Should Managers Take All the Blame?

Pamela Brooks is an expert at raising individual, team and organizational awareness.  She helps her clients break away from the ordinary and enhance their performance. Organizations can get stuck in ruts, but I’ve seen Pam change this.  In the 5+ years we’ve known each other, she’s continually demonstrated a gift for implementing meaningful organizational change. ~Dr. Tony Alessandra

Should Managers Take All the Blame?

by Pamela Brooks

I have read several articles lately, like The 10 Things That Mangers Fail At AND The 9 Mistakes That Mangers Do To Make People Quit. It seems that being a manager is not an easy position to be in these days as all of the statistics show that managers are to blame for disengagement, turnover, and not being able to implement change fast enough. I have yet to read an article that instead of pointing a finger at the manager, provides information that can help.

I am working with a company at present that grew by over 60% in 1-years’ time. In looking at most of the regional and general managers from the assessments I use, they are hanging on, surviving if you will. They are human, with all of the change they are just trying to cover their tracks and deal with their own stress. Many can’t find the time or energy to work with those under them like the way they feel they should.  The managers under them feel the same way– only a little bit more– because they are not getting all of the directives they need to manage those under them as well as they could either. Add to this that both levels of managers are human, subject to stress and burnout like the rest of us.

At some point we have to step back and say Hmmmm????

Maybe we need to do more than just point fingers at the managers but find ways to support and help them to appear more authentic and vulnerable to others. Instead of managers needing to have all of the solutions and the ability to be super human, they need to be equipped with a way to empower those around to help themselves as well. For example, I read statistics about how people feel that continued education is important and they complain that their company doesn’t support it or their manager doesn’t support them, so they sit back and do nothing. Last time I checked, we have an amazing tool in the internet at our fingers with information that could surpass our wildest expectations, so why don’t people tap into it on their own? What would it look like if a company allowed for the people in the field to find resources that they found helpful and share them with their fellow employees? Instead of pointing fingers we need to come up with solutions and understand the human element on both sides of these performance issues.

I work with assessments that help managers not only understand themselves better, but also the people they lead. The right assessments can create a language of understanding and create a positive dialogue of interaction that not only makes life easier for the manager, but leaves the subordinate feeling like they are understood and connected. We need to find ways to empower the managers to deal with the pressures of their jobs instead of blaming them for all that goes wrong. Maybe when this happens you will actually find more people willing to step into management positions.  As it is now, who really wants to be in the hot seat?

---

Pamela Brooks founded Cornerstone Consulting over ten years ago, out of her passion for understanding human performance and human performance potential. Her interest in performance started many years earlier as a collegiate athlete and collegiate advisor. She wanted to understand what drives people to succeed and then help them tap their strengths and confront personal obstacles so they could increase their potential for success
Pam is also the Vice President of Education at the Robert S Hartman Institute, where she coordinates their efforts on a global level. Her directive is to increase both the Educational and Research efforts of the Institute and plans on launching new directives to increase the application and teaching of Robert Hartman’s work in Value Judgment, ethics, leadership, World Peace, and the many other applications of Axiology.
Pam was also a member of the team that developed the Assessments 24×7 JUDGMENT Series assessment reports based on Robert S. Hartman’s formal axiology. The goal of that effort was to produce the premier HVP product available anywhere in the world.