There's an excellent piece by Carol Hymowitz in the 3/19/07 Wall Street Journal.  The title is "Managers Lose Talent When They Neglect to Coach Their Staffs." As good as this column is, it understates the issues.  Here are some excerpts from the article with comments.

From the article: "A whopping 70% of U.S. employees say they feel either 'not engaged' or 'actively disengaged' at work, according to a recent survey by the Gallup Organization.

Wally's Comment: I don't know about the exact number, but there are a lot of people in companies out there who are just putting in time.  There are others who are downright angry about their jobs.

To put a human face on it, these are the folks who "work to rule," doing the minimum exactly as required, but parking their brains at the door.  Among their ranks are the people who mumble their way through a scripted telephone encounter and pass you off to someone else as soon as possible.  They're the folks who slam down the window on their station when it's break time, even if there's a line of customers waiting.

You can't build a successful business on these folks.  Fortunately, we know what makes the difference.

From the article: "A key differential between a staffer who feels like a valuable part of a company and one who is disengaged is the quality of leadership in their workplace. Most engaged employees work for managers who spend a big chunk of their time helping their subordinates succeed."

Wally's Comment: Not just any "leadership in their workplace."  The leadership that matters is the direct boss. He or she is the single most important influence on productivity and morale.

We should be looking for people to promote who are the people who like helping other people succeed.  In most companies we don't do that.  "Likes helping people" isn't anywhere on the chart.  We'd have a lot more productive and engaged teams if it were.

Once we promote a new manager we have to help him or her develop key supervisory skills.  We have to help them understand that their job involves accomplishing the mission and caring for the people.  Both.

Caring for the people includes protecting them, supporting them, and helping them develop.  If you're the boss, everyone in your team should be better when you leave than they were when you took over. It's part of the job.

From the article: "Many people-focused managers have innate coaching skills or worked for a boss who masterfully mentored them."

Wally's Comment: There are two important points buried in that sentence. 

First, we shouldn't have to get lucky.  If we select new managers and supervisors in part for their ability to help people succeed and if we help those same managers and supervisors develop coaching skills as part of their toolkit, and if we evaluate our managers and supervisors on how they develop their people as well as how well they accomplish the mission, we've got a shot at making great bosses the rule.

It's also hard to overestimate the importance of the first boss a person has.  Some years back I was doing research about quality supervision in a major police department on the west coast.  Of the six sergeants who passed the screen of excellent ratings by boss, peers and subordinates, five had all experienced the same supervisor as their first one on the job. 

After training supervisors for years, I can tell you that this is not a strange aberration.  Supervision and leadership are apprentice trades. You learn them on the job. Your first boss becomes the standard you judge others by and your primary role model.

Suggestions

Select new bosses, in part, because they like to help people develop and succeed.
Make sure your new bosses get training in how to be a boss.
Make sure they understand that they have two jobs: accomplish the mission and care for the people.
Help them continue to learn the trade of being a boss on the job.
Make sure your best bosses work with new people.

Wally Bock has helped people learn to be great bosses for more than a quarter century. His latest book, Performance Talk: The One-on-One Part of Leadership, makes learning key leadership principles almost effortless by teaching through a story and providing lists of resources for further growth.

Click here to find out more about Wally's coaching services.

For weekly tips and resources pointers, check our Wally Bock's Three Star Leadership Letter.

Click here to find out more about having Wally speak to your company or convention.