The three companies that I examined were Hilton, Salesforce, and Cisco and a common contributing factor for all of their success was effective managers. Effective managers is an underrated and overlooked contributor of employee retention as stated in First, Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently by Buckingham, M. & Coffman. When conducting their research, they found that opinions about the workplace were being formed by the employee’s immediate manager rather than by policies or procedures of the overall company. “We had discovered that the management… was the critical player in building a strong workplace. The manager was the key” (Buckingham, M. & Coffman 22). All of three of these companies had 92% (or higher) of their employees say management is honest and ethical in its business practices. Hilton also had 96% and 98% of employees rating management as approachable and competent respectively. These three companies received such high praise from their employees because they understand the importance of effective managers. These manager results also aligned with what David A. Garvin discovered when deciphering what Google managers do best in his article How Google Sold Its Engineers on Management. Managers from these three companies and Google both express interest in and concern for team member’s success, are good communicators, and empower the team.
I want to be a manager like the ones described by employees from these three companies and from Google. I want to be a manager that empowers the team but does not engage in micromanaging. To do this, I must balance giving freedom with being available for advice. I want to give them space to work independently but also be there to offer construct feedback that helps improve their performance. In order to accomplish this you must earn the trust and respect of your employees and I see this as the most challenging part. You must balancing employee freedom with effective feedback and finding this fine line can be difficult.
Leave a Reply