Talk show host Conan O’Brien famously walked out on the most sought after job in television this year due to bad relations with his bosses. At an annual salary of $12million, most people questioned why the chatty redhead did not just take it on the chin.
In fact, a negative relationship with a manager or supervisor was the top-ranked reason for leaving a job for 43 percent of respondents to a recent Watson Wyatt survey. It also largely determines the length of an employee’s stay, according to a 25-year-long Gallup Organisation study based on interviews with 12 million workers at 7,000 companies.
Bad employee-supervisor relationships also are the major cause of stress in the workplace— the fastest growing health-related cost in the workplace. All tallied, failed employee relations could be your company’s greatest expense. Senior leaders may feel that they are too busy strategising to connect. Middle managers underestimate their role as the missing link in employee engagement.
360-degree feedback is a useful process for managers in the middle to improve relationships at work.
While leading up, down and across the organization, be sure to:
- Directly connect with everyone around you
- Expand your views, knowledge and expertise to broaden your network
- Always act on principles, which will engender trust and hard work
- Define and uphold the values and objectives that align with your organisation
Keep in mind that 99 percent of leadership capacity is developed in middle management. Reducing the billions of dollars in losses due to bad employee-management relationships is up to you.
