Managing Up in a Down Economy

by Toddi Gutner, Business on Main

Amid the heaviest job-cutting in nearly a decade, no business remains unscathed. From a mom-and-pop retail shop and small-business owner to a global conglomerate, companies and organizations must rapidly reassess their remaining talent and quickly move professionals into new, clearly defined roles.

But what sometimes happens, especially in small companies, is that employees who are chosen to move up into new positions are often not quite ready for prime time. Indeed, many new managers are chosen—often despite lacking the necessary skills to be a good manager—because they are reliable and dependable. “A strong doer may be a reluctant delegator,” which is a necessary managerial skill, says Rabia de Lande Long, an executive coach and management consultant with Chartwell Advisors, Inc.

To ease that transition, you must “have programs, processes and scaffolding in place to make sure that a new manager is not overwhelmed with his or her new responsibilities,” says Dr. Robert Satterwhite, a managing director for APT, Inc., a human resources consulting firm. To do without such a strategy can be costly. Satterwhite estimates that failure to invest in proper managerial training and development up front can cost a company 150 percent of that manager's salary (in recruiting, hiring, reduced customer service), plus six to nine months to get the company back on track.

Perhaps the most important decision is to figure out who will be the best person to promote. Most companies, large and small, have some sort of performance management system. Using the data from those programs can be fodder to identify that company's high performers. Once you've tapped the right person, consider giving him or her a personality assessment test, such as the Caliper Accelerator. For $600, this assessment—and the subsequent coaching session—helps identify an individual's strengths and challenges as well as develops an action plan of what he or she needs to do to succeed in the new position. Armed with this information, you and your top team members are much better able to assess where your new manager will need extra training and support. “In this way, the new manager can hit the ground running,” says Patrick Sweeney, president of Caliper, an international management consulting firm.

Now that you have the best person and are well aware of his or her skills, what comes next? Outline for your new manager the SMART goals. “These are goals that are Specific, Measurable, Agreed-upon, Realistic and Time-bound and also hold your manager accountable for progress against those goals,” says de Lande Long.

Encourage your manager to reach out for help to fill in experience gaps. But it's one thing to direct your manager to seek guidance, and it's another to have that guidance readily available. Networks, mentors and books, such as Ken Blanchard’s “The One Minute Manager,” can be very helpful, recommends Peg Hendershot, director of Career Vision, a career consultancy. The best seller highlights that a manager must set goals quickly, and it gives instruction on how to speak to employees in a praising way and how to talk to employees about corrections that need to be made.

Perhaps most effective is job shadowing or mentoring strategies. According to Satterwhite, if the person who is leaving the job is available and the relationship is amicable, you might consider having him or her to stay on as a consultant and work alongside the new manager. If not, try to find someone in a similar position for the manager to shadow. Mentoring is also helpful. Pair the manager with an executive who has significant institutional knowledge and can be available as a go-to person. Alternatively, encourage your new manager to tap his or her professional network with thorny issues as long as they aren't confidential to the company.

Above all, communicate, communicate, communicate. “Make sure you have regularly scheduled weekly meetings, not to make decisions or solve problems, but rather to assess the goals the manager is setting for the week and review those that have been recently achieved,” says Hendershot. You'll also want to check in just as frequently with your manager's team to find out what's working and what's not. In this way, you can avoid surprises, keep your finger on the pulse of your manager's development and correct his or her course if necessary. “Remember, stay close, provide feedback and then stay out of the way,” says de Lande Long.

For nearly half a century, Caliper has been helping companies achieve peak performance by advising them on hiring the right people, managing individuals most effectively and developing productive teams. The accuracy, objectivity and depth of our consulting approach enable us to provide solutions that work for over 25,000 companies.

To find out more about how Caliper can help you identify and develop people who can lead your organization to peak performance, please visit us at www.caliperonline.com, write us at information@calipercorp.com, or call us at 609-524-1200.