In our last article we discussed how managers minimize many of the work force challenges that get in the way of business success and profit (The Manager’s Influence on Workplace Challenges). Today we are focusing on how organizations can support their management team in reducing the costs associated with these workforce challenges and ensuring improvement.

Strong working relationships between managers and their staff are essential for having employees perform at their best so your organization can maximize the value and contribution they have to offer.

Here are five key steps owners and senior executives can take to ensure that managers have strong working relationships with their employees.

  1. Leadership Selection and Succession Planning: Having the right leaders in place is critical to your organization’s success and maximizing the performance of employees. Leaders and managers must recognize that their leadership style along with their ability to communicate in ways that cultivate employees’ motivation have tremendous influence on employees’ performance and retention. Ensure that the leaders you select for your management team are people centered and committed to the leadership principles that drive employee success.   
  2. Training and Education: Like employees, managers also need regular development opportunities to acquire new skills and knowledge that will help them lead with a people centred focus. People centered training programs can help managers build trust, bring meaning to work, create rewarding experiences and more.For this training to have a lasting impact, it has to be supported and reinforced well past the training.
  3. Processes and Structure to Support Excellent Performance:  Every employee has a unique set of interests, aspirations, likes and dislikes. The ability of a manager to understand these elements as well as what challenges and pain points employees are facing allows managers to customize a working experience that is rewarding and fulfilling for employees and contributes to improved performance. Conversations with employees that focus not only on work deliverables but also on addressing the employee’s goals and needs will serve any manager well in their efforts to ensure that performance is maximized.
  4. Coaching and Mentoring: Any leader has employees who may be facing issues or challenges. Support through coaching or mentoring can make a big difference in improving managers’ effectiveness. Seasoned, successful leaders or external coaches can act as a sounding board for managers on how to deal with difficult challenges or support practicing the key fundamentals of successful leadership and can help any manager grow to become a better leader.  

Are you managers receiving the necessary support to cultivate highly successful teams? What more can your organization be doing to support managers in maximizing performance?

If you would like stronger support for your managers, contact us! We have many programs specifically designed for improving manager- employee relationships and improving employee performance!

We look forward to hearing from you.

This is a good time to also wish you a wonderful Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year! We will reconnect in January.