Employee Retention: Confronting Problem Managers

Employee Retention: Confronting Problem Managers
People leave managers, not companies, the saying goes, and many times it s true.

The number one reason employees on all levels of organizations leave for other employers is due to an unsatisfactory work relationship with their immediate boss.

Here are six of the most common behaviors supervisors, managers, and executives use that increase employee turnover:

1. Refusing to listen to concerns.

2. Not understanding the needs and expectations their direct reports have of them and in their jobs in order to work effectively and comfortably.

3. Making unrealistic demands, including work schedules that negatively impact work life balance.

4. Not recognizing and praising good performance.

5. Not helping direct reports learn new skills and develop their careers.

6. Being abrasive in what they say, and how they say it.

There are other reasons for employee turnover of course, but all of these are detrimental, and it s not unusual for difficult managers to be using several of them.

Why Organizations Don t Directly Confront Harmful Behaviors

You d think any organization would move quickly to put an end to such behaviors and their harmful consequences, yet there are several reasons some managements hesitate to take action.

The offending manager may be a charter employee or partner of the company; s/he is a member of the family who owns the company; past efforts to improve their behavior have failed; management doesn t realize the costs of their actions including turnover; management mistakenly sees employee turnover simply as a cost of doing business; or the manager otherwise has a good track record, especially in terms of getting things done.

Avoid These Common Mistakes and Ineffective Strategies

One of the biggest mistakes managements make is waiting until displeasure with the manager reaches a breaking point when confronting them becomes less threatening or unpleasant than tolerating their behavior.

There are two problems with waiting: one, it sends the message that non productive behaviors are acceptable since they haven t been challenged, and two, you re much more likely to have an emotionally charged confrontation, making progress much more difficult.

Among the least effective strategies is to send the manager to training seminars about team building or conflict resolution skills hoping they ll see their difficult behaviors on their own, and make needed changes. This rarely happens.

A second ineffective strategy is sending managers and their group or department to training thinking they ll make a transformation together. Doing so usually requires a skilled facilitator. Plus, while most training sessions deliver knowledge and skills, they re usually not directly applied to participant situations that s something we all hope will happen later. Sometimes it does; often, it does not.

Both of these strategies avoid working directly with the manager, typically allowing problem behaviors to continue.

A third ineffective strategy is threatening to fire the manager or executive without first giving them an opportunity to hear concerns about their behaviors and a means to resolve them.

Is your management fully aware of the person s behavior and its negative impact and costs? If not, request that a meeting be held to review them.

Meeting Purpose

Top managers need to plan out a meeting in advance to describe the manager s behaviors and their impact in a non blaming, non accusing way.

The meeting s purpose is not to criticize or condemn them, but to make them aware of how their behaviors hinder the organization in meeting its objectives, and retaining valuable employees and customers.

Some organizations delay or avoid holding such meetings because they fear the manager will become angry and defensive, or may quit as a result.

However, there?s a solution to this that?s successful most of the time.

How to Greatly Defuse Potential Anger and Defensiveness

You can greatly reduce the likelihood of their becoming angry or quitting by packaging concerns about their behaviors with a viable and mutually beneficial solution that?ll help them make improvements and save face.

That?s the key: concerns stated firmly but politely, and instantly followed with a solution.

This accomplishes two valuable things:

1) It demonstrates to the manager that the organization s purpose is to help improve and retain them, not criticize or dump on them.

2) It puts immediate focus on a solution and how to move forward.

Some managers will still become angry and defensive, believing they re being unfairly criticized no matter what, but many, if not most, will want to focus on the solution.

Replacing the manager is often not the best option if they can alter their behaviors or working style.

Replacement costs for most supervisors and managers range from 150 to 200 of their annual salaries; others, including IT specialists, engineers, top salespeople, and some executives cost as much as 200 to 400 of annual salaries to replace.

With skillful guidance and corrective feedback, many managers are capable of making needed changes.

One option to help them do so is to use an internal facilitator provided they have sufficient skills, and if both management and the manager believe their interests will be represented fairly.

External facilitators have the added advantage of more objectivity; they can better offer confidentiality; and they have no internal loyalties or emotional investment. They can be a strong part of your talent management and employee retention strategies.

The time and dollars to coach managers and executives with poor people skills is far less costly than replacing them; knowing how to wisely and effectively confront them will help you do so, and avoid costly manager and employee turnover.


employee retention, employee turnover, talent management, employee retention strategies,
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