This post is the first of three Employee-Centric Manager (ECM) posts that our guest contributor, Leslie Minchin, VP of Transformation and Enablement at Engage2Excel, will share. Leslie’s 20 years of Talent Acquisition experience, as well as being a Project Manager Professional and a Certified Executive Coach, gives you someone who understands today's leadership challenges and has worked through them and developed best practices to overcome them. She is passionate about manager development and works closely with Dr. Jack Wiley to facilitate his Employee-Centric Manager training for our clients. Leslie is excited to write about the ECM program, its results, and its effect on the people who participate in the training.
Have you ever thought, “Why are so many people leaving this company?”
A drop in employee engagement is a great starting point for seeking answers. In the book RESPECT by Dr. Jack Wiley and Brenda Kowske, employee engagement is defined as “the extent to which employees are motivated to contribute to organizational success and are willing to apply discretionary effort to accomplishing tasks important to the achievement of organizational goals.” How can we better equip our managers to support their employees in the best way possible and increase employee engagement?
If you could ask employees directly what they want from their manager, wouldn’t that information be helpful to managers? That feedback could help your managers understand how their behavior impacts their team, where they need to improve in supporting their people and small shifts they can make to help their employees feel more fulfilled in their work. Imagine what it could do for your organization.
Here's the good news. Our very own Dr. Jack Wiley, chief scientific officer of Engage2Excel, has asked this question. In fact, he has asked over 80,000 employees across the world what they want from their manager. He even wrote a book on the topic – The Employee-Centric Manager – and identified the eight key attributes (listed below) employees most want from their managers. From the book, he developed the Employee Centric Manager Upward Feedback Survey and Training Program.
- Show support & understanding
- Treat employees with dignity and respect
- Communicate clear performance expectations
- Provide recognition
- Reward performance contributions
- Problem-solving & decision making
- Be fair & just
- Be honest & trustworthy
One interesting fact from Dr. Wiley's research is that managers often overestimate their competence as managers. For example, while the manager thinks they are doing a fantastic job showing their team support and understanding, the team would say otherwise. Why does this matter? Well, if a manager is unaware of how their team would rate their effectiveness as a manager, then that manager has no idea where or how to make improvements. A manager lacking in self-awareness leads to turnover.
The ECM training program provides leaders/managers with the information they need to improve their leadership and become more effective and employee-centric managers. Throughout my training sessions, I have seen participants become more self-aware, gain clarity on what matters most to their employees and identify simple ways to improve as a manager as we take a deeper dive into the data and share insights that can make a lasting difference in their career.
In my next post, I’ll share more insights into the training and what I am seeing from the managers who complete the training.
Interested in learning more about ECM? CLICK HERE for more information!
