KEY CHALLENGES OF MIDDLE MANAGERS

Transcription

1 KEY CHALLENGES OF MIDDLE MANAGERS REPORT JULY 2012 LEADERSHIPHQ

2 CONTENTS Key Challenges of Middle Managers 1. ABOUT LEADERSHIPHQ EXECUTIVE SUMMARY EXPERTS CONSULTED INTRODUCTION ROLE INDUSTRY LOCATION ORGANISATION SIZE WHAT ARE YOUR TOP 2-3 PRIORITIES IN YOUR ROLE IN 2012? WHAT ARE YOUR TOP 2-3 PRIORITIES FOR YOUR ORGANISATION IN 2012? WHAT IS THE TOP PRIORITY FOR YOUR MIDDLE MANAGERS FOR 2012? WHAT ARE YOUR BIGGEST MIDDLE MANAGEMENT ISSUES FOR 2012? DO YOU HAVE A RETENTION AND DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY IN PLACE FOR YOUR MIDDLE MANAGERS? TO WHAT DEGREE IS MIDDLE MANAGEMENT DEVELOPMENT A PRIORITY? DO YOU HAVE A SUCCESSION PLAN IN PLACE FOR YOUR MIDDLE MANAGERS? DO YOU HAVE A DEVELOPMENT PLAN IN PLACE FOR YOUR MIDDLE MANAGERS? IF YOU DO HAVE A DEVELOPMENT PLAN IN PLACE FOR YOUR MIDDLE MANAGERS, PLEASE SPECIFY: WHAT ARE 2-3 IMPROVEMENTS NEEDED FOR MIDDLE MANAGEMENT SPACE? HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO ADDRESS THESE CHALLENGES AND PRIORITIES IN YOUR ROLE? Copyright LeadershipHQ info@leadershiphq.com.au Page 1

3 1. ABOUT LEADERSHIPHQ At LeadershipHQ, we partner with organisations and leaders in the industry to consult and deliver best practice, cutting edge and innovative solutions and strategies in leadership and talent effectiveness! LeadershipHQ uses recent developments in Neuroscience to improve leadership and talent outcomes at both the individual and organisational level with a focus on engagement and retention. By giving you insight into the way your brain works, your thinking, your attitudes and values, we give you the tools to take control of your decisions and improving leadership and making employees become more engaged and motivated and ultimately improving organisational performance. Our purpose is to work with emerging and middle managers in relation to developing and growing their leadership and management effectiveness; providing them with the tools and strategies to enhance their team s engagement, synergy, commitment and motivation. In turn, building on their overall capability to drive for results, increase retention and performance! LeadershipHQ focuses on: Organisational Effectiveness Leadership Effectiveness Talent Effectiveness Team Effectiveness Effectiveness Coaching About the Author Sonia McDonald, Director, LeadershipHQ has over 20 years human resource management and organisational development experience. She has held senior roles in organisational development, learning and development, strategic recruitment and talent management fields. Sonia s work at LeadershipHQ is focused on delivering customised programs and interventions to ensure your unique business and people requirements are met. She is passionate about cutting edge research in her industry as well as innovative tools and strategies around Leadership, Organisational Development, Executive Search and Talent Management. A regular speaker and blogger on Leadership and Talent, she is focused on cutting edge trends and research in particular the Neuroscience of Leadership. Copyright LeadershipHQ info@leadershiphq.com.au Page 2

4 2. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Thank you for reading this report and our findings. This report came about through my work and research around leadership and talent, and what I was seeing in the industry is a gap in the middle management space. We seem to be focusing on leaders in our organizations as well as how we attract and retain talent, which is a core part of our roles and much of our research and work is based around these areas. What are we doing for our middle managers How are we attracting, retaining and developing our middle managers our emerging leaders? Are we conscious of their challenges and motivators? Where do our priorities lie in our business and in our roles? We surveyed and interviewed 50 respondents around the globe predominately in Australia with most of our respondents working in the construction and engineering industries. What came out of this research was the fact we are conscious of the middle management space and their challenges and ultimately it is a very important part of our role and organization. Some key findings included: o o o o o o o Building Middle Management Capability Leadership Development Retention and Engagement Talent Management and Succession Planning Resilience 60% of respondents do not have a succession plan in place for middle managers 40% respondents do have a retention and development strategy in place for middle managers We challenge you to reflect and question yourself and what you are doing in your organization to make a difference in relation to these challenges faced by your middle managers and organization. We welcome any insight or feedback to this report please us at inof@leadershiphq.com.au Copyright LeadershipHQ info@leadershiphq.com.au Page 3

5 3. EXPERTS CONSULTED We must make mention of the following people for their contribution to this survey and report: Bill Andrews General Manager Organisational Development SEQ Water Jan Pacas Managing Director Hilti Tony Wiggins - Team Leader Special Projects Queensland Health Steve Riddle - Owner & Consultant at CoachStation Adam Lawton - HR Manager - Worley Parsons Global 4. INTRODUCTION Middle Managers are one of the key components when it comes to driving and facilitating your organisation s culture, change or strategy. As such, it is very important to attract, develop and retain Middle Managers, and organisations are becoming increasingly aware of this. The purpose of this research was to discover and share the key challenges Middle Managers face in the current environment. LeadershipHQ is a leading consulting organisation that focuses on the leadership and talent arena, particularly for emerging and middle managers and leaders. Copyright LeadershipHQ info@leadershiphq.com.au Page 4

6 5. ROLE The most common role of those surveyed was a HR Director/Manager, followed by other which included a range of roles, such as Community Stakeholder Manager, Engineering Manager, Section Head, Project Manager, Team Leader, Organisational Development/Organisational Change Consultant, Change Manager, and Senior Estimator. These were followed on by Consultants, Department Heads, General Managers and HR advisor. Interestingly, no CEOs or CFOs completed the survey. Figure 1 Copyright LeadershipHQ info@leadershiphq.com.au Page 5

7 6. INDUSTRY The overriding industry here was definitely engineering and construction, followed by public sector. See the details in Figure 2 below for more detailed information about the industries surveyed. Figure 2 Copyright LeadershipHQ info@leadershiphq.com.au Page 6

8 7. LOCATION As expected, most respondents were from Australia, with a small portion from North America, Asia and Europe. See Figure 3 for more information on the location of those surveyed. Figure 3 Copyright LeadershipHQ info@leadershiphq.com.au Page 7

9 8. ORGANISATION SIZE Predominately the organisation size of those who took the survey was over 500 employees. See Figure 4 overleaf for more information. Figure 4 Copyright LeadershipHQ info@leadershiphq.com.au Page 8

10 9. WHAT ARE YOUR TOP 2-3 PRIORITIES IN YOUR ROLE IN 2012? We received extensive and varied responses to this question. There was an overwhelming focus in your roles in leadership development, talent attraction and retention and change management initiatives. The role of leader is now more than ever more, focused on transformational and business partnering relationships within the business with an emphasis on building and retaining management capability. Outcomes: Internal relationships with key stakeholders business partnering to provide solutions in step with business flow/direction Improve productivity through more efficient on-the-job skills training Learning and development delivery in terms of leadership development and supporting capability development for the L&D function People, project delivery, cash Complete and close out all outstanding community concerns on the construction Project Building manager capability as well as embedding HR processes and systems Keeping top talent, attracting new high quality talent and building a good workforce planning tool Attraction of key talent, Retention, engagement and development of key talent Implement revised WHS management system changes - following harmonisation and self-insurance Keep customer service focus and top of mind in times of lean resources, focus on driving appropriate attitudes and behaviours Resourcing Capability of people to deliver - technical and experience Keeping top talent, attracting new high quality talent and building a good workforce planning tool Reduce labour costs Rebalance our workforce to help achieve reduced labour costs Growth in service delivery as well as front line capability development Change Management, Organisational Efficiency and Effectiveness as well as Talent Acquisition and Management Prepare my team for change with relocating back to their home organisations Staff resourcing - Forward planning and Business improvement Leadership Development, Compliance Training and E-Learning Change management, Employee engagement and Recognition Talent and Succession Management Staff Development Pathways Retention Strategies Reduced resources, manage functions with less resources, through improved efficiencies or processes Increase turnover, Increase margin. Grow business in terms of range of service and personnel available Copyright LeadershipHQ info@leadershiphq.com.au Page 9

11 Development and implementation of innovative information dissemination solutions. Deliver outcomes in tight fiscal environment Retaining staff to project completion. Ensuring staff placements post project completion Performance Management and Leadership Development Deliver efficient and high quality service to customers and build on positive team culture and moral and keep overhead costs down Change Management, Organisational Efficiency and Effectiveness as well as Talent Acquisition and Management Change Compensation Plan and Design Competency-based system as well as Leadership Training for Newly assigned leaders High performance delivery and Opportunity management Translation of strategy in operational from Change Management and Engagement Transition in to new contract period. Grow the exposure of L&D Timely delivery of assigned project. Communication at its best. Team play Delivering project milestones. Accurately reporting project variables. Achieving continued growth and transformation in team members and team Driving change. Building employee capability. Engaging key stakeholders Define and embed the HR Strategy, including defining the investment in line manager and leadership capability development. Get through major downsizing and cost cutting i.e. do more with less and help managers to do the same Implementing change capability within the organization. Supporting and coaching managers in executing change Employee engagement, empowerment and development Work Life Balance, Remuneration, Processes, Governance Talent development plans, diversity awareness and programs, increase capability Copyright LeadershipHQ Page 10

12 WHAT ARE YOUR TOP 2-3 PRIORITIES FOR YOUR ORGANISATION IN 2012? There is a trend under this question around client and service delivery as well as meeting financial objectives. Change management, engagement and culture were also mentioned and how do we manage all off these priorities in our roles. By working on the culture and engagement of our organization and talent, we will see a shift in meeting the objectives around our clients and financial priorities. Outcomes: Maintain and improve service to clients, increase market revenue and increase staff Increase the number of customer visits and the number of units purchased per visit Efficiency, Performance, Leadership and Resilience Growth in service delivery. Budget constraints and moving into a Public Sector Identity Development of my Role within my Organization Development of a "best practice" policy for the industry and based on learnings Strategy development and Leadership Advocacy Customer engagement. Use of technology. Relationships with stakeholders Recruitment and retention Talent and Succession Management Increase turnover and margin Grow business in terms of range of service and personnel available Growth of business through realisation of the change program. Reduce cost and time of doing business Project completion. Winning new projects and setup of new projects Succession planning, Resourcing and Mentoring Achieve our financial objectives in terms of sales, profit and ROC Confirm leadership of the lowest price position in the market in the eyes of our primary customer (mother's of young families) Sales, Growth, Profitability and Efficiency Profitable Growth, Exceeding Plan/Achieving Outlook, Strategy/Development Expansion and consolidation Maintain and improve service to clients, increase market revenue and increase staff Make money. Tackle the challenges of FIFO. Keep staff Keeping top talent and attracting new high quality talent. Winning new projects Organisational performance and productivity Increased competitiveness. Building a performance culture Sustain revenue and reduce costs Lean, efficiencies Delivering projects to clients needs, and as budgeted Copyright LeadershipHQ info@leadershiphq.com.au Page 11

13 Undertake business and information management and transformational change Pursuing new projects and winning tenders to meet sustainable growth. Adapting to new parent organization integration Financial sustainability. Service excellence and People Be the best home builder in Australia (customers). Be the most profitable Home Builder in Australia. Be employer of choice New market Shares Translation of strategy in operational form Change Management and Engagement Operational excellence, customer service, innovation Attraction and Retention. Integration of new business Safety, profit and productivity Business Development and Staffing Reduce costs. Resize the workforce. Deliver on new priorities Meet revenue growth goal. Introduce a new Consulting Business Group Improve Project Management Capabilities Restructuring and Reducing costs Organizational Excellence, Excellent Customer Service, Thriving &Sustainable Business Community Alignment of objectives Transition in to new contract period. Continue to achieve KPI Profitability. Time. Reputation Quality, Inclusion and Stability Organizational Excellence, Excellent Customer Service, Thriving &Sustainable Business Community Copyright LeadershipHQ info@leadershiphq.com.au Page 12

14 10. WHAT IS THE TOP PRIORITY FOR YOUR MIDDLE MANAGERS FOR 2012? We received some common responses and insights around leadership development and management capability as well as managing organisational and project efficiencies and priorities. Safety and strategy were also high on the list of priorities. Outcomes: Whilst keeping the day-to-day milestones ticking over they need to take a future view which includes commercial acumen Ensuring personal and team resilience. Performance leadership and Postrestructure consolidation of and performance objectives Organisational Efficiency. Cross Functional Communication and Effectiveness Transition into their home organisations Show leadership and forward plan and resourcing Organisational Efficiency. Cross Functional Communication and Effectiveness Improving their management skills and keeping the good people Capacity and capability development and building a succession pipeline Reduced resources, manage functions with less resources, through improved efficiencies or processes Stabilise team, man the process and not the problem, get our integrated systems back on track so we are manning the process, not deviating and not causing problems that now cause us to be reactive Mentoring and Leadership development Grow sales and customer transactions Partner with the HR team to reduce labour spend in their Store/State Prepare their team and lead them through continuous change Meeting Service Delivery and development of workforce Staff Engagement, Retention, Development and achieving FY11/12 plan targets Increase productivity within projects Performance, coaching and staff development Change management, employee engagement and staff satisfaction Delivery - on time and on budget Implement revised WHS management system changes - following harmonisation and self-insurance Ensure they manage and exceed client expectations. Assist in growth of the business Deliver on the organisational priorities Finding opportunities to deliver personal and company goals in a changing landscape for projects and roles, with a shift toward regional projects at this time Production Performance Safety productivity engagement Leadership of strategy at the operational level Copyright LeadershipHQ info@leadershiphq.com.au Page 13

15 Resolution of client issues Building employee capability Understanding new regulations Building a cohesive culture Meet financial business goals, program growth, workforce staffing on time, retention To meet their output targets whilst maintaining a positive and rewarding team culture Improve leadership capabilities in order to foster talent growth, achieve results, and build engagement Continue to achieve KPI. Work ON the business, not in the business Time, Quality, Salary Working out what success/good performance is for them and their work units under new leadership and structure Achieving targets and delivering on time Development of self and others Leadership development Alignment of objectives, efficiency Attract and retain the right staff, do more with less, balance process and people priorities Time, Quality, Salary Copyright LeadershipHQ info@leadershiphq.com.au Page 14

16 11. WHAT ARE YOUR BIGGEST MIDDLE MANAGEMENT ISSUES FOR 2012? There is a trend under this question again is around leadership development as well as engagement and retention. Interesting to see that only 40% of respondents have a succession plan in place for their middle managers? Outcomes: Falling into leadership and effectively leading Leadership linked to succession planning Leadership development is very important Turnover and workload Mentoring, Resourcing, Leadership development Gap of leaders in age gap: The high number of high priority items that are currently on the agenda. It's difficult to prioritise them when they are all so important and most have short timeframes for delivery. We run the risk of not implementing some (or all) initiatives sub-optimally Maintaining motivation and closing out issues Dealing with complexity / ambiguity People management and communication Resilience / Stress management Lack of 'people' skills to have difficult conversations Lots of hats to wear. Keep operations going; implement changes to WHS, do more with less; managing negative attitudes in the workplace and keeping team spirits up in a downturn market where we have to be more lean with resources; encourage people to take leave Undocumented client issues Employee skill level, driving culture Making the workplace innovation and change happen Self-awareness - why are you in this role Business supporting middle management transition Other challenges for middle management are - finance, resourcing, driving change, are they ready to lead, senior leadership engagement Balancing short and longer term priorities Doing more/same with less resources Engaging change fatigued teams Working Together as a Team Leadership, Problem Solving/Decision Making Staff Engagement, Retention Development and project delivery, profitability Limited managerial experience FIFO Balancing resources Improving their skills and keeping the quality people Change management, employee resilience Leadership skills development Feedback and authentic conversations They can tend to become blinkers on the task in hand, they need to be able to maintain this delivery focus whilst considering the bigger picture Making the workplace innovation and change happen Copyright LeadershipHQ info@leadershiphq.com.au Page 15

17 change, skills shortages Production, performance Engagement retention, staffing Financial capability Knowing how to get the best out of people who are highly anxious - performance management is an ongoing issue. Doing more with less staff and ensuring they keep capability and capacity - the right people with the right skills through downsizing Working out the impact of reduced budget and new relationships on their areas Dealing with anxiety for themselves and their team Capability of managers to lead their people Disengagement People management capability, business acumen Aptitude, attitude, competence Achieving alignment between individual needs, and organisation needs for behaviour and attitudes in line with our purpose. Breaking down perceived barriers to support efficiency and finding portals to allow dialogue, and then lead positive change for the company Recognition and Reward in terms of Salary hampered due to unstable economic climate in industry (no increases last year and likely limited this year although middle management working harder than ever to support staff through rapidly changing dynamics in workload etc) Improve customer service, Share knowledge between groups/collaborate Incorporate Best Practices Resistance to change Communication and Focus Effective decision making. Talent management Copyright LeadershipHQ info@leadershiphq.com.au Page 16

18 12. DO YOU HAVE A RETENTION AND DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY IN PLACE FOR YOUR MIDDLE MANAGERS? Copyright LeadershipHQ info@leadershiphq.com.au Page 17

19 13. TO WHAT DEGREE IS MIDDLE MANAGEMENT DEVELOPMENT A PRIORITY? Copyright LeadershipHQ info@leadershiphq.com.au Page 18

20 14. DO YOU HAVE A SUCCESSION PLAN IN PLACE FOR YOUR MIDDLE MANAGERS? Copyright LeadershipHQ info@leadershiphq.com.au Page 19

21 15. DO YOU HAVE A DEVELOPMENT PLAN IN PLACE FOR YOUR MIDDLE MANAGERS? Copyright LeadershipHQ info@leadershiphq.com.au Page 20

22 16. IF YOU DO HAVE A DEVELOPMENT PLAN IN PLACE FOR YOUR MIDDLE MANAGERS, PLEASE SPECIFY: Copyright LeadershipHQ info@leadershiphq.com.au Page 21

23 17. WHAT ARE 2-3 IMPROVEMENTS NEEDED FOR MIDDLE MANAGEMENT SPACE? There is a definite trend under this question around leadership development and the skills and competencies for middle managers around leadership; in particular around change, financial capability, delegation, influencing and performance management. We are seeing trends in leadership development being more innovative and customized to suit the culture, values and strategy of the organization as well as the focusing on changing global environments and challenges. Leadership: We currently treat all middle managers in the same way, regardless of their previous experience or education. There's no differentiation on the content that are exposed to, nor the programs that they attend. Our development could be more targeted which would improve the user experience and eliminate wasted development resources. The majority of our programs are conducted in a face to face facilitated environment. We could be improving our delivery options to include more learner lead activities (online, community based forums, library of materials etc.) Managers coming to the realisation that they can't do it all themselves, they need to lead their teams toward success Improving skills particularly in management and recruitment People skills Building employee engagement Having critical conversations Performance management - proactively reinforcing positive behaviours, giving thanks and praise; and immediately addressing poor performance or behaviours in a consultative and motivating style More commercial awareness- "running their own small business" Delegation of tasks The need for middle managers to act on behalf of the organisation (and not just their patch). To engage, lead and be a role model for their teams while managing their own energy levels and engagement Developing skills that ensure process and service efficiencies and enable budgets to shrink Effective performance and resource management that deliver outcomes General Management Skills Leadership, Problem Solving / Decision Making, Critical Thinking Accountability, reward and recognition Ongoing development Deal with priorities Managing change, people skills, leadership skills Skills to effectively manage successful development and performance conversations Client management, business focus, commercial understanding Moving from technical management to adaptive leadership Engaging with stakeholders Frank and fearless interaction with Copyright LeadershipHQ info@leadershiphq.com.au Page 22

24 Embracing continued improvement and a longer term outlook as individuals and as a corporation Leadership development Understanding of clients requirements In our organisation it is shifting our fragmented development model from 'totally devolved to line managers/chaotic L&D' to an integrated enterprise model that embeds a centralised and strategic model of capability development...and then establish accountabilities for that model. We have recently elevated people management in an overhaul of our capability based position descriptions that will flow on to our performance management and development systems. We have never really established 'good performance' in the people management space, typical of many organisations we have elevated technical competence over management and leadership competence for decades. Another issue is that the capabilities required to get to the top are not the capabilities (such as collaboration and knowledge sharing) that we now require so the system is hardwired for different behaviours than what we (say) we need. This impacts the middle manager space in all sorts of mixed messages and tensions that are not talked about or addressed. Each line manager has worked with their favourite consultant with very little accountability and oversight for outcomes so one of the improvements is to measure what matters at an enterprise level and improve our business case and analytics so we know a lot more about our return on investment. Middle managers need to know what good management and leadership looks like as well as what functional excellence looks like from strategic HR/OD managers Managing performance, EI Influence, leadership Improve leadership skills, business development, communication skills Financial capability, Leadership of change Better support for managers through development of company policy for dealing with social media and disgruntled/ negative gossip in public forum Emotional Intelligence Training & Development for ALL staff above and below (especially more inexperienced team leaders) Equip Managers to be more confident to deal with difficult issues such as poor performance or negativity to address and turn things around quickly Improve people skills, - Ability to manage different roles effectively, creative constructive conversations and supportive environments with accountability Building capability to lead their people, focusing more on managing people Delegation, 360 trust, communication Development strategy Manager development programs Better leadership and integrity Better quality conversations with team, having difficult conversations, business acumen Training and skills development Behavioral change Orientation towards organizational goals Managers coming to the realisation that they can't do it all themselves, they need to lead their teams toward success Copyright LeadershipHQ info@leadershiphq.com.au Page 23

25 18. HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO ADDRESS THESE CHALLENGES AND PRIORITIES IN YOUR ROLE? Very Important Top Priority Critical Extremely Important Moderate Significantly With our expected growth management development is imperative Critical - middle managers are the biggest driver of employee engagement and as such need to be up skilled in all aspects of 'people' management and culture building Very important in order to achieve our goals This is one of my top priorities My role has just changed from being a middle manager of an L&D Unit to being a Lead Internal Consultant working across the org to holding the pen on the HR Strategy - all in a few weeks. In my last role it was critical and we got high level agreement that integrated middle manger development was critical but nothing was done. Then the Top team and changed and huge budget cuts hit so it will take time for the dust to settle. I think this area has to emerge as an org priority and I will push it via the strategy. We will address the challenges but we will do it differently With the structure of our business currently, it is important to me, however other initiatives take a greater priority. We are addressing some of these challenges in our training delivery, by focusing more on implementable action rather than knowledge transfer. We are also spending a considerable time working on leadership skills for our Managers. As mentioned above, it's about helping them realise they need to lead their team towards success and not try to do it all alone It is imperative if we wish to sustain a future and allow required adaptation. It will allow us to also achieve momentum and support innovation and positive change as we lead the future for the industry Critical for my role in the organisation and for the development and advancing change management capability and maturity Cornerstone of what I do Critical - middle managers are the biggest driver of employee engagement and as such need to be up skilled in all aspects of 'people' management and culture building Copyright LeadershipHQ info@leadershiphq.com.au Page 24