There’s an old saying in business: If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it. When it comes to improving the effectiveness of an organization’s managers, many companies struggle to distinguish the good, the bad and the ugly. After all, how do you objectively assess a manager’s ability to “get to know their people” or “have difficult conversations?” These are big concepts that don’t lend themselves to convenient metrics, but they’re essential to effective management.
A universal and urgent challenge.
It doesn’t matter how big or small your organization is, what industry you’re in or at what stage of growth. The difficulty of assessing manager competence is universal. According to recent data from Wakefield Research and Grovo, 84 percent of middle managers believe their company needs a better way to evaluate manager ability.
This is especially relevant in today’s talent-centric economy. As the health of our organizations becomes increasingly dependent on the engagement of our workforce, it’s clear we need more reliable ways to assess how managers impact the day-to-day working conditions of our people.
The problem with employee surveys.
That’s not to say companies aren’t trying to address the problem. It’s common practice to collect qualitative data on a manager’s performance by surveying their direct reports. While this is helpful, the feedback is too subjective to reliably compare one manager’s performance with his or her fellow managers at scale.
Plus, while most organizations give managers training or learning resources that provide general guidance, it’s impossible to tell which techniques and tactics each manager is actually using on the job — and how well.
Bad management, big price tag.
With no clear benchmark for what constitutes good…