‘Too few people receive help developing their leadership yet crave becoming better leaders. Intuitively, they know that they, their teams and their organisations would be enhanced if they did.’
You may recognise those words from the front page of my website, or from hearing me reiterate them in my JUST Leading talk. Now, though, you don’t have to take my word for it, the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), has said almost exactly the same in its recent ‘Better Management’ report, following detailed research.
The report is subtitled a ‘Nationwide Survey into the State of UK Management and Leadership’ and comes out with some interesting although, to some of us, not very surprising information. The key take-away is the notion of the ‘accidental manager’. These are the 82% of all managers who are elevated to their leadership positions without any formal training.
So what, you might say and perhaps rightly so. It is possible to be a good leader without any formal training. However, only 27% of workers surveyed rated their manager as highly effective: nearly three-quarters of all workers therefore think their manager is less than highly effective. Furthermore, the report goes on to show that 50% of workers who rate their manager as ineffective are significantly more likely to leave their organisation than those who don’t. As one private-sector supervisor is quoted as saying ‘a bad manager = a bad team’.
The good news – proven by the CMI – is that good leadership leads to better performance and retention, and that training is the key to that success. As the report says, ‘trained managers improve efficiency’ and good managers create a culture where workers feel empowered, committed, autonomous, able to take risks and are driven to deliver.
So, the question for many organisations is whether they can afford not to train their leaders. Who wants to pay the costs of high staff turnover just to keep failing, when investing in leadership training will lead to an improved bottom line?
The report concludes, ‘it’s time for managers and organisations to take responsibility and commit to identifying where their knowledge gaps lie and how they can work to address them’. So, don’t take my word for it, consider what the CMI’s in-depth research has to say. Of course, if you would like to discuss just how ALMAC Consulting Ltd can help develop your leaders, then please get in touch at info@almacinspire.co.uk
