The Primary Reason Why Managers Fail

Results from employee satisfaction surveys continue to show that poor management is an ongoing problem. Poor management leads to low employee satisfaction resulting in more employee turnover. This becomes a very expensive problem when you consider the time and cost of screening, hiring, and training replacements, as well as the loss of productivity while new hires are being trained.

After observing managers for 42 years at 15 companies, the reason so many managers fail is clear to me: they were not trained to manage. Most managers are promoted into supervisory positions because of their technical or professional abilities, not because of their managerial competence or skills.

Few people understand that effective management skills are very different than skills required to succeed in a professional position. Over the years I kept running into managers, competent in their profession, who somehow believed they had the knowledge and skills to manage people and departments without any management training. This belief is common because they just don't know what they don't know. Having technical skills does not make you a good manager. Worse yet, many managers learned bad management habits from past supervisors and colleagues. They managed as they had been managed, and by emulating their peers, they become poor managers themselves.

If your supervisor appointed you to the position of company pilot, you would immediately say, "Wait a minute! I don't know how to fly a plane. I need training!" But when the same person made you department manager, how did you react? Did it even occur to you to ask for management training? But to be effective in your role as manager or supervisor you need specialized training and education, just as you do to become an engineer, a scientist, or a pilot.

Now its time for you to sit back and think about how good you really are. If you are typical of today's manager, chances are you're not as good as you think, even though you are doing your best. Don't be afraid to acknowledge that you don't fully know what you should be doing as a manager, why you should be doing it, or how to do it most effectively.

So make the decision now to go out and get the best management training available to you, regardless of how long you have been on the job. Open your mind to new ideas, learn and apply them. With proper training you too can become a successful manager. You will be happier; so will your employees and your boss.