Are You Effectively Evaluating Your Managers?
Among their many responsibilities, managers must assess, provide feedback, and reward or sanction employees based on their performance and productivity. A manager is expected to act when an employee exhibits poor performance or counter-productive work behavior.
The above is achievable in a “manager of individual contributors” scenario, where work product is directly observable through output. However, the activity is less achievable in a “manager of managers scenario,” where performance is dependent on management behaviors and is thus less easily observable – unless the manager of managers attends every meeting and reads every email of their subordinates – an unlikely feat.
To effectively assess the performance and productivity of managers (i.e., their ability to manage), a manager of managers must have input from the teams working under these managers. If this input is absent, then the manager of managers is ill-equipped to make assessments and provide feedback to managers.
Through a feedback system, the manager of managers can gather several metrics for manager performance, including how well they produce employee satisfaction, support, motivation, and engagement, all of which predict employee performance [1, 2, 3].
We hear a lot about managing up. We also hear that managing up is a collaborative activity between employee and manager to get the best out of the employee. However, this is only half of managing up. While managing up can be a collaborative activity between employee and manager, it should also be an evaluative activity, whereby employees provide feedback on manager performance.
Giving employees the same tools as managers to create a positive, thriving, and safe work environment may seem counter-intuitive, but it is a critical element to managing up and managing managers in general. Techniques for empowering employees to give feedback on their managers include 360 feedback reviews, surveys, and simple 1:1 conversations.
How equipped are you to effectively evaluate your managers? Shoot me a note if you want to discuss your feedback and performance system.
References:
2. https://core.ac.uk/reader/234625730
3. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Shikta-Singh/publication/347348993_Linkage_Between_Employee_Satisfaction_and_Employee_Performance_A_Case_in_Banking_Industry/links/60955e18458515d31503eaae/Linkage-Between-Employee-Satisfaction-and-Employee-Performance-A-Case-in-Banking-Industry.pdf