Are You Overlooking Your Most Competitive Edge?

As managers we don't always know the pressures people face in their private lives. A spouse or partner may lose their job, an already stretched income may no longer fully support domestic outgoings; rising costs of just getting to work without the usual annual increases may start to strain household budgets. The list goes on.

Add to this general doom and gloom stories everywhere you turn, worrying about the potential impact of big political change in your sector and real fears about job security (whatever the corporate message), can play havoc with people's focus and commitment.

One of the things that can start to slip when your days are full and you're rushing from one meeting to the next is dedicated and regular time and space for each person you line manage.

What is the impact on your managers? They are the ones you are relying on to deliver performance.

My business focuses on unleashing the power of line management to help people make sense of their work at an individual level - driving action and performance, engaging people and ensuring that they keep moving forward. For some time now I have been hearing even the most committed and optimistic managers talk about how pressured they and their people are beginning to feel.

Managers Tell me They Worry about:-

1. Organisational demands becoming unachievable.As workloads increase there is no corresponding decrease in expectations of performance. You may be asking yourself how on earth you extract more from people already working to full capacity.

2. Increasing instances of accusations of bullying and harassment, micro-management and related grievances as people resist the proactive pursuit of targets, especially where it has not previously been the norm. If it hasn't happened to you yet you probably know someone affected by this. It is often linked to those expectations described above - how do you get the balance right?

3. Disenchanted, anxious people going off sick and leaving already stretched teams under-resourced or short-handed. Sometimes people just can't cope and the pressure does make them ill. Colleagues having to back-fill and pick up the slack can find their goodwill and sympathy stretched to breaking point. This is where line management can be the most effective practice in calming and supporting people.

4. How to show your best people that their work is valued because you can't afford to lose them to your competitors - but you can't afford to pay more either and may have had to freeze cost of living incremennts. As someone's boss you are the singlest greatest factor in helping people cope with difficult conditions. What you do to build and maintain solid relationships can matter much more than a pay increment.

5. An awareness that line managers have an increasingly significant impact not only on day-to-day results and levels of motivation and engagement, but are also expected to take responsibility for people's wellbeing at work, levels of sickness and absenteeism and encourage opportunities for learning and development.

There is a silver lining here. Think about it.

As services are squeezed and management layers reduced it has to be those managers who are able to show their ability to manage others and get the results who will be most likely to be retained.And, of course, the biggest worry is about how effective they are perceived to be as a manager - not just in terms of reputation or opportunities for promotion, but at the moment the likelihood of losing their job or being asked to re-apply for it under some plan designed to cut costs.

Does all of this look or feel familiar to you? Most of these conversations happen in corridors, during breaks and at the end of meetings when managers mention, quite casually, things that are clearly affecting them in a very personal way. At one level this is very natural and reflects the fact that we are all being encouraged to realise that many aspects of the economy have changed for good, but we don't yet know what this might mean, what may take its place and how it will affect us. The general anxiety is unsettling for everybody and we each need to ponder the impact.

At another level, for some managers, it is noticing that personal integrity and values are feeling more at risk of compromise as management decisions get more challenging. A growing sense of unease that the drive for targets might well be at the expense of quality and standards. Maybe it is even starting to wonder if you are in the right job or organisation but not daring to think about this for too long! A kind of weary ambivalence at both a personal and professional level can easily set in to stay. Warning - this can be infectious!

Part of the solution is to ensure that managers at all levels are fully supported through regular line management, and of course, in turn, everyone else too. It can be very difficult for managers to talk about challenges in an open way without feeling that they are "letting the side down". So, if you haven't looked at the support your line managers need for a while, maybe now is a good time to do so? While you're at it, who's supporting you?


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From someone who really understands the challenges managers face and offers alternative solutions, have a look at this special report The 10 things keeping managers awake at night Fiona Pearson has prepared for you at www.yourmanagementmentor.com