The Manager Experience is Employee Experience Too

We’ve talked about the central importance of the manager in the employee experience, but it’s equally important to emphasize the manager experience as part of the overall employee journey. Managers have their own unique interactions and perceptions with your organization, and they impact the way they manage themselves and their team. Managers are your messengers, your agents of change, your force for stability and productivity. So when it comes to their own experience with the organization, it’s important that you’ve not only built trust with them, but that you’re invested in them. If you want your managers to be strong frontline leaders for you, ask yourself whether you’ve done the following:

• Be transparent and honest about where the business is going. If you want your managers to follow you through the fire of building a wildly successful business, they have to know the journey you’re on. Be up front about the state of the business and the goals ahead. Trust that they’ll carry the message of growth and success.

• Invest in their growth as a manager and leader. Leadership development should be an ongoing initiative for growing organizations. Managers and leaders always need to learn new ways of fulfilling their critical role because the workforce is ever-changing. In particular, managing diverse teams continues to stretch managers outside of their traditional role. Equipping managers with the skills necessary to evolve their style and approach is crucial.

• Give them tools for their tool belt. For managers functioning in a player/coach role it’s especially important to continue growing their skills in both tactical execution and strategy. Offering up the space and making the investment in managers building new capabilities makes them more valuable to your organization as they wear the many hats their role demands.

• Encourage time off to decompress and center. Burnout is real and there’s a multitude of research suggesting that today’s work environments are more stressful than ever with technology keeping us on and available constantly. Stress is visible to those around an individual and can bleed over into interactions and communications and can cloud judgement. Encouraging your managers to find a sustainable work-life blend will pay dividends in healthy performance.

• Coach them to be the best version of themselves. As the supervisor of a manager, your role is to support the individual, remove barriers to their success, and continue coaching them through the challenges that inevitably come with being a people manager. It’s important to acknowledge that coaching is a central facet of your role as managers often look to their supervisors to fulfill the role of mentor and advisor.

Your people managers are central to the success of your business and ensuring their overall experience with the organization is positive is critical. When your manager experience is flawed, the culture of the organization suffers and so does performance. Being honest about the direction of the company helps ensure your managers are signed on for the journey. Additionally, investing in building their managerial skills and growth in their vocation drives loyalty and higher performance. Balancing the hectic nature of building a business with some down time mitigates the risk of burnout and disengagement. Finally, coaching your people managers and focusing on their strengths promotes confidence. We can’t wait to see your managers at their best!

About Peoplelogic.ai 

Peoplelogic.ai gives managers actionable recommendations and insights that help spot and correct problems on your team and between the other teams you work with, before you miss your goals. Get started for free.