold condition for fitting a person to a role, and often is lacking when a person is over-promoted. The exercise of judgment becomes more and more important when the facts and figures fall short of obvious solutions, and the increase in variables makes decision-making increasingly difficult.

4. The manager exhibits extremes of temperament

A. The manager may be achieving the required results, but their overall capability to perform a role successfully is overshadowed by one or more negative personal characteristics, and this has never been ”corrected.“ Extremes of behavior may include: chronic problems with interpersonal relationships, aggression, disabling extremes of temperament, or drug or alcohol dependency.

5. Lack of application

A. Managers know what they should be doing, but for various reasons, don’t do it. As a result, people are poorly managed and developed leading to low staff engagement.

The Solution

To overcome these issues, one fully integrated, proven Leadership Framework for people management has been developed. The framework provides a set of principles and practices for effective decision-making, and for diagnosing and correcting managerial leadership and organization issues. It brings clarity of thought and rational understanding to the nature of work, what it is, and how it should be structured, distributed, executed and assured.

The Leadership Framework provides a methodology for the design and deployment of an organizational structure that ensures the right organizational design, with the correct number of managerial layers, with the right work at the right levels, with well-defined accountabilities and authorities to execute business strategies. It enables the design of people management systems to support productive work.

At the framework’s core is a strong manager-employee relationship. This is a two-way, trusting, productive, working relationship focused on achieving business goals with team members working to their full potential.

This Leadership Framework has three interconnected parts with a coherent set of integrated principles and practices.

Leading people specifies actions required of all people who are appointed to managerial roles and are accountable for the output of others. It comprises the minimum and essential requirements of all managers, from “frontline” managers up to and including the CEO/ Managing Director. It is about the day-to-day things managers do to lead and manage their team, such as creating effective roles and filling them with good people, assigning and assessing work and recognizing and rewarding good work.

Leading the organization specifies additional requirements of senior executives and middle management in designing and implementing workplace conditions, such as structures and systems of work that enable and support effective managerial leadership and productive work. Implementing business strategy and building workforce capability are part of this.

Leading yourself is about understanding the manager’s role and how to work with others across the organization to build constructive working relationships.

The framework is underpinned by certain beliefs about people at work, and that work is only enabled when managers provide an environment that allows people to work together, be effective and satisfied with their work while, at the same time, developing their full potential. The beliefs are:

1 People are naturally motivated to work; they are not intrinsically lazy.

2 People are social beings and work is an environment where social interaction is required to achieve business outcomes.

3 Organizations and their employees share a common goal in the need for productive work.

4 The work environment critically influences an individual’s ability to do their best work.

5 Productive work is enabled by systemic trust and fairness, and is reduced by fear.

6 People seek to work at a level in which they can use their capabilities to the fullest.

7 People seek fair differential pay for that work.

What do these beliefs about people at work mean for managers?

People come to work to do the best job they can, but their natural motivation to work and their performance effectiveness is affected by workplace conditions. It is a requirement of managers to set the right workplace conditions or environment to enable people to be productive. Managers do not need to motivate people; a manager’s role is to set the right conditions for productive work.

If the conditions in the workplace are such that they induce fear, people cannot be expected to contribute fully. Therefore, all organizational systems of work must be designed and deployed to induce mutual trust, such as the systemic trust engendered by the employees’ ability to follow established rules, procedures, and custom and practice, and to rely upon others to be truthful and to do as they say. For example, if the performance appraisal system is poorly designed and produces inconsistent outcomes for staff performing at the same level, this can create the perception that the organization does not treat people fairly. This can be expected to diminish feelings of mutual trust.

People want to work at a level where they can use their capabilities to the full. Therefore managers must understand what individual capability is and how it is assessed, and roles must be designed so people are able to use their mental capability to the full.

As work is a social environment where social interaction is required to achieve business outcomes, a clear understanding of the ”social norms” and the ”rules of engagement” is essential.

People effectively contributing in their role expect fair payment for the work they do. This payment is based on a differential pay structure, where progression is possible and determined by individual effectiveness as assessed by the manager. People paid at equitable levels feel satisfied, and pay tends not to be raised as a focusing issue in the workplace.

The concepts of the Leadership Framework are not fuzzy or soft; they provide clear definitions with principles and practices to guide every manager in their day-to-day work, balancing the mind and the heart. At the core of these concepts is a strong manager-employee relationship based on working together to achieve business goals.

The focus of this book is on the 10 things successful managers know and do. These principles comprise some of the key components of leading people and leading yourself. Following these principles and practices ensures that the right people are put in the right roles so that they can realize their full potential, both for their own satisfaction and to contribute fully to the success of the organization.

For employees, this means quality working relationships, high levels of engagement, and meaningful work aligned to their own personal career goals.

For managers, it means strong working relationships, and the achievement of business goals. Unlike other frameworks, as all the principles and concepts are fully integrated and learned, they can be used for role creation, recruitment, talent development, building a team, and much more.

For shareholders, this quality of working relationship will mean higher levels of productivity and business performance. It will enable the organization to build a culture based on trust and fairness. It will provide a common language to solve people management issues and enable cross-organizational alignment. It will provide managers with skills and tools to execute organizational strategy with consistency in leadership practices throughout the organization.

Tips for Getting Started

1 Create a Managerial Leadership Action Planning Log. At the end of each principle, jot down the issues, desired outcomes, next actions, by who, and by when. Update and review the log at the end of each chapter. A Managerial Action Plan template is provided at the back of this book or can be downloaded free from the website below.

2 Read the Introduction to the Leadership Framework. Download it free from the website below.

Additional information available at:www.theleadershipframework.com.au