Survey reveals - managers need to try harder

Leaders lack empathy with their staff, have poor leadership skills and a third of them are ineffective, according to global research, by talent management firm DDI.

Lessons for Leaders from the People Who Matter includes data from an online survey undertaken for DDI by Harris Interactive.
 
This polled more than 1,250 full-time employees in non-management positions in the UK, US, Australia, Canada, China, India, Germany and South East Asia (Malaysia, Philippines and Singapore), and found they would rather suffer a bad hangover, do housework or see their credit card bill arrive in the mail than face the prospect of sitting through a performance discussion with their boss.And only 40% of respondents report that their boss never damages their personal self-esteem, leaving 60% saying they do sometimes, most of the time or always.
 
The report found one in three respondents (34%) only sometimes or never considers their leader to be effective, and over a third (37%) are only sometimes or never motivated to give their best by their leader.
 
The majority of respondents not currently working for the best manager they ever worked for (53%) said they would be 20% to 60% more productive if they were working for their 'best ever' boss, and a quarter (26%) said they would be 41% to 60% more productive. In other words, for every two to three people managed by their 'best ever' leaders, there would be a productivity gain equal to a whole new extra person.

Simon Mitchell, director at DDI UK and one of the report authors, said:

"We wanted to hear how the customers of leaders themselves saw their managers and bosses. These findings should be of enormous concern to any business. They show that leaders are failing in their obligation to employees and, therefore, their organisation. The consequences of managers and bosses with poor leadership skills are enormous, and the impact good leaders have in terms of employee motivation and productivity is significant."

Comparing the results from people with the best and worst managers (based on respondent perceptions), those reporting they felt motivated to give their best leapt from 11% to 98%, and those reporting that their manager does a good job helping them become more productive went from 5% to 94%.

• If you want to improve the way you engage with your staff and learn the skills that will allow you to get positive results out of difficult conversations, book on our one-day ‘Managing Difficult Conversations’ course.