Twenty-one years ago, in 2004, my firm, RainmakerThinking, released our landmark study titled, The Undermanagement Epidemic, in which we reported that 9 out of 10 managers were failing to practice the basics of management with their direct reports regularly and consistently, at least once a week. Today, we continue to find widespread undermanagement in organizations of all shapes and sizes in nearly every industry. In The Undermanagement Epidemic Report—20 Year Update, we have determined that the measurable costs of undermanagement are still monumental.
While the dreaded “micromanagement” was a household word, it was extremely rare, and its measurable costs minimal. We found that the term, “micromanagement,” usually was invoked by managers as an excuse for hands-off management (“I wouldn’t want to be a micromanager”) or as a shield wielded by employees who wanted to evade accountability (“Don’t micromanage me”). Most important, we showed that the practices that sometimes looked like “micromanagement” were usually forms of “undermanagement” in disguise—wrongly calibrated direction and feedback for that person with that task at that time, deriving from a failure to practice these five management basics:
- Clear statements of performance requirements and standard operating procedures related to recurring tasks and responsibilities.
- Clear statements of defined parameters, measurable goals, and concrete deadlines for all work assignments for which the direct report will be held accountable.
- Accurate monitoring, evaluation, and documentation of work performance.
- Clear statements of specific feedback on work performance with guidance for improvement.
- Rewards and detriments distributed fairly.
The 8 Fundamentals Back to Better Management
- Get in the habit of managing every day. Stop managing by special occasion! The sweet spot for most well-performing teams is to meet individually with everyone at least once every two weeks. Keep one-on-ones brief, routine, and ask really good questions:
- What do you need from me?
- What is your plan? What steps will you follow?
- How long will each step take?
- Talk like a performance coach. The best coaches may have that special ability to inspire people, but effective coaching is a skill anyone can practice. The #1 thing to practice to become better at coaching as a manager is being specific: Talk about work and performance using describing language, rather than naming language.
3. Take it one person at a time—customize your approach. For each person you manage, answer the following:
- WHO is this person at work?
- WHY do I need to manage this person?
- WHAT do I need to talk about with this person?
- HOW do I need to talk to this person?
- WHEN should I talk to this person?
- WHERE should I talk to this person?
- Make accountability a process, not a slogan. Creating real accountability follows this basic framework:
- Spell out clear expectations. Make sure everyone knows, in no uncertain terms, what is expected of them.
- Define what a good job, bad job, and great job look like. Then there is less room for interpretation on performance down the line.
- Establish next steps or a project plan. Make sure you and your employees are on the same page from the start.
- Tie rewards, and consequences, to the performance expectations you agreed on together.
- Tell people what to do, and, yes, how to do it. If someone is struggling with the work, it is up to the manager to help them! Don’t wait until someone has demonstrated a long track record of failure to start coaching their performance. Jump in when they need you from the start, with whatever level of support makes sense for the employee and the task in question.
- Track performance every step of the way. Once you’ve spent time spelling out expectations and guidelines up front, you only need to be as involved in monitoring performance as is necessary for you to course correct if needed:
- Watch employees work. Spot-check an employee doing their actual work. This works best for jobs such as manufacturing, nursing, or construction.
- Ask for an account. In every one-on-one conversation with every employee, ask for an account of what that person has done since your last conversation.
- Help employees use self-monitoring tools. Work with them to develop checklists or project aids.
- Review work in progress. Ask for early drafts or samples or work, and make sure you review that work in detail.
- Ask around a little. Get opinions from coworkers and other managers.
- Solve small problems before they turn into big ones. If you are engaged with your direct reports in ongoing, consistent one-on-one dialogues, then you already are doing the hardest part of the work necessary to stay on top of small problems. The second step is simply being confident enough to step in and make sure things are on the right track. Most managers would rather not engage in difficult conversations or confrontations with employees. The problem is that if you don’t have some difficult conversations early on, you are guaranteed to have tougher ones in the future.
- Do more for some people and less for others based on performance. Don’t buy into the myth that fairness means treating everyone the same, regardless of their performance. You have limited resources with which to reward people, so do more for the people who are giving you their absolute best. Of course, the key is that you are providing the sufficient guidance, direction, support, and coaching necessary for everyone on your team to have opportunities to earn what they truly deserve.
Differential rewards only work if you adopt the philosophy of Control, Timing, and Customization:
- Put people in control of their own rewards by spelling out exactly what they must do to earn them.
- The closer in proximity the reward is to the performance in question, the more powerful the reward will be.
- The more you are able to identify non-financial rewards that matter to each individual employee, the greater a value proposition you can make to them in exchange for their best performance.
Download the report and learn more at:
rainmakerthinking.com/white-paper/the-undermanagement-epidemic-report
