This post is the second 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.
In my last post, I mentioned an Employee-Centric Manager Training Program designed by Dr. Jack Wiley, who conducted the research and wrote the book The Employee-Centric Manager. His research indicates that how well a manager demonstrates the eight attributes can predict a manager’s success. Highly successful managers are very skilled in these attributes and are considered to be Employee-Centric Managers.
Hopefully, at this point, you have many questions, like, what are these eight attributes? How can I find out where our managers rank as Employee-Centric Managers? Can a manager improve in these attributes? How can I incorporate ECM training in my organization?
The good thing is that I have had the pleasure of facilitating this workshop alongside Dr. Wiley for over a year. Each session is energizing and rich with the sharing of best practices, new insights, and clarity for managers on the specific steps they will take to improve as leaders for their teams. One of the things that I love about this program is that it is designed to be easily adapted. It's not one of those trainings that people sit through for a day, then forget about the minute they walk out the door.
To prepare for the training, we have each participant complete an Employee-Centric Manager self-evaluation and survey their direct reports to generate an Upward Feedback Report. The survey only takes about 15 minutes to complete, and the data is critical in helping managers know what their employees want and how well they are performing as managers.
The day is spent exploring each of the eight attributes through a series of interactive activities and sharing best practices. Participants leave with a very simple action plan for the one or two things they will focus on to have the biggest impact on their effectiveness as managers.
They have my continued support after the workshop, keeping in touch with quick reminders of the attributes and how to best demonstrate them. I'm even available to hop on a call when they feel stuck once they’re back in their day-to-day routine and that plan suddenly feels a little more complex to implement than they first thought.
I genuinely want to see these managers succeed. When they become a better manager, they can positively impact their team. Their team becomes more engaged. Individual and team performance improves. Organizations can more effectively carry out their mission and better serve their clients without the distractions of a low-performing manager. Our clients are doing fantastic work in the world, and I am honored to help them on their journey to reaching their full potential.
In my next post, I will share more about how ECM training can help your organization’s managers.
