Managers are a staple of nearly every workplace hierarchy. Those who aren’t yet managers are likely aiming to get into the role eventually. Managers hold many different responsibilities and management styles vary greatly. Given that almost 70% of employees are disengaged, according to a Gallup poll, being a manager can be a challenging job.
While some managers receive training before stepping into their new roles, it seems this is rarer than you might think. According to CareerBuilder, over half of the managers in the study reported that they didn’t receive training before commencing their leadership roles. These managers may have been put into their roles because of natural talent or a proven track record of taking ownership and leading others; however, these innate abilities may not equip them for handling all of the challenges that come along with being a team leader.
Managers wear many hats, and this requires them to have a huge range of skills. On any given day, managers may be tasked with:
- Allocating resources
- Identifying issues they can manage versus those that need to be escalated
- Collaborating with other teams
- Communicating with team members
- Addressing performance issues
Interpersonal skills and a zest for leadership will only get managers so far. Proper training is needed to help team leaders appropriately carry out some of their responsibilities. Equipping managers with more advanced skills will benefit everyone in the organization, including the employees working on their teams who are likely to be happier and more engaged with an effective manager. It also benefits other teams in the organization, who can collaborate more effectively to achieve company-wide objectives, as well as the business more broadly.
Where to begin when training managers
Depending on each manager’s existing skillset, different amounts and types of training may be necessary. However, regardless of where the manager is starting from, there’s one area that is, in most cases, easy to address but is guaranteed to have a huge impact: delivering effective feedback to team members.
As it stands, many employees feel uninspired by the feedback that they receive from regular performance reviews. In fact, according to Gallup, only 14% of employees reported that performance review feedback encouraged them to improve at their jobs. This demonstrates the impact – or lack thereof – that poorly-delivered feedback can have. This is a huge missed opportunity for managers to enact real change with their team members and risks decreasing employee engagement, a known risk factor for employee turnover.
Fixing performance problems with effective feedback
The first step in addressing performance problems is identifying them. This requires frequent communication between managers and their team members. This is especially true in remote and hybrid work arrangements, which are increasing in popularity, given that it’s much easier for problems to go under a manager’s radar. In remote settings, managers must work hard to facilitate communication with team members.
Even in traditional workplaces, managers should ensure that their employees have ample opportunity to express confusion, flag up a problem or ask for help. With hectic schedules and different communication styles, it’s very easy for communication to break down even between managers and team members who see each other daily.
Once the problem has been identified, the next step is meeting with the employee to discuss the perceived performance gap, deliver feedback and work together to find an effective and feasible solution. This conversation can be difficult, though, as employees may feel defensive if managers approach the topic in a combative or blaming manner.
Rather than making an employee feel cornered, managers should structure this conversation around the performance they expected to see and what they’re actually seeing. Then, provide the employee an opportunity to explain what may be causing the discrepancy between the expected and perceived performance.
Luckily for managers, there is a useful five-point model that can provide a framework as they deliver feedback to their employees – the CEDAR model. This model is effective in guiding managers through the process of discussing performance problems with employees in a productive, objective, and respectful way. It also leads both managers and team members towards a solution that they agree upon and can review in due time.
To learn the steps of the CEDAR model so you can fix performance problems by delivering effective feedback, contact a ServiceSkills representative today and request a free demo of Delivering Feedback.
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