Source: theHRDIRECTOR
Date: April 2007

JUDITH LEARY-JOYCE, CEO OF GREAT COMPANIES CONSULTING AND AUTHOR OF “INSPIRATIONAL MANAGER” AND “BECOMING AN EMPLOYER OF CHOICE”, EXPLAINS WHAT MAKES AN INSPIRATIONAL MANAGER, THE BENEFITS THEY CAN BRING TO AN ORGANISATION AND HOW TO DEVELOP THEM.

Have you ever worked for an inspirational manager? I did once - it was a brilliant experience and one that set a standard for the rest of my working life. Once experienced, it is hard to settle for anything less. They provide a role model, encourage the best from you and remain a warm memory for a very long time. I’ve met people who have worked for one, but only the luckiest people have worked for two. The truly inspirational manager is a rarity and it’s time we focused on developing more of them for the benefit of all businesses and employees.

How do you recognise an inspirational manager? Listen and watch your people – they will direct you to the inspirational managers. They’ll talk about making their manager a raging success. It will be clear they worry when they have done a poor job and prepare for the tough conversation – not because they expect to be blasted, but because they don’t want to disappoint – and they are ready to do what it takes to improve. They have clear career plans and know their manager is on their side, helping them prepare for the next step. And they are likely to tell you just how important this person is to them. Let’s face it – when did you last hear someone say they loved their manager? Not often is my guess – but this is exactly what people say about inspirational managers.

I went to 12 companies when researching my book “Inspirational Manager” and met managers, their teams, their own managers and the HR professionals. Hearing just how important the manager was to each team was a common feature of all the conversations. Tesh Kataria was a perfect example. His team at Tower Homes told me it was like being part of a second family – they work hard together and play together, despite an age range of 17 to 55 years. And they put it all down to Tesh and the high trust environment he creates in the office. There are numerous reasons for developing inspirational managers in your business. If you do, you will see:
• Highly effective and consistent performance management
• Problems dealt with honestly and quickly so everyone knows where they stand
• Low levels of absenteeism
• Appropriate recruitment and induction
• Exceptional talent management
• A fun atmosphere that suits the people involved.

Why would you want anything different? What makes an inspirational manager?
The spur for many is their own bad experience of being managed. They understand first hand the impact of poor communication, lack of encouragement and general management neglect. For the lucky few, it was the experience of working for an inspirational manager that made them determined to do the very best for their own direct reports. But there are many managers out there who want to do the best they can, yet despite their best efforts, they are not inspirational. There is a very specific differentiator – inspirational managers allow their beliefs to drive their behaviour at all times. The beliefs themselves are not unusual – what is unusual is the rigour and determination with which they hold to them. Every day they work on the understanding that:
1. Everyone has their strengths
2. Strong relationships support excellence
3. It is important to tell the truth
4. Consistency is paramount.
 
They know people are their job and they relish it. You won’t hear complaints at appraisal time from these managers – they see it as their greatest motivational tool. And as a result you will have a queue of people who want to work with them. How can HR develop inspirational managers? The common theme through all the organisations I visited was the determination to make management important. They don’t all have it licked yet, but they are on their way and grappling with each problem area as it arises.

 There was major recognition that people leave managers, rather than organisations – and stay with great managers when they find them. As Keith Nash from Badenoch and Clark said:

“Great managers are what employees want – they won’t put up with anything less. So good enough or below par management is a real drain on any organisation.”

Talented people are in pole position these days – if you manage to get hold of them, you have to do your utmost to keep them. Having a strong tranche of inspirational managers is a must. There are a number of things you can do straight away:
1. Recruit to your values
Given that inspirational managers are deeply committed to their beliefs about people, demonstrating how significant values are in your organisation will be a great draw. Do this all the time and not just when you are specifically looking for managers. Look for values driven people whenever you recruit and you’ll have a great stock of people for future development.
2. Teach them how to coach
Never underestimate the power of coaching. Inspirational managers take every opportunity to help people learn – that’s why they are so exciting to work with and why talented people have a homing device locked onto them. Give your managers the tool of coaching and they will be more effective, whether handling poor performance, developing talent or building a strong team.
3. Re-think your management training
Give your potential managers chance to practise and see if they like the job. Just because they are talented in their skill area doesn’t mean they will automatically want to move to managing people, so give them one person to mentor or coach without any responsibility for performance and see how they get on together. Keep listening and the coach or person being mentored will tell you soon enough if the relationship is working. If it’s a ‘no-go’ make it OK for the person to step back and then look for another way to promote them. Only when you are sure the person can build an effective management relationship should you take them into the training process and make sure they have a consistent mentor or coach to support them as they develop their people skills.
4. Give plenty of support
Let HR be known as a fantastic support to managers – make it clear that you will back them up when times are tough. Encourage them to ask for help without feeling it’s a failure to do so and be ready to challenge their behaviour when necessary. Above all, don’t take the task off them. Inspirational managers never pass on the tough job – they always want to hold the difficult conversations with their own people, as it’s a matter of integrity. But they may need support. If you assume it’s your job, you take away that chance to learn and develop the skills of exceptional people management.
5. Celebrate management success
Make absolutely sure that everyone in the organisation understands just how important the role of manager is. Leave them in no doubt that this is the tough stuff, but also one of the prime ways the business will be successful. As soon as the  role is lauded, talent will come out of the woodwork. If you only celebrate skill, you may find that your exceptional ‘people people’ have to go elsewhere to feel fulfilled in their work.
6. Take a ‘deep dive’ into management development.
Do you see management development as providing information on how to complete the everyday tasks or are you building a manager community? This is the fundamental question and will determine just how successful you are in nurturing truly inspirational managers.  Arming your managers with the understanding and personal experience of challenging, supportive and robust relationships will be the best gift you can give them. Don’t reserve the depth development just for your leaders – make quality personal development a central plank of every manager programme. After all, they will influence the style and emotional effectiveness of your future leaders and managers, so don’t settle for anything less than the best.

Setting out to develop ‘relationship intelligent’ people managers also makes it clear that management is an art and not a reward. The last thing you need is a group of reluctant managers who enjoy the kudos, but not the people. So be clear about the attributes that define an inspirational manager for your organisation, then set out to nurture their personal development and you will be on the road to success. Developing inspirational managers is some of the most exciting work I know – just imagine if all your managers were delivering great results and making the very best of their people! We should never expect it to be an easy task, but by taking all the help we can get, the results will speak for themselves.