Failing to Train and Coach Management Staff
Dive into the thirteen blind spots many organization leaders will battle at one point. In this series, our president & CEO, Dave Mattson, will provide guidance on how you can overcome these challenges.
Today’s blind spot is failure to train and coach managers. Think about this for a second. All of the people that work for your organization are reporting to a series of managers. They are the pinnacle where you, as the leader, you ask your management team, “How’s it going? What can we project? Where are our holes? What do you need help on? What are the successes?” That is your main communication hub as the owner, or the EVP, so an executive. I talk to my management team. I rely on my management team to give me accurate information.
But here’s the problem. It’s like going into an x-ray, and you’re asking the x-ray technician to give you a diagnosis based on the x-ray. I would rely on them. I want them to tell me what’s going on, because I don’t understand that x-ray, it’s not what I do every day. But if that technician wings it, gives me to the best of their ability, “Well, I used to sign people into the x-ray room, so I saw a lot of these, I think this is what it means.” Would you feel comfortable? Because I don’t feel comfortable.
But that’s what we do with our people. We take people from the floor that had experience, that watched it happen, whether successful of unsuccessful, and we turned them into managers. Because when there’s a spot in the management team, we try to fill that as quickly as possible, because we, as senior execs, have to fill that spot. And we have our day job to do. So we bring these people in who are successful at their current job. And then we say what? “Good luck to you.” And then they learn by fire. They’re expected to manage those who they were really coworkers with yesterday, it’s impossible.
Even in the revenue generation side of your business, why would you put a key sales manager in that was going to represent 60% of your revenue, 80% of your revenue, and you did not train them? Every single manager should go through at least eight plus days of management training every single year.
If you took out a piece of paper, and here’s your blind spot, if you took out a piece of paper, write down your management team and just jot down what training did you provide your management team this year? And what do you plan on doing next year? If you want to be a learning environment, and be congruent, expect others to continually push and stretch, we also have to do it as an organization.
Up Next in the Series
Blind Spot #1: Not Having a Process for Hiring
Blind Spot #2: Improperly Onboarding People
Blind Spot #3: Failing to Tie Corporate Goals to Personal Goals
Blind Spot #4: Not Creating a Culture of Accountability
Blind Spot #5: No Common Sales Language
Blind Spot #6: Not Focusing on Lead Generation
Blind Spot #7: Not Capturing Best Practices
Blind Spot #8: Failing to Train and Coach Management Staff
Blind Spot #9: Not Building the Bench
Blind Spot #10: Not Knowing How to Coach
Blind Spot #11: Not Sharing the Vision with Those who Have to Implement it
Blind Spot #12: Fostering a Culture of Learned Helplessness
Blind Spot #13: No Methodologies and Systems
The Road to Excellence
The best-selling book by Dave Mattson helps you determine what, exactly, stands between your company and organizational excellence – and what you can do about it.
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