This Leadership Brief Express (LBE) begins where my last LBE (Engaging Employees - It's not Rocket Science) left off. It describes the actions companies need to take to improve their management’s ability to engage employees, leading to an increase in creativity, productivity, commitment and profits! I look forward to supporting your efforts! Dave Fleck

1. LEADERSHIP BRIEFSEXPRESS
CENTER FOR ORGANIZATIONAL
SUCCESS, INC.
40 E Main Street, Suite 247
Newark, DE 19711
lbe@c4os.com
Selecting Managers Who Can
Engage Employees is Key
When I saw this figure it dawned on me that this was most
likely the primary reason for the dismal employee engagement
scores I reported in my last Leadership Brief. If you remember,
Gallup reported in two large-scale studies in 2012 that 30% of
U.S. employees are engaged at work and only 13% of
employees worldwide are engaged. So you’d think that selecting
managers with both the talent and skills needed to engage
employees would be a top priority for companies today.
However, Gallop’s research actually indicates that companies
make the wrong choice in hiring/promotion decisions regarding
managers of people 82% of the time. In fact, typically the
“I believe the real difference between
success and failure in a corporation can
be very often traced to the question of
how well the organization brings out the
great energies and talents of its people.”
… Thomas J. Watson, Jr., A Business
and its Beliefs (1963)
I ended my last LBE with the point that it is not difficult for
managers to be ahead of the pack in engaging employees by
being aware of the key engagement influencers identified by
Gallup and committing to managing with these in mind.
As I look back on my closing statement, I realize that I made an
assumption that managers already possess both the talent and
skills necessary to implement Gallup’s key engagement
influencers or at least have the talent for it but still need to
develop and practice the skills required to actually do it.
“So much of what we
call management
consists in making it
difficult for people to
work.”
… Peter Drucker
This realization came to mind
after reading another article on
the 2013 Gallup survey findings
on Managers and Engagement.
The article pointed out that
according to their research,
Gallop estimates that Managers
account for at least 70% of the
difference in employee
engagement scores.
Few Have All the Talent and Skills Required
According to Gallup, only 10% of people have the full
complement of both the talents AND the skills to be a great
manager. They point out that “While many people are
endowed with some of them, few have the unique
combination of talent needed to help a team achieve
excellence in a way that significantly improves a company’s
performance”. Another two out of ten exhibit some of the
characteristics of managerial talent and can function at a high
level only if their company invests in coaching and plans
development for them to acquire the skills they need. Bottom
line … engaging employees may not be rocket science,
however, the managers who have both the TALENT and
the SKILLS to do it well are few and far between.
decision on who to hire as a manager is based either on
performance or length of time in non-management
positions. The impact of these decisions on companies is
the untold billions in lost profits they experience in the
form of a disengaged workforce. On the other hand,
companies that take the time to make the ability to manage
the top criteria in their selection of managers and also
provide the resources/support for those with the talent to
develop / expand their managerial skills will have a
significant advantage over companies who do not.
Managers Good at Engaging Employees are Rare

2. LEADERSHIP BRIEFSEXPRESS
Gallup’s research indicates that about one-fifth (18%) of
those currently in management roles demonstrate a high level
of talent for managing others, while another 2 in 10 (20%)
show a basic talent for it. “When Gallup asked U.S. managers
why they believed they were hired for their current role, they
commonly cited their success in a previous non-managerial
role or their tenure in their company or field. Most
companies promote workers into managerial positions
because they seemingly deserve it, rather than because they
have the talent for it.”
According to Gallup’s research, when companies increase
their number of talented managers and double the rate of
engaged employees as a result, they achieve, on average,
147% higher earnings per share than their competition. This
sounds like a pretty good return to me!
References:
 Gallup's Top 10 World News Findings of 2013 (Dec. 27, 2013)
 Harvard Business Review (HBR) ‘Why Good Managers Are So Rare’;
March 13, 2014
 Harvard Business Review (HBR) ‘Developing Mindful Leaders for the C-
Suite’; March 10, 2014
 Gallup: Northern America Leads the World in Workplace Engagement
(Nov. 4, 2013)
 Gallup: Worldwide, 13% of Employees Are Engaged at Work (Oct. 8,
2013)
 Thinking Bigger (online Mag.): Engaged Employees, Engaged Customers
(11-1-13)
“Good management is the art of
making problems so interesting and
their solutions so constructive that
everyone wants to get to work and
deal with them.”
… Paul Hawken,
Natural Capitalism
Gallup finds that great managers have the
following talents:
 They motivate every single employee to take action and
engage them with a compelling mission and vision.
 They have the assertiveness to drive outcomes and the
ability to overcome adversity and resistance.
 They create a culture of clear accountability where
employees are aware of their responsibilities and feel
accountable for what they are responsible for.
 They build relationships that create trust, open dialogue,
and full transparency.
 They make decisions that are based on productivity, not
politics.
A Recent Post From the
Good Boss Story Blog
-------
“My boss transforms my challenges into
strengths every day. Despite being the
most experienced and valuable person in
our department, he strays from micro-
managing. He is also willing to listen to
my challenges and is open to my ideas.
As far as I can remember, he has never
said "no" to a new idea before. He not
only is the first person to applaud my
performance but also the one to have
higher expectations each day. I can easily
attribute all of my success to his
understanding, openness, and
perceptiveness.” ………. The blog
continues with the key attributes the
person blogging learned about good
management as a result … “be
empathetic and fair, deal with personal
conflicts privately and resolve them right
away, be humorous - something my boss
is very good at.”