The manager's apprentice
Continuing the topic I discussed last week: So many of us have had anti-mentors in our past lives. And in my experience, many of the anti-mentors I hear about have been managers and supervisors. It's even been demonstrated that most people who leave a job leave because of poor experiences with their direct supervisor.
So why aren’t there more good supervisors? Why don’t companies (and associations) put everything they have into making sure that the managers supervising their staff are the best they can find?
I’ve often wondered about these questions, so when I came across a post today from the Three-Star Leadership Blog on “Why So Many Managers Do an Awful Job of Management,” I was immediately interested.
The whole post is worth a read, but I’d like to call out two quotes I think are particularly compelling:
“… managers get little to no training in how to be good managers. In most companies it’s sink or swim, figure it out for yourself. Actually it’s worse than that. It’s sink and take your whole team down with you, or swim.”
This just underscores the importance of making sure that no one is put in charge of other employees unless they have the capacity and commitment to be a good manager. It’s not just themselves they’ll impact negatively—it’s every single person that reports to them. And, if any of those people leave, it’s their replacements as well.
“… we think you learn leadership and supervisory skills from a book or a class. Wrong. Very, perniciously wrong. Leadership is an apprentice trade. A manager learns 80 to 90 percent of it on the job. He or she learns by talking with peers and mentors, trying things out, and getting feedback.”
If management is an apprentice trade, let’s find ways to connect new managers with great, experienced managers for one-on-one mentoring. Both within our own organizations—but also within the ASAE & The Center community (especially for small-staff associations that might not have a lot of apprenticing options internally).
And, for even greater impact, we should make those connections in our associations as well. If your members manage people, you could connect newer managers with more experienced managers among your membership to create those mentor/apprentice relationships. How many associations are doing this right now?
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Comments
I heard Peter Senge speak today, and he gave this definition of leadership: a capacity in the human community to shape its future.
Leadership is so much more than supervision or a position of power. Leadership IS inherently a group capacity (as well as an individual one), which is why it makes sense to me that it would be an apprenticeship kind of thing. Although I might challenge that all the wisdom of leadership lies exclusively with the mentor who has been there longer.
Posted by: Jamie Notter | March 9, 2007 4:33 PM
We have a mentoring program at GSAE that connects people together for this purpose, and others as well. I find that the social dynamic in our community is conducive to this format on its own. However the benefit to younger members of the association community is tremendous, particularly for areas where the association field is more predominantly small staff.
Posted by: Samantha Spears, CAE | March 9, 2007 4:43 PM
We definitely do a disservice when we promote people into positoins managing others and don't ensure they have the skills to do so. So often when they don't, they turn to doing what they are confident and competent in ... the jobs of the people they are supposed to be supervising. And thus, the micromanaging cycle is perpetuated yet again.
Posted by: Jeffrey Cufaude | March 9, 2007 5:16 PM
Jamie: You're absolutely right--in a mentor/mentee relationship, the mentor should absolutely be learning from the mentee, as well as vice versa. I know that in any relationship I've had where I took a mentorish role, I learned as much as the other person did.
Samantha: I'd love to learn more about your GSAE mentoring program. Is it all right if I contact you offline?
Jeff: Wow, I'd never thought of it that way ... but I absolutely believe you're right. And that also explains why micromanaging is such a persistent problem ...
Posted by: Lisa Junker | March 10, 2007 8:55 PM
I don't think it's about leadership training, Lisa. I think it's about human nature. Why do we respect and reward "anti-mentors?" Probably for the same reason that we think Simon is the "smart" judge on American Idol. He's the mean guy, that's why.
My hero of sanity and co-author of "The Knowing-Doing Gap," Bob Stoddard has a new book out called "The No A****le Rule." (The book title, of course, doesn't use asterisks but I didn't want this commentary blocked as spam.)
Stoddard makes a much stronger case for solving the "anti-mentor" problem--banishing the abusive boors we all tolerate in the work place. Maybe we need to get a little mean ourselves and clean house.
Posted by: Ann Oliveri | March 12, 2007 10:21 AM
I absolutely agree, Ann--if someone is a jerk, it's unlikely that leadership or management training would make him or her change into a great, supportive manager. That kind of personality shift has to come from inside.
I do think, however, that there are a goodly number of borderline managers out there who wouldn't meet Stoddard's criteria for being an a****le, but still find themselves floundering as new managers. It's those folks who can be helped by training and mentoring.
Posted by: Lisa Junker | March 12, 2007 10:40 AM
I just bought the No You-Know-What book (I'm also a huge fan of the Knowing-Doing gap). For the record, in case you're searching on Amazon, it's Robert SUTTON. :-)
Posted by: Jamie Notter | March 15, 2007 5:00 PM