Growing managers

Today we are seeing middle management well, let's be honest, every management layer shrinking away, leaving certain responsibilities unfilled. There's the coaching and training of front-line staff, reporting and analysis to be done and good old-fashioned motivation and cheer to be spread about. These now vacated duties commonly fall to the top performers at the staff level by default in companies large and small.

While your best performers often have solid skills and are highly motivated to succeed, many have never been afforded the chance to develop good management techniques. Sometimes these skills can be learned on the job. Other times, de facto managers can cause a major disruption and even wind up costing your company a bundle.

Here are nine core questions you can use to assess a top performer with little or no management experience. Use these as guides to determine if they are ready to lead now or may need some additional training before you turn them loose on the masses.

1. Can this person let go of the daily tactical duties and move to a more strategic role? Many new managers will have a vision of how things can be more productive, but some are truly best suited at being an individual contributor. Newly promoted top performers will ambitiously try to handle their legacy tasks and their new responsibilities at the same time. This is not sustainable and the company will need to understand his or her individual responsibilities must be shifted to the workforce at large in order for them to have the time to manage the team effectively.

2. Do they micromanage? Trusting other people's work habits is a critical step. Can this person lead others without having to know and understand every detail about what their employees are working on? If not, this type of scrutiny may cause other employees to resent the extra supervision and eventually leave the company.

3. Can this person build trust? Some people trust implicitly until there is a reason not to, and others you have to earn their trust through many trials until your record speaks for itself. Newly crowned managers must walk a fine line to develop this critical and yet-hard-to-quantify skill. Trust has to work in both directions. It takes patience, persistence, reassurance and my personal favorite, biting the inside of one's cheek until it bleeds.

4. Are they able to delegate? Successful managers learn how to get things done through others. It seems so simple, just tell Joe, "Go do job X." But Joe likes to know what work is expected of him, why it is important, when it is to be complete, who to check in with along the way, etc. All this seems deceptively easy, but the two-way communication required that make good delegation possible does not come easy. Once the breakdown starts and clarity is lost, this simple little task turns back into a complex management issue for everyone.

5. Teacher/mentor or drill sergeant? Does your top performer embrace the idea of helping others do their jobs better? Do they take time out to share the tips that make them so good at what they do? Do they have the patience to teach others how to do the job well? Managers that have little patience for answering questions or are unwilling to provide details about their answers will quickly find they have few questions being asked. Employees will be reluctant to express a need for help, they will stop challenging assumptions and bringing new ideas to the forefront and the decline of civilization as you know it begins.

6. Can they bring the "A" players? Every top performer knows who the other stars are in the company. Someone always has a unique skill, is faster, stronger, smarter, more accurate, about a certain task or process. New managers can't be intimidated by those skills, but must be able to identify them and harness them for the good of the company. By doing so, a good manager can now engage the subject matter experts from any area for their input and see how that fits into the broader company strategy.

7. Do they have humility? The willingness and ability to admit to mistakes, apologize when you're wrong, and move on gracefully goes a long way to earning team respect. This can be a difficult skill to develop if your manager wasn't naturally blessed with it. Personal pride is often in the way and it is a must have for teams to grow. On my team, I quite formally (and frequently) tell my wife, "I am sorry. You were right, and I was wrong" and then go about my business in my wrongness.

8. Can this manager alter the approach with each direct report, or do they have a one-size-fits-all mentality? Employees all have individual needs and wants and require individualized care in order to bring out the best in them. The best managers hold everyone on the team accountable for their behaviors and results but also understand the unique motivators or each team member.

9. Can you take the time to manage the process? Raising a new manager from scratch is like getting a new puppy. They take time, effort and training. There is encouragement to be given, praise to be showered down and the occasional whack with a newspaper. It is important to remember if you just turn them loose, chances are good they will run around your company barking incessantly at passers by. So give them your time and remember what it was like to want to be good at something new.

Steve Conine is owner of Talent Framework and the Reno office of AccuStaff. Contact him at 322-5004 or conine@accustaff-reno.com.