When an employee quits they

don't quit the company. they quit their boss.

A survey I recently completed

showed half the people quit their previous employer because of their supervisor.

A painful statistic when you consider how difficult it is to find good

people. This is sad when you look at the bottom line and stupid when you

do nothing about.

Managers today walk a thin

line . . .the job is not easy. The responsibilities and demands are more

difficult. People expect more; some are plain difficult to work with.

It should go without saying that those businesses that do a good job selecting,

training and developing their managers will enjoy higher productivity

and lower turnover.

The two go hand in hand. Soft

skills reign supreme and are critical for success. Most businesses do

a miserable job selecting and training their managers.

Many management development

programs focus entirely on technical aspects of the job and not people

skills. Some managers are tyrants and make life miserable for those they

are supposed to lead. Duh! It is people skills that make the difference.

I am sympathetic to the plight

of people who get selected to become new managers. These are good people.

Many are great technicians, but unfortunately are clueless on the art

and science of managing people.

Some are thrown mercilessly

to the wolfs and to no fault of their own succeed or fail, usually the

later. Your odds for success are better with Russian Roulette. To me,

this is shameless and organizations should know better. This is why the

trend is growing for people avoiding becoming supervisors and managers.

At least send these new managers to one of those "shake-and-bake,"

$149 day-long, "How to Become a Good Leader" courses taught

downtown. Which is cheaper? Running off your employees or training new

supervisors?

I went into the Army right

after college. My boss was a great. He was an experienced veteran and

a former Special Forces medic in Vietnam. He was the type of person who

always put the needs of others before his own interests.

I remember pulling duty and

having to stay up all night on New Years Eve. It was early Saturday morning

and I still had several more hours to go before I could go home. A few

hours later, the phone rang.

It was Joe, my boss. He wanted

to know if I had made any plans for lunch. He and his wife had made something

and he wanted to bring it over to me. I don't remember what the food was,

but it was a meal I will never forget. That one small act of kindness

showed me he really cared. That act taught me more about leadership than

all the degrees and diplomas hanging on my wall.

There is an old saying in the

military, "If you take care of your troops, your troops will take

care of you." The point is, management is an 8-5 obligation, but

true leadership is a 24 hour a day responsibility.

There are more managers than

leaders in most businesses today. Here are a few suggestions to consider

in your management development program:

·Have company executives

share their expectations with your managers.

·Allow your employees

to start evaluating their supervisors using a 360-degree evaluation.

·Hold managers accountable

and responsible for retention.

·Have HR train managers

on reward and recognition.

·Provide the support and

tools to help managers do their job.

·Start measuring turnover

and applying the cost to the bottom line.

·Conduct post exit interviews

finding out the real reason for the employee's departure.

·Train managers on how

to be good leaders.

·Reward managers for positive

retention and productivity.

·Conduct an internal climate

assessment at least twice a year.

Free by fax: If you would like

a free report on how to create a motivating work environment, please fax

your name on your letterhead or E-mail us with the words, "Motivate"

to 770-760-0581/[email protected].

Gregory P. Smith is the author

of three books. He shows businesses how to build productive and profitable

work environments that attract, keep and motivate their workforce. He

speaks at conferences, conducts management training and is the President

of a management consulting firm called Chart Your Course International

located in Conyers, Georgia.

Phone him at (770) 860-9464

or send an email at [email protected]. More information, free newsletters

and articles are available at https://www.ChartCourse.com.

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