What the World’s Great Managers Do Differently

 
“People join companies and leave managers.” – Marcus Buckingham, leader of The Gallup Organization’s 20 year effort to identify the core characteristics of great managers and great workplaces.

Over the course of more than 25 years, Gallup researchers have qualitatively and quantitatively assessed the most salient employee perceptions of management practices. Their researchers have conducted thousands of qualitative focus groups across a wide variety of industries. Gallup researchers have sought to define a core set of statements that measure important perceptions across a wide spectrum of organizations.

The methodology underlying this research has been centered on the study of success. The Gallup Organization has studied productive work groups and productive individuals for more than 25 years. In developing measures of employee perceptions, researchers have focused on the consistently important human resource issues on which managers can develop specific action plans. A set of 13 Core statements evolved from a number of qualitative and quantitative studies of over 80,000 managers in over 400 companies – the largest study of its kind ever undertaken.

Gallup Organization researchers Buckingham and Coffman summarized the 13 Core statements into a set of 12 questions that can be used to measure the strength of a workplace and distinguish strong departments from others, including the core elements needed to attract, focus and retain the most talented and productive employees.

The best managers are those that build a work environment where employees can answer yes to the following 12 statements.

1. I know what is expected of me at work.
2. I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right.
3. At work, I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day.
4. In the last 7 days, I have received recognition or praise for doing good work.
5. My supervisor, or someone at work, seems to care about me as a person.
6. There is someone at work that encourages my development.
7. At work, my opinions seem to count.
8. The mission/purpose of my company makes me feel my job is important.
9. My fellow employees are committed to doing quality work.
10. I have a best friend at work.
11. In the last six months, someone at work has talked to me about my progress.
12. This last year, I have had opportunities at work to learn and grow.

The Gallup study revealed that those companies that reflected positive responses to the 12 questions were more profitable more often, were more productive as business units, retained more employees annually, and satisfied more customers.

Emotional Intelligence: Research from Hay / McBer

Extensive research in the field of emotional intelligence has revealed: for top performers in all jobs, in every field, competence in emotional intelligence was twice as important as purely cognitive abilities. For success at the highest levels, in leadership positions, emotional competence accounts for virtually the entire advantage.

According to research conducted by Hay/McBer, Daniel Goleman, Ph.D. author of Emotional Intelligence and Working With Emotional Intelligence, Richard Boyatzis, Ph.D. and others:

• Emotional Intelligence is found to be twice as important as any other factor in predicting outstanding employee performance, accounting for more than 85% of star performance in top leaders.
• Emotional Intelligence has a major impact on organizational performance, doubling and even tripling productivity, and greatly improving bottom line results.
• Emotional Intelligence can be developed and enhanced through assessment, behavioral training and coaching.

In a well-known study by Richard Boyatzis at Weatherhead School of Management/Case Western Reserve University, of 2000+ executives, middle managers and supervisors from 12 different organizations, it was found that of the 16 abilities that distinguished stars from average performers, all but 2 were emotional competencies. A larger analysis duplicated these results when the distinctive qualities of star performers were examined across 286 organizations. Two-thirds of the staff was in the US and one-half in 20 other countries.

Of 21 generic competencies, all but 3 were based on emotional intelligence. Of the other 3 purely cognitive competencies, 2 were intellectual: analytic skills and conceptual thinking. The third was technical expertise. The vast majority – more than 80% – of general competencies that distinguished superior from average performers depend on emotional intelligence. Lyle Spencer, Jr. at Hay / McBer

These characteristics are defined in terms of behaviors – those thoughts and actions of outstanding performers. Because competencies are behavioral, they can be developed. When emotional intelligence is developed and applied in a manner that manifests as a measurable outcome, it becomes a competence.

Emotional Intelligence Competencies

• Self-awareness
• Self-regulation; self-management of emotions
• Self-motivation
• Empathy; Understanding emotions, needs and perspectives of others
• Relationship management; social skills

“We found that of all the elements affecting bottom-line performance, the importance of the leader’s mood and its attendant behaviors are most surprising. That pair set off a chain reaction: The leader’s mood and behaviors drive the moods and behaviors of everyone else.”

Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, Annie McKee
“Primal Leadership: The Hidden Driver of Great Performance”
Harvard Business Review, Dec 2001