I had a conversation this morning with one of my clients, who has become more of a friend, and she reminded me of something that has always really frustrated me. It is also one of least discussed things in management development – managerial courage!
I know that there are several coaches that support development when it comes to managers… there are countless courses, webinars, books and blogs about how to help support the development of new and existing managers. The premise behind many of the development tools is the understanding that many managers get to their positions because they were excellent operators in their field and get promoted into management roles because of this excellence. But managing people, departments, budgets and senior level expectations is very different from managing oneself. So it is understood that managers often need the development support and tools to navigate this transition. Hence, the proliferation of books and blogs, webinars and workshops to help people get the training and tools they need.
But what about managerial courage? Back to the conversation I had this morning with my colleague. She described an incident she recently had with a group of peers where one of the people in the group had been let go from a position she had had for many years. Even though the termination was more then a year ago, it was clear, at least to my friend, that she still harbored a great deal of resentment over the entire incident. It seems that the woman had very little understanding for why she was let go. Her annual reviews were stellar, she continued to get promoted throughout the years and she got only good verbal feedback from those to which she reported.
From my experience, there obviously was something wrong. Unless you are downsized due to a loss in business or a closure of a department or office, no one is let go for no reason at all. Now this leads me to think about what must have happened throughout the years and while I have no way of validating this hypothesis, it does lead me to one of the greatest pet peeves I have in operating within a senior leadership environment.
I can imagine that along the way, this woman’s managers were never really given the training in how to give people feedback that is real, direct and clear, without risk of being truly offensive and without the crazy ‘feedback sandwich’ tips and tricks we are always given. If she had only known where she was literally falling down in her role, how potentially her communication style was rubbing people the wrong way, or how she was not operating in line with the culture and values of the organization, then she would at least have some closure and at most have something to be working on, in her next role.
I first came across the term ‘managerial courage’ from a wonderful senior executive leader in HR, with whom I worked. She challenged the executive team to think long and hard about this because at the end of the day, her department was always faced with the fallout. She provided us several examples of annual reviews for staff, that now; the senior managers in the room wanted her to prepare the paperwork to terminate those employees. No cause was found in those reviews, no reason to look to in order to help the employee understand that because they hadn’t dealt with the offending issues, it was obviously leading to the termination they were now facing and certainly no answers to the inevitable question that the employee would have after their termination meeting… why?
I know that it doesn’t happen only when you’re looking to let someone go, but why not help people in their development, and explain those things that they could work on that would help them succeed and grow, either within the current organization or in their next job.
I’ve always believed that speaking frankly and honestly about what is working and what is not, beyond the practical, with people will always help them grow. Even if its not with the current organization. So why is this so hard to do?
I suppose we all just want to be liked, at least to some extent, but I also believe we all have a tough time saying things that can be seen as critical, especially when its less about delivering on objectives (crossing things off the list) and the softer skills of communication, empathy, team work and spirit.
As our economy is shifting more and more away from manufacturing things and more and more towards the development of ideas, these so called soft skills will need the most honing and managers will need the courage, to face development and deficiencies in this area head on!