I was recently speaking with an executive who wanted a leadership training class for a particular manager. This manager was having problems dealing with difficult employees and the executive thought the manager's skills in managing people were lacking. I mentioned that experience had shown me that if there was one manager in an organization who needed leadership training, then probably all or at least most managers needed that training as well. The executive responded that I might be right, but they just wanted help for this one who was having difficulty at this time.
Incredible! I see this too often though. Employees are put in management positions, given little or no training in leading people, then get the shining spotlight of executive attention when they struggle. At that point one of two things usually happens. The executive spends the assets necessary to help the struggling manager, (not too much though) or the executive simply removes the manager and picks another victim. These solutions, at best, will only maintain the status quo. They will not help the organization improve.
There's another issue that was evident to me in this conversation and that's those infamous difficult employees. I've found that most of the time, difficult employees are not the problem, but rather a symptom. The real problem is managers who don't know how to lead and get the best from their people. Those difficult employees are often just frustrated that they aren't being used effectively. These people may end up being the most effective people in the company when they are properly led. Each person has a level of need according to Abraham Maslow and their internal motivation is to meet that need. When that need is not met, they become frustrated which manifests itself in different, usually negative ways. When a good leader can recognize these employee's needs and help them satisfy their intrinsic motivation, the result is usually employees that are a great asset to the organization. Yes, there are occasionally genuine bad actors. Sometimes they can be saved but usually not. A good leader will be able to identify and if necessary, remove those employees.
The hesitancy among executives to provide real leadership training usually resolves around cost. Consider this though. What is the cost of employing people and not taking advantage of the total of what they can contribute? That's a little difficult to determine of course. What might be a little easier to see is the cost of genuine bad actors that stay on and continue to cause trouble. Those two expenses, taken together, add up to the cost of not training managers to be leaders. So which costs more, training or not training?
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RLM PLANNING AND LEADERSHIP
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