Employees paint a picture of their ideal manager
Recent research by the Institute for Employment Studies claims that engaging managers are made, not born, as they learn from their own and others’ mistakes and modify their behaviours accordingly. Great managers are performance-focused and need ready-to-tackle poor and challenging behaviour to engage their teams effectively. However, they still need to show honesty and openness when breaking bad news, if they are to be appreciated by their teams and their own managers.
These are some of the findings of new research undertaken by the Institute for Employment Studies. The Engaging Manager paints a picture of the ideal manager, and builds on previous IES research that proved the critical role line managers have in employee engagement. It was carried out through interviews and focus groups with managers who proved to be engaging through high team engagement scores in their organization’s latest employee survey.
The research focused on behaviours, as these can be learnt and unlearnt, and it provides HR departments with useful information to help create the right environment for managers to do this. Researchers discovered that engaging managers learn through observing others and through self-reflection. They tend not to have a single role model, but adopt the ‘good’ parts of others’ behaviour and discard the ‘bad’.
Dilys Robinson, Principal Research Fellow at the Institute for Employment Studies and one of the report’s authors, comments:
‘The excellent and engaging managers we spoke to have very varied jobs, different spans of control and seniority. But one thing they have in common is how very focused they are on performance. They all manage teams that are known to be high-performing within their organizations, which underlines how important engagement is in difficult times.
‘We asked team members to draw pictures of how they see their managers. Interestingly, several people drew smiling devils, indicating that not all engaging managers toe the company line. The most popular picture of all was of a sun or a smiling face.
‘The drawings gave us insight into engaging managers’ characteristics. The teams value their managers’ strategic vision, interest in them as individuals and fostering of positive team culture. Our engaging managers are challenging and approachable, and have good skills in communicating and listening. Their teams also expect them to be honest and development-focused. But engaging behaviours can be learnt and that’s good news for aspiring managers.’
A classification of engaging and disengaging managers, based on the behaviours described by engaging managers, senior managers and teams, has been created by the researchers.
Engaging managers are:
- high performers
- communicators
- visionary
- empathisers
- developers
- enthusiasts
- protectors
- networkers
- rocks
- brave
- jugglers
- mavericks
Disengaging and poor managers are:
- micro managers
- muddlers
- blamers
- egoistical
- pessimists
Other key findings from the research include:
- Engaging mangers, senior managers and teams all have very clear views about behaviours that are disengaging and therefore to be avoided.
- Disengaging behaviours are: lack of empathy, poor communication and listening skills, being self-centred, failing to inspire, blaming others, aggression, poor delivery record, lack of approachability, lack of integrity, and micro-managing.
- Engaging managers are good and active internal networkers who do not necessarily feel the need to network externally.
- Two-way communication is an essential feature of engaging management.
- Engaging managers have an in-depth knowledge of their organization and how their role fits into the bigger picture, and are able to communicate this effectively to their teams.
Further information
The Engaging Manager, Dilys Robinson, Sue Hayday. IES Report 470, November 2009
The Engaging Manager was completed using interviews with 25 ‘engaging managers’ (identified as having high engagement scores of teams in their last employee survey), 22 ‘senior managers’ (ie people who managed the engaging managers), and focus groups with 25 teams managed by the engaging managers (154 people in all). Seven organizations from a variety of sectors participated in the study.
For further information or comment, contact Dilys Robinson or call +44(0)1273 763 448, or the IES press office, or on 01273 763414.
