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.ARE YOU REALLY A GOOD MANAGER?

Robert H. Kent, Ph.D.

Since managing people is about the most important thing a manager does, what would you say if you were asked, "Are you an effective manager of people?" Do you really know? What evidence would you base your opinion on?

Most of us, from supervisors to senior executives think we're pretty effective people managers. We sincerely believe we are doing a good job at directing our employees. After all, we were selected for our position because of our abilities. Or else it's our company, we built it, and surely that proves that we know what we're doing.

But a "halo effect", wherein our strengths can blind us to our weaknesses, and self-delusion typically lead most of us to think we're much better at managing our employees than we are. Even if your company has a valid performance appraisal process, and most don't, whether you manage well or not is more often judged by the opinion of your boss. And many of us don't even have the benefit of a boss. We're it!

What is required is the experienced opinion of those you manage - your employees. It's analogous to customer service. Your boss can't tell you whether your customer service is acceptable. Only the customer can.

When I ask employees how well their boss supervises - does your boss give good clear direction, does he or she give you help and coaching to learn your job - the reply is overwhelmingly negative. The boss is more often described as being indifferent, indecisive, confused and someone who manages by "dropping hints." Not my employees, you say ! Not me !! Well prove it !!!

A reason for this common difference of opinion is that most of us manage a one-way relationship with our employees. We direct, or think we do, and they perform. Rarely do we get feedback from them to tell us if we're effective. That's usually left up to our boss, if we have a boss. But who would know better than our own employees how well we direct them?

Objective feedback about our performance from our employees (and also from our peers) can be invaluable information for self improvement and growth. But it can also be dangerous. Throwing open the doors for "totally honest" performance feedback may entrap employees into saying things we don't care to hear, or things which aren't appropriate, such as personality assessments or critiques on our work activity that the employee is not fully informed about.

The safe way and a very practical way not only to discover how good you are as a manager but also to identify specific ways to improve yourself, is to ask these two questions of your employees (and use these exact words):