If you keep up with our monthly blogs and newsletters, you may have noticed how often we cite this finding from a Gallup report: There’s a 70% variance between a strong company culture and a lousy one. We love sharing this statistic because it highlights how important your leadership team is to building and growing your business.
After all, managers and supervisors are the driving force behind company culture. When leaders know how to communicate clearly, give meaningful feedback, hold workers accountable in a positive (not punitive) way, and recognize employees for a job well done, the whole organization benefits. Research shows that when organizations are intentional about culture and leadership, profitability jumps by 21%.
The key word here (besides “profitability”) is “intentional.” When you decide to invest in the talents and skills of your managers and supervisors, it boosts morale, productivity, and retention across the entire company—and gives you a leg up on the competition, too.
In the five posts below, we share some of our proven strategies for building a strong leadership team. If you’d like to learn about our customized leadership training and development programs (in-person or virtual), email us to schedule a free call.
Hire right—right off the bat
Today’s grain packer might be tomorrow’s manager, so it sure pays to be able to assess if someone’s right for the job and a fit for your company before they’re on the payroll. (Don’t forget, the cost of making a bad hire is a whopping $15,000.) Our advice? Use the interview session to ask behavioral-based questions. In this post, we explain what behavioral-based questions are and why they work.
Learn how to give meaningful, actionable feedback
For most managers, giving feedback isn’t easy. Who wants to risk upsetting someone and dealing with lingering resentment? Fortunately, leaders can learn how to give effective, meaningful feedback that makes people feel motivated, inspired, and aligned with the company’s expectations and values. In this post, you’ll discover how to use a simple three-part framework for performance management we call BIT: Behavior. Impact. Tomorrow.
Focus on 5 key goals
Every manager or supervisor will do their job better if they’ve had hands-on skills training and leadership development. In our 30+ collective years as HR consultants, we’ve seen languishing teams transform when leaders focus on key goals like building relationships, creating a culture of accountability, and motivating employees. Read this post to discover two more game-changing leadership priorities and learn how to integrate all these goals into your evolving management style.
Choose your words carefully
Great managers tend to be great communicators, which helps them set expectations, ask questions, listen carefully, and share feedback in ways that inspire employees to do and be their best. In this post, we share a “cheat sheet” of 10 key phrases designed to help managers communicate clearly with employees no matter how crazy things are on the floor or in the field.
Remember to recognize leaders, too
During HR Assessments with clients, we often discover that managers aren’t sure about the value of their own workplace contributions. Why? Because no one’s told them! Working in a feedback vacuum is demoralizing and can undermine morale, commitment, and productivity. In this post, we share why—and how—to recognize your valued managers and stellar employees.
Ready to get your management team in tip-top shape? Need help with leadership training and development? We can help. Email us to learn more about our customized training programs and HR assessments.
