Blog, culture and engagement | Ambition In Motion

by Garrett Mintz

Fri 10 June 2022

LinkedIn News recently published an article about Walmart’s $200k store manager problem. The article shines a light on the fact that simply paying higher salaries doesn’t necessarily create great leaders.

Leaders at Walmart realized that they needed a multi-pronged approach to developing reliable, effective managers, so they started investing in manager training and coaching to help develop their managers.

Walmart is learning the same lesson as many businesses: great leadership requires investment and effort. I’m going to cover how we got into this position and what we, leaders in organizations, need to do to minimize the learning curve of a new manager becoming an effective leader.

How did we get here?

The rapid increase in job transitions over the past few years (sometimes called The Great Resignation) has caused people to rethink their priorities for work.

Some people qualified for leadership roles have learned that they just don’t like the responsibilities of being a leader.

Some new managers from outside the company fail to understand or adapt to the culture, and therefore struggle to get buy-in from the new teams they are inheriting.

Some new managers have never managed before. Their promotion to a management role is an opportunity for growth, but instead, they aren’t provided the guidance on how to effectively lead.

These are just three examples of how manager development can go wrong. Without a strong system for training managers, replacement and resignation can rapidly spiral out of control and have long-term consequences on company culture and productivity.

I recently wrote about how to maintain you’re a-game as a leader, where I described how many universities have downgraded degrees in management into co-majors or tag-along credits instead of being its own degree path. This happens because most recent graduates aren’t being hired to manage people so for universities to boost their placement rates and starting salary rates, it is more advantageous to train students in degrees that companies need from recent graduates right now. This shortsighted approach to management training is one of many contributing factors to the very issues facing companies today.

The dearth of up-and-coming managers has led to greater turnover for both managers (e.g., they struggle with the transition) and the direct reports in their charge (they aren’t going to put up with a bad boss). This self-sustaining cycle of turnover can wash away company culture in months and take years to rebuild.

What can we do about it?

1. Equip managers with the tools and data to better understand their direct reports

There is no such thing as an effective one-size-fits-all management philosophy. That mode of thinking contributes to turnover.

Why?

Because people are driven by different motivations at different stages in their life.

One metric that we measure at Ambition In Motion (AIM) is Work Orientation. Our custom assessment measures what drives you at work and helps you understand how your work should fit into your life.

Some people are motivated by professional growth (Career Oriented), some people are motivated by work/life balance (Job Oriented), and some people are motivated by the value of their work for changing the world (Calling Oriented). Everyone has a mix of these motivations, but one type usually stands above the rest for an individual.

If you understand the Work Orientation of each of your direct reports *at that moment in time*, you can craft your leadership style for that person based on what drives them.

And that “at that moment in time” is important because Work Orientation is fluid. Unlike personality, which is generally consistent throughout life, Work Orientation is constantly in flux. Life events (starting a family?), professional events (getting a promotion?), epiphanies (deciding to start your own business?), influence from friends and colleagues (friend’s company has gone completely remote while yours hasn’t?), and more will mold your Work Orientation over time. Our job as managers is to be on top of these changes and adjust our leadership style and actions to manage your direct reports at that moment in time.

A good start for preparing to manage direct reports is reading about it. I’ve written about How to Manage Career Oriented Direct Reports, How to Manage Calling Oriented Direct Reports, and How to Manage Job Oriented Direct Reports in the hyperlinked articles.

The other big tool to equip managers with is a system for observing whether their perception of the workplace, productivity, and culture is shared by their direct reports. When leading a team, it’s difficult to get out of your head. This tool gives them the ability to observe and understand whether the team members agree (or disagree) with the manager’s assessment of individual productivity, team cohesion, and other metrics.

This information is critical because perception gaps cause people to become disgruntled. People tend to judge themselves on their intentions and others on their perceptions. I was five minutes late because traffic was absurd today and nobody could predict it; you were late because you don’t care about being on time. Finding and understanding your perception gaps help you find real solutions.

Managers need to understand where their people are coming from and empathize with their direct reports (and provide clarity) when there are gaps.

My team and I developed AIM Insights to identify the most important metrics for managers to understand their direct reports and cut through the noise. AIM Insights collects and measures everyone’s perception of their: task performance, team cohesion, team productivity, organizational citizenship, and manager performance.

If a direct report feels like they aren’t performing well, but a manager thinks they are performing great, this indicates that the direct report lacks clarity as to what success looks like in his role. Once the manager has this information, they can clarify expectations for that team member and help support long-term productivity and engagement.

And vice versa, if a direct report feels like they are performing great, but the manager disagrees, that indicates that the direct report lacks clarity as to what success looks like and that the manager must clarify expectations and help the team member improve their work.

2. Train managers how to act on that data and make their direct reports feel heard

The number 1 issue with any performance management tool in any HRIS platform is equipping managers with the training to interpret and act on the data to make tangible improvements.

If a company surveys its employees but then doesn’t equip managers to do anything with that data, that company is wasting its employees’ time, creating frustration, and depleting engagement.

Why?

Because that data isn’t just for the executive team to review quarterly or annually. That data needs to be acted on!

If managers don’t identify productive actions from the data, there is no incentive for the direct reports to give an honest response, if they bother to respond at all.

Therefore, it is critical that companies, if they ask for survey data from their employees, train their managers on how to interpret the data and have effective 1:1’s with their direct reports based on that data.

3. Actively coach managers throughout their tenure and support the need to adapt to the ever-changing nature of leadership

Leadership is an ever-evolving field. Economies are changing. Consumer demands are changing. Employee demands are changing.

Reviewing the employee salaries and benefits packages of companies even as recently as 5 years ago has drastically changed between now and then. What might have been thought of as outlandish and unnecessary is turning out to be required of job postings (my local Uhaul has a billboard that says “start today. Get paid today.” which was unheard of 5 years ago).

Managers should be coached throughout their time as a leader with an organization, not just when they attend random offsite training. Leaders can’t just wait for the company to hire a speaker or host an event when they need to handle difficult circumstances. Life doesn’t consider the optimal timeline for you to get the training just in time. Sometimes stuff happens you need to be ready to handle it.

Building rapport and offering consistent guidance helps managers handle the seemingly insignificant issues and builds the foundation for ensuring they won’t turn into massive issues.

Getting new managers to become effective leaders takes time. It isn’t easy and it isn’t obvious. Hopefully, these tips help your company excel and thrive in the future.

by Grace Tripathy

Tue 7 June 2022

Todd is an executive for a high-growth tech startup that has 400 employees. His biggest challenge in optimizing his team’s performance is the ever-changing nature of the business.

Todd’s CEO and board regularly come to him with changes to the company’s operations. Sure, he is involved in many of these decisions, but often by the time the conversation gets to him, the CEO and board have already made up their mind and changes are already in the works and he has to catch up.

The challenge is that his team has been spending the past 3 months working on a completely different plan and now, much of that work has to be scrapped for this new plan.

As a mastermind group, the Ambition in Motion team asked Todd questions to clarify his situation and then we provided some suggestions.

One of the big suggestions was getting ahead of the trends so that he and his team could be a part of the change management process as opposed to having the change happen to them.

This requires better data collection and access to user feedback information as well as the freedom to begin experimenting with new ideas as the new information comes in.

The other big factor in all of this is properly setting expectations both for his team and for his board and CEO as the ideas he and his team come up with may not work, but at least it gives them a lens into what they are trying and gives them an opportunity to experiment.

Ultimately, the ability to set expectations both for your team and for your leadership is critical to having work where the expectations meet reality and people are excited to come to work. When people feel unclear about their role or the changes happening at work and they feel powerless over them, stress ensues and people leave or worse, become actively disengaged.

Oftentimes, this confusion of beginning a new role with a lack of understanding, training, or data, occurs most frequently amongst new managers beginning the role as a leader of a new team.

Why is data important in an ever-changing workplace?

Data in a workplace is absolutely essential. Data includes performance reviews, employee values, wants, and needs, as well as information about what previous employees implemented and how it impacted their teams.

The amount of data connected to an organization today is on an unprecedented scale and impossible to process manually; this is why it is important to invest in an effective data management system.

This is why data is seen as one of the most important assets of an organization; it is the foundation of information and the basis on which people make decisions. Hence it would follow that if the data is accurate, complete, organized, and consistent, it will contribute to the growth of the organization.

Most importantly, the right data alongside proper training is what will lead a new manager thoroughly into the position of effectively leading a new team.

These are some of the additional and undeniable benefits of effective data and how it can effectively improve a rapidly changing workplace.

1. Increases productivity

If data can be accessed easily, especially in large organizations, your company will be more organized and productive. It reduces the time that people spend looking for information and instead ensures that they can do their job efficiently.

Employees will also be able to understand and communicate information to others. Furthermore, it makes it easy to access past correspondence and prevent miscommunication due to messages lost in transit.

For new managers, being able to access and identify information about past performance can boost effective leadership faster than having no data at all.

2. Smooth operations

A seamless operating system is every business’ dream and data management can make that a reality. It is one of the determining factors in ensuring the success of an organization; if one takes too long to respond to their customers or to the changing trends around them, they run the risk of falling behind. Heightening the data within performance reviews will allow for quick transitions of productivity for teams.

A good data management system will ensure that you respond to the world accordingly and stay ahead of the competition.

3. Cost-effective

If you have a good system in place, you will spend less money trying to fix problems that shouldn’t have occurred in the first place.

Most importantly, improperly training new managers will lead to a decrease in productivity and ineffective leadership, which will ultimately lose time and money for the company.

4. Better decision making

When everything's in its place, and everyone knows where to look for it, the quality of your decisions improves drastically. By nature, people have different ways of processing information, but a centralized system ensures a framework to plan, organize and delegate.

Additionally, a good system will ensure good feedback, which in turn will lead to necessary updates to the process that will only benefit your company in the long run.

Get ahead of the struggles that come with change; engage in the best management practices

Performance review data must deliver meaningful results.

After you’ve properly trained your new managers, it’s your company’s job to provide your new managers with meaningful performance reviews to analyze. Meaningful reviews include honest feedback from employees; a product that your new manager can use to effectively lead their new team.

Traditional performance reviews lack meaning. Charts measure trends, but trends don’t tell a new manager how to make a difference, and how to best lead their new team and minimize the learning curve of new managers becoming effective leaders.

So why do managers need more than just data to effectively lead their team?

There’s simply no training for a new position in analyzing charts.

What do the charts mean? Sometimes trends are low, and sometimes they are high. But that doesn’t tell you what the employees were thinking or experiencing when they filed these performance reviews.

Charts and reports are not training.

However, putting effort into detailed and trustworthy performance management with coaching will enhance training for new employees in new positions as well as guide your company in tackling the changes that occur within a workplace, and quickly making effective leadership decisions.

by Malhar Lakshman

Tue 7 June 2022

As a manager, it is particularly important to understand the value of DEI, also known as Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion. This is especially highlighted in June, which is known as LGBTQIA+ Pride month.

During this time, it is extremely common and almost expected that companies do something to acknowledge gay diversity, often combined with public statements, image management, as well as events. However, during the other 11 months out of the year, it is often that these very same companies fail to be as inclusive as they claim to be. Some even refer to this as “Performative Activism.” While LGBTQIA+ pride often falls victim to this act, performative activism can also include racial diversity, as well as gender diversity.

The key question to ask is, how can managers foster diversity, while at the same time avoiding committing performative activism?

Understanding Your Biases as a Manager

Bias doesn’t always manifest itself in terms of outright action. According to the Open Society Foundation, “Implicit bias occurs when someone consciously rejects stereotypes and supports anti-discrimination efforts but also holds negative associations in his/her mind unconsciously.” In other words, this bias is not described by outright action, but rather by microaggressions. More than 85% of all Americans consider themselves to be unprejudiced, but in actuality, the majority of United States Citizens hold some degree of implicit bias (Open Society Foundation).

Implicit bias is hard to spot easily, but it is often shown through microaggressions or actions that are driven by subtle or unintentional discrimination.

Some examples of this are how judges have been found to grant longer sentences for darker-skinned defendants than fairer-skinned defendants.

Lesser managers have been shown to not invite certain demographics in for job interviews or to not give the best performance reviews.

Implicit Bias can often even be seen in the medical field. A growing issue within recent culture is that women have had to advocate for themselves when in severe pain. Doctors have been more likely to brush off female pain and chalk it up to menstrual pains.

With all of this in mind, avoiding implicit bias is trickier than you think. A great way to start is to take the Project Implicit Quiz. This is a test designed by Harvard, Yale, Washington, and Virginia researchers. This survey can help show implicit attitudes that you may not have been aware of at first either.

An example of this would be how you may believe that men and women should both be prominent in the scientific world, but at the same time, commonly associate men with science over women.

After taking this assessment, it is a great idea to review your actions and figure out the source of them. Did your second-in-command receive his promotion because of his merit, or because he looked like you? When making a decision on who to terminate out of two direct reports, what was the deciding factor?

Allyship as a manager

Understanding how to make the office the safest place for all of your workers can make a difference in their lives, as well as help them feel safe and understood. Once again, in the effort to avoid performative activism, it is important to truly believe in what you are doing and make an effort to stand by what you preach. While this could start by posting signage expressing support for certain groups, there are other ways to show support.

Speaking of bias once again, try to figure out what biases may be in your company. The most common areas that biases tend to be within a company are hiring, promotions, giving raises, and delegating tasks. Self-analyzing this bias can help you see where you can improve as a company.

Additional structure improvements can also add a lot to your company’s success. A standardized interview process, with the same questions, asked to applicants regardless of gender, status, race, or any other colors, can help find you the best candidates for the job. Blind application processes can also be successful. If you’ve ever seen the Voice, a hit TV music reality show, you’ll notice that the judges start a performance with their back to the auditionees. This allows them to disregard gender, race, and anything else about the applicants.

In the same way, if you can remove information about the applicant that is extraneous to their qualifications, you can minimize unconscious bias in the hiring process.

Business management software such as AIM Insights can be very handy in your decision-making as a manager. By removing any sentiment from this process, and solely relying on data, you can make the best decisions on who to promote. If you notice your management is staffed by a certain type of person, unconscious biases may be in play. Using the data, and that alone can help you determine who is the best person for a job.

Holding your employees accountable is one other way that you can show your allyship. Actions speak much louder than words. If you notice that the best performance reviews are all going towards a certain demographic, it may be time to review the process, as well as to have a one-on-one with each of the reviewers. Being attentive to what is being said in the workplace is important too! While it is important to let Human Resources do what they do best, you as a manager can set the tone for how your employees interact with each other. Lead by example! Avoid using targeted language, and do your best to make others welcome.

In an elevated position, you are at the forefront of what your employees deem appropriate and inappropriate.

Eliminating bias and opening your company up to diversity can be challenging at first. But keeping an open mind, being self-reflective, and leading can set you up for success. The harder you look at yourself, the better the results will eventually be. The best things are never easily acquired, so be prepared for difficulty. Best of luck!

by Grace Tripathy

Mon 30 May 2022

If you recently received a new position at your company and were handed a portfolio of various reports and charts regarding overall past performance analysis, and told to analyze them and start your position, what would you do?

Of course, you can analyze the charts, and look at the trends of performance over time within the company. But what does that tell you about your position, or how you should perform to receive the best results from your new direct reports?

There’s simply no training for a new position in analyzing charts.

What do the charts mean? Sometimes trends are low, and sometimes they are high. But that doesn’t tell you what the employees were thinking or experiencing when they filed these performance reviews.

Charts and reports are not training.

In my last article, How to get your new managers to be more effective faster, I discussed the flaws within the current way that we equip new managers.

The current way that we equip new managers to lead with data is flawed

Joining the leadership team is a great accomplishment, but it could also lead to the demise of a person’s career if not managed properly.

It’s important to be able to recognize the right employee to transition into a first-time manager, but it’s crucial to help them become the skilled leader that the organization needs. But more than likely, these new managers won’t have all of the skills they need right away.

Even if someone is excellent at their job, being a new manager comes with an entirely new skill set. They are not just responsible for themselves anymore; they have an entire team to manage.

The biggest flaw when equipping new managers is the outdated protocol for transitioning positions within the company.

When anyone is given a new position, they must go through the transition process of paperwork and assessments to assure that they are fully aware of what the job entails and what their new duties are within the company.

Are charts and reports the proper training protocol? Or does this only confuse and lengthen the process of transitioning into a great new manager?

Why do traditional HRIS performance management tools not work?

In order for performance reviews to be effective and accurately represent a product that is meaningful to the viewer, there needs to be more training for employees and new managers regarding the importance of performance reviews.

If new managers are properly trained on the importance of performance reviews, they will be able to conduct more effective evaluations and produce responses that they can work with, and build off of.

If employees are properly trained on the importance of performance reviews, they will continue to stay engaged and give honest feedback, knowing that it will be used for the betterment of their time at the company.

With proper training for both new managers and employees, new managers will be able to look at the performance reviews and analyze what needs to be changed and continue to benefit their direct reports and the company, overall.

Challenges include…

Managers aren't trained in why the tool is being used, diminishing response rates from employees
When data is collected and shared with the managers, managers aren't trained in what the data means or what to do with the data, so response rates from employees diminish.
Managers are busy so asking them to sift through a "knowledge base" of helpful tips based on the data that comes in does not actually lead to them doing anything with the direct reports with the data, even if the knowledge-based was curated for them using artificial intelligence.
When managers don't do anything with the data that has been requested of them from the direct reports, the direct reports become frustrated and disengaged
When employees don't complete the regular surveys, the performance management tools are rendered useless because there is no data to review

All in all, the key to new managers effectively leading their teams starts with proper training. The duties of a manager include much more than just understanding how to direct their employees in a certain direction of goals that the company aims to accomplish.

In order for a manager to fully have an impact on their new employees and the overall change of the company, they need training in more than just the protocol transition charts.

Understanding how to effectively make an impact as a manager, make close connections with their new direct reports and emulate a positive workplace are all things that must be implemented into the new manager transition period.

After the proper training to understand what the position entails and how the new manager can get creative with their new implementation to the job and the company, it’s important for the new manager to understand the performance review process.

The performance review process should accurately portray evidence from employees of likes/dislikes/struggles/strengths within the company so that the manager can identify strengths, weaknesses, and goals for their team.

So how can a company get the most out of its performance management?

Performance reviews must deliver meaningful results

Traditional performance reviews lack meaning. Charts measure trends, but trends don’t tell a new manager how to make a difference, and how to best lead their new team.

Minimize the learning curve of new managers becoming effective leaders and use AIM Insights to conduct performance reviews.

AIM Insights Performance Review SOLUTIONS include…

All managers are trained and onboarded in a live training coordinated with the host company
All managers receive custom walk-throughs with an executive coach of their team's data every month with the executive coach providing guidance for each direct report a manager is in charge of
Managers receive unlimited email coaching to help guide them as they encounter challenges and roadblocks with their direct reports
When managers have effective 1:1's with their direct reports based on the data their direct reports are submitting, response rates increase and stay high, creating immense value and tracking for the company

AIM Insights Performance Management Results

Increased employee retention and satisfaction
Enhanced productivity and goal achievement
Improved work-life balance
Streamlined communication
Seamless accountability
Greater transparency between you and your direct reports
Zero prep time performance reviews
Alignment between employee goals and organizational goals
Monthly personalized tips on your team from an executive coach

by Malhar Lakshman

Mon 30 May 2022

Previously, we’ve talked about Performance Reviews in great detail. One of the key aspects of a good Performance Review Process is to have periodic one on ones with your direct reports. As a new manager, this is especially important since it will help you make an impression on not only your direct reports but also on your peers and upper management. An effective one-on-one is the best way for a manager to not only share feedback but also engage with their employees.

What is a 1:1?

A 1:1, or One on One, is a meeting between two individuals, most frequently between a manager and an employee. This can be about a range of topics but is generally about work-related topics such as goals or tasks. However, it is also a personal space where you as a manager can help develop your employee’s professional skills and help them with issues that may be plaguing them in their personal or professional lives. It is beyond what a work meeting will go into, by delving into personal matters and allowing for venting if necessary.

When should a new manager host a 1:1?

Knowing when to host one-on-ones as a new manager could definitely seem intimidating. One of the most important tasks of being a new manager is getting to know your team members in respect to your new relationship. In addition to that, you should be having at least two or three of these meetings with your team members each month. Some companies like to have 1:1s every week! These meetings need to be regularly scheduled and held to allow for increased communication between yourself and your direct reports. Each of these meetings should be scheduled for between 30 minutes to an hour. Finding that perfect amount of time can be tricky. If it’s too long, neither if you will be efficient and will get bored quickly. Too short, and you may rush through a meeting and not sufficiently discuss all of your planned topics on the itinerary. I recommend starting with a 45-minute meeting and adjusting from there depending on how the two attendees felt the meeting went.

What should a New Manager say in a 1:1?

Generally, a good 1:1 will have a few different topics discussed. Some of these goals can include goal setting, previous tasks, current tasks, future tasks, as well as personal issues. Keep in mind that communication of any type is important. However, the first 1:1 should definitely be for you to set goals, introduce yourselves, and get to know each other. The tone of this meeting can set the tone of your entire working relationship for the future. This especially applies to new employees, since this is how you create a first impression and introduce them to company culture.

This first 1:1 should allow you to really create a personal connection with your employees. One of my mentors used to say that “They don’t care what you know until they know you care.” This applies to your management relationships as well. According to Forbes, Employees who feel their voice is heard are 4.6 times more likely to feel empowered to perform their best work. Some of the questions that you could ask are, “What can I help you with?”, “What makes you feel valued at work?”, “How do you work best?”, or “What do you want to know about me?” Personal Connections can really help you understand what makes your employee unique, such as their talents, interests, or skills. However, it is important to still maintain professional boundaries. Keep your wits about you to not only protect yourself and your company but also to avoid making your direct reports uncomfortable. Remember, the goal is to make your employee feel welcome and brought into the company culture, not to scare them away. According to Forbes, disengaged employees can cost U.S companies up to 550 Billion dollars per year. Try to engage them, but don’t scare them off. This doesn’t mean don’t be vulnerable with your team. It just means that you shouldn’t gossip or share personal information that isn’t pertinent to your role as a leader or the role itself.

With these tips on the ideal starting 1:1, you should be able to begin these meetings with your staff, even as a new manager. Start slow and be friendly. You were made a manager for a reason; you have the skills. You just need to apply them to these meetings and without a doubt, you will be able to start a very fruitful working relationship.

by Malhar Lakshman

Thu 26 May 2022

I’ve had the privilege to work a few different jobs in both managerial positions and entry-level positions. I’m sure that you can relate to me in feeling that some managers were great at what they do, while others weren’t as great. The old adage of “People don’t leave bad jobs; they leave bad managers” continues to hold true. According to research by The Ken Blanchard Companies, the average organization is 50% as effective thanks to less than optimal leadership.

How does a bad Manager get appointed?

To understand the cause of these terrible managers, you need to understand what the key problem here is. The way that managers are trained and appointed simply is not enough and sets them up for failure.

Take a standard software firm for example, and a specific account executive named Jake. Jake is particularly good at closing deals, with very little haggling required, and on top of that, is responsible for a majority of the company sales. So, upper-level management chooses to give him a reward somehow. If Jake is capable of doing all of this, imagine what he could teach his coworkers to do right? So the administration chooses to promote Jake to a sales manager, responsible for managing other account executives and training new associates.

Unfortunately, Jake has no experience in developing people and the patience it requires. He just knows how to sell software. However, since he knows his methodology works wonders, he decides to teach everyone how to use his method, and boost sales. But his jokes just don’t sound the same out of other people’s mouths, and the charm he uses just feels off. And since he has no time to sell software himself, the company is making fewer sales. Ultimately, many of the sales associates choose to leave because they don’t like the command and control style of leadership Jake has deployed and those that stay aren’t meeting quotas because nobody is as good at selling using the “Jake method” as good as Jake is.

The key takeaway here is that high performance individually does not necessarily translate into high performance as a manager. Unfortunately, promotion is often used as a reward for high performance, with increased pay used as an additional incentive. Therefore, the individuals who may actually have manager potential (based on their ability to develop people) get overlooked because they aren’t rockstar individual contributors.

Finding a good candidate for management can be tricky. However, training new managers can be successful. Performance evaluation software such as AIM insights can help your new managers get coached and develop the skills they need to effectively lead their team based on the data their direct reports are sharing in the tool. Using tools such as this can help you identify who is particularly good at working with a team, or who works well with many different types of orientations of workers.

How can a good manager still be failed by upper administration?

Regardless of how skilled a manager may be, if they aren’t properly set up for success, they may still not be well prepared for their new role, at the company’s expense. A manager is not born into the world with perfect skills. They may naturally be able to work with other people, but they still need to be trained. The best way to think about a manager is as a person, but also as an investment. Would you choose to buy a house that has a lot of space, but no bathrooms? It’s a very similar concept. A manager candidate has a lot of potential, but not necessarily the exact skills needed for the role. Fortunately, these can be easily trained.

Training a manager involves a few different subjects. These subjects include some of the following:

· How to have effective 1:1’s and soft skills

· Training new employees

· How to give a performance review

All of these subjects are critical to ensure the best possible manager. Can you imagine how bad an incompetent manager could be? Fortunately, you don’t have to imagine as such. According to the Society of Human Resource Management, 84% of U.S workers say that poorly trained managers create much more unnecessary work and stress for them. Interact even researched poor managers and found that 69% of managers are uncomfortable communicating with employees and would prefer to not give any direct feedback unless absolutely necessary. These managers have been failed. With adequate training, they could have been truly amazing. However, because they failed to go through a proper vetting process, and then a training process, they quite simply are not capable enough to assume such an important role.

The way we train our managers is nowhere near where it should be at this point in time. It is just too important of a role to not give due diligence to. Understanding how to choose a good manager, and then how to train them will be the best course of action for the future. Only through this can we hope to create a better work culture for the future.

by Grace Tripathy

Mon 23 May 2022

How important is it to help your managers succeed?

Managers and how they manage their reporting staff members set the tone for your entire business operation. Managers are the front-line representation of your business.

It's easy to understand why managers make significant mistakes in their daily management of the people they employ.

Many managers lack fundamental training in managing people, which is usually manifested in their inability to practice the significant soft skills necessary to lead.

But more importantly, many managers lack the values, sensitivity, and awareness needed to interact effectively all day long with people.

The best managers fundamentally value and appreciate people. They also excel at letting people know how much they are valued and appreciated.

Why is it important to prioritize the best training for your managers?

You want to make sure all of your managers are successful, right? After all, managers have a huge impact on their entire team.

They are the cogs that hold your organization together because all of your employees report to them, for better or for worse.

The majority of communication about the business is funneled through your managers. For your business and employees to succeed, your mid-level managers must succeed and become adept at managing in a style that empowers and enables employees.

Skills and techniques are easier to teach, but values, beliefs, and attitudes are much harder to teach, and harder for managers to learn.

These are the underlying issues that most managers struggle with being successful.

This is why educating your managers to the best of your abilities and coaching them for success matters to you and your employees.

The current way that we equip new managers is flawed

Many people aspire to get promoted and move into leadership positions. But with this exciting transition comes a natural challenge: one of the biggest tests new managers face is knowing how to go from being a peer to managing their peers.

Even if someone is excellent at their job, being a new manager comes with an entirely new skill set. They are not just responsible for themselves anymore; they have an entire team to manage.

Joining the leadership team is a great accomplishment, but it could also lead to the demise of a person’s career if not managed properly.

The biggest flaw when equipping new managers is the outdated protocol for transitioning positions within the company.

However, the duties of a manager include much more than just understanding how to direct their employees in a certain direction of goals that the company aims to accomplish.

In order for a manager to fully have an impact on their new employees and the overall change of the company, they need training in more than just the protocol transition work. Understanding how to effectively make an impact as a manager, make close connections with their new direct reports and emulate a positive workplace are all things that must be implemented into the new manager transition period.

Going into the job, managers will be more confident in their abilities to perform successfully if their training includes more than just the most basic protocol.

New managers need to be confident in their promotions and know that it's possible to assimilate everyone successfully. For example, having the mindset of “I’m ready and willing to learn” will position new managers on a path toward a thriving managerial journey.

These are the kinds of things that need to be enclosed during the new manager training/transitioning period.

What do new managers need to have to succeed within their roles?

It's always exciting to promote a member of your team to a management position. However, some of your other workers might not take kindly to their peer becoming their supervisor, especially if that means they’re missing out on the same opportunity.

As challenging as this may be, there are ways to get through these hoops!

It starts with proper training.

Beyond the basic transition guides and paperwork that a new manager must endure at the beginning of their term, it’s important for new managers to do some intentional observation of the work environment.

Advising and teaching your new managers to observe the operations of the team through the lens of a manager rather than a peer will inspire your new managers to take notes and learn the inner workings of their new direct reports, and how they can best serve their needs.

Here are a few insider tips for your new managers:

● Get to Know Their Employees

Developing a relationship with reporting employees is a key factor in managing. You don't want to be your employees' divorce counselor or therapist, but you do want to know what's happening in their lives. When you know where the employee is going on vacation or that his kids play soccer, you are taking a healthy interest in your employees' lives.

Knowing that the dog died, expressing sympathy, or that her daughter won a coveted award at school makes you an interested, involved manager. Understanding and connecting with your employees will make you a better manager who is more responsive to employee needs, moods, and life cycle events.

● Provide Clear Direction

Creating standards and giving people clear expectations as a manager is crucial so that people know what they’re supposed to do, and how they can manage their time. More importantly, they will always feel as if they have accomplished a complete task or goal if the timeline of everything is laid out in an easily understood way.

Within your clear expectations, if you are either too rigid or too flexible, your direct reports will feel rudderless. You need to achieve an appropriate balance that allows you to lead employees and provide direction without dictating and destroying employee empowerment and employee engagement.

● Trust From the Start

All managers should start out with all employees from a position of trust, which shouldn't change unless an employee proves themselves unworthy of that trust. When managers don't trust people to do their jobs, this lack of trust plays out in a number of injurious ways within the workplace.

Micromanaging and constantly checking up on others are examples of how to create an untrustworthy work environment. However, if you work to trust your employees from the start, you can create an environment that fuels creativity and trust within your direct reports’ work, allowing for an inspired and communicative work environment.

by Malhar Lakshman

Tue 17 May 2022

Ever since the onset of COVID-19 and all of its variants, in order to abide by health department constraints and in the interest of public safety, more and more companies required their employees to work remotely. However, despite the distance between employees, efficiency rates skyrocketed, and more and more employees are now advocating for the ability to continue working remotely in the future. According to the Pew Research Center, 54% of employed adults want to continue to work from hope after the coronavirus outbreak ends, while only 20% of them worked from home pre-pandemic. Many workers claimed that the removal of a commute allowed them to have more flexibility with task completion. On the contrary, other workers noted that despite the many benefits of remote work, they had trouble with a few different aspects of their job. Several Americans noted some of the following problems:

· Lack of necessary equipment or technology

· Meeting Deadlines on time

· Missing Adequate Workspace

· Lack of Motivation

Some of these reasons can boil down to the type of orientation the employee has. This does not refer to any political or personal orientation, but rather how an employee derives meaning from work. Research has shown that the three following major categories generally encompass most workers. An individual can either be career-oriented, job-oriented, or calling-oriented. This article will not go into excessive detail about these orientations but will give a slight introduction to them.

Career Oriented individuals are driven by professional growth, such as promotions, raises, or learning skills that may help them advance in the future.

Calling Oriented individuals are motivated by the fulfillment of doing the work and making a difference or impact with their work.

Job Oriented individuals are driven by using material benefits to support their life outside of work.

Understanding how each of these orientations prioritizes their work/life balance can be instrumental in making the decision to allow remote work or not, as well as measuring performance success.

How can working remotely benefit a Career Oriented individual?

Career Oriented workers are always striving for advancement. A remote working opportunity allows them to devote more time to work by eliminating any possible commute. It also allows them to learn different skill sets such as how to properly communicate and collaborate online. However, there is a drastic difference between the workplace environment and a remote environment. Due to the lack of proximity to others, career-oriented workers may not be able to network with their peers and superiors and may feel frustrated as a result. In addition to that, it can be hard for them to see the fruits of their labor, and consequently, to see how their superiors perceive their work. This can be countered by properly communicating with them about their goals and your goals as a manager for them. Keeping Career Oriented workers appreciated and feeling like they fit in with the team will allow them to weather any storm that may come their way, and stay in the position that they are in.

How can working remotely benefit a Job Oriented individual?

Job Oriented individuals know how to prioritize work/life balance, and often have goals outside of work. Arguably, they benefit the most from working remotely, due to the elimination of their commute, as well as the flexibility of working when they want to. They will also benefit mentally due to the ease of setting up professional boundaries and being able to work on personal projects. However, they may become easily distracted due to the temptations of side projects at home, as well as their other interests, such as playing video games. As a manager, it is important to be clear on what you would like them to do, and not suddenly add more onto their plate, which can disrupt their expectations and leave them frustrated. It is best to give them autonomy since they will achieve whatever goals you have of them as long as they have been communicated ahead of time.

How can working remotely benefit a Calling Oriented individual?

Calling Oriented workers have a personal and work life that is extremely intertwined. They want to see how their work benefits the world, and similar to Career Oriented Workers, can easily burn out if they do not see the results of what they are doing, especially if it doesn’t appear to benefit the world. It is important to properly delegate tasks to them such as ones that directly impact the team or clients. This way, it is much easier for them to see that their work is benefitting them. While online or remote, this becomes a little more difficult, and you as a manager will need to be in communication.

Without a doubt, all three of these orientations and individuals who fall in them require proper communication and management to make the most out of them, especially while remote. However, after acknowledging how remote work can affect them, as a manager, you need to figure out if remote work is worth it. The key is being able to compare success rates both before and during remote work. This comparison can be made extremely simple with performance measurement software such as AIM insights. With proper insight, you can easily determine the utility of remote work.

by Grace Tripathy

Mon 16 May 2022

Retaining employees is an important part of building a successful team. When managers and supervisors work to make their teams feel valued and motivated, employees are more likely to stay with a company that can contribute to the company’s overall growth and prosperity.

Every company has a mission statement and a running list of goals to work towards. Should employee retention be the next goal added to your list?

In this article, we discuss the importance of employee retention and why it is crucial to enforce overall comprehension of Work Orientation within your company.

What are the benefits of employee retention?

● Build a strong workforce

Steady employee retention allows managers and supervisors to invest in their team members and helps them develop into more productive employees. When employees stay with a company long-term, they often accept more responsibilities, seek professional development, and help the company grow.

● Increase productivity

Instead of spending time looking for and training new employees, managers and supervisors can focus on helping employees be more productive. A stable staff knows what needs to be done and how they can achieve it. They have a strong foundation for advancement based on institutional knowledge and developed skills.

● Improve employee morale

Employee retention strategies are designed to increase employee happiness and job satisfaction. When managers regularly implement these strategies, they help increase employee morale overall. Employees who feel happy at work are often more willing to work toward the company's mission and contribute to a positive work environment.

Although these are great benefits to retaining your employees, what is the key to achieving employee satisfaction and retention?

Work Orientation!

Why is it important to know your employees’ Work Orientation?

Injecting meaning into work is a new mission that companies are willingly taking on in order to attract, retain and motivate employees. Under these conditions, finding meaning in one’s work becomes an additional aim for the employee and the manager.

Everyone has their own way of deriving meaning from work. We call this your Work Orientation. According to research done by Ambition in Motion, it is evident that people generally fall into one of three major categories based on how they find meaning at work. The categories are as follows:

● Career Oriented – which means motivated by professional growth like getting promoted or learning new skills that support career advancement.

● Calling Oriented – which means motivated by the fulfillment from doing the work and making a positive impact on the world with their work.

● Job Oriented – which means motivated by gaining greater control over work/life balance and gaining material benefits to support their life outside of work.

How to manage a Job Oriented employee:

When managing a Job Oriented employee, it is important to understand that they are more motivated by work/life balance and using their professional development to gain greater control and freedom over their life. Oftentimes, in a work setting, it is comforting to know that one’s company considers their workload and balance before pushing additional responsibilities onto them.

When making long-lasting connections with your Job Oriented employees, make sure they know that you and the company value their life outside of work, and the benefits from their work will resemble that.

How to manage a Calling Oriented employee:

When managing a Calling Oriented employee, know that they are motivated by changing the world through their work; making a difference in others’ lives. Essentially, their professional life and personal life missions are intertwined and it’s extremely beneficial for them to be understood and encouraged through their aspirations. Even when they’re at their peak of challenges and ongoing tasks, they find comfort in reinforcement.

When making long-lasting connections with your Calling Oriented employees, make sure that you have regular conversations with them about why their work is meaningful, and work to find ways that reinforce and build more meaningful work practices.

How to manage a Career Oriented employee:

When managing a Career Oriented employee, remember that they are most motivated by learning new skills and gaining promotions within the company and their work. It helps them to know that they are working towards a clear path with promotions and opportunities.

When making long-lasting connections with your career-oriented employees, it is critical that you clearly communicate your goals with them and listen to their goals within the company in order to reach fulfillment for both of you within the company.

How can you determine your employees’ work orientation?

Click here to take this free, 5-minute assessment created by the Ambition in Motion team, to find out what your work orientation is, and how to better understand the different types of work orientations: Work Orientation Assessment | Ambition In Motion

What are quick tips for retaining employees with your new Work Orientation strategies?

It's important to choose employee retention strategies that make sense for your workplace. The secret to retaining employees starts with understanding each employee’s work orientation. When implementing your strategies, use these tips:

Ask for employee feedback

Send out anonymous surveys to learn what your team members’ Work Orientation is as well as what their goals are within the company and within their personal lives. Ask them what changes they would like to see in the workplace. Have them also list any incentives that would help them feel more satisfied and valued and stay longer. By directly sourcing team members, you can customize employee retention strategies more effectively.

Looking for a more efficient way to evaluate performance reviews within your company? Ambition in Motion offers their software, AIM Insights, ensuring visibility over all ongoing activities: task performance, manager performance, organizational citizenship, team performance, goals for direct reports. Click here to learn more about how you can simplify your performance review process!

2. Create a work culture that’s inclusive to everyone’s Work Orientation

Promote wellness and kindness to create a stronger work culture. When people feel you value their well-being, they may feel more comfortable coming to you when they feel overwhelmed at work. Give your team opportunities to relax and recharge after a challenging task. Let them know it's acceptable to take mental health days or to take a break when they need it.

3. Be a mentor to all

Offer your team support, advice, and guidance for their careers. Give them opportunities to take on more responsibilities when they are ready. Ask them what they would like to improve and then create ways for them to reach their goals. Share your own career journey with your team, including your successes, setbacks, and greatest career advice.

by Malhar Lakshman

Tue 10 May 2022

As a manager, it is extremely important to understand what type of workers or direct reports you have. Each person has a unique archetype that they tend to fit into. These don’t necessarily refer to how they are motivated, which is also another important aspect of your direct reports to keep track of. There are six archetypes that are commonly identified.

What are the archetypes of workers?

In 2022, Forbes and Bain & Company worked together to determine how to organize workers and what characteristics each of these groups would have in common. Similar to the ubiquitous Enneagram tests or Myer Briggs tests, an aptitude test will suffice to test which group an individual fits into. The six most commonly identified archetypes are operators, givers, artisans, explorers, strivers, and pioneers. Each one of these groups has a uniquely defining trait, along with a few advantages and disadvantages.

Operators are individuals who are not really work-oriented. In the culinary world, there is a saying that there are two types of people. Those who eat to live, and those who live to eat. Operators are much closer to the former. They understand that there is more than work, and primarily work to be able to achieve other goals. Operators are excellent team players due to them not seeking recognition with every move they make and are extremely dependable. Conversely, they can lack proactivity, or will not take initiative frequently. According to Forbes, 23% of the working class in the United States are operators. This type of individual tends to align with having Job Work Orientation.

Givers are the exact opposite of the operators. They are highly results-oriented. These individuals are often selfless and feel rewarded by making an impact in their organization or by helping others. They are a little rarer than operators, making up about 20% of the American workforce. You will often find these workers in service positions, such as in hospitality, customer relations, or even human resources. Their selflessness makes them great team players, but the amount of work they may take on could be impractical and can lead to burnout. This type of individual tends to align with having a Calling Work Orientation.

Artisans are even rarer than both operators and givers. They make up 15% of the workforce in the United States. These individuals are extremely common in fields requiring meticulousness and precision, such as in many STEM-related fields. The key identifier of an artisan is someone who is always pursuing some form of mastery in their field or a way to improve something at all times. They can be relied on to solve some of the hardest challenges out there but can get lost in the minute details and may have trouble keeping final goals in focus. They can also be aloof. Similar to givers, artisans fall into the dangers of burnout due to their need to perfect any work that they put out. Artisans are especially common within the computer science industry, in positions such as developers or consultants.

Explorers make up a tenth of the workforce and are frequently overlooked in favor of Operators or Artisans. Explorers typically seek out excitement and variety from work and are excellent multitaskers. However, they are not the best at finishing individual tasks. They are versatile, either being excellent team players, as well as good individual workers. Resourcefulness is a quality any explorer will have, along with a strong sense of individuality. The fashion industry is filled with explorers, with some of note being Levi Jeans and the North Face. At the same time, there are brands that allow creativity such as Starbucks which also welcomes explorers.

Strivers can make some of the best managers in the world. Making up about a fifth of the workforce, these powerful workers are highly competitive and set high standards for themselves and their coworkers. In any successful team, you will find a striver at the forefront. They are less risk-tolerant and are much more comfortable taking actions that are much more likely to yield success. However, having multiple strivers can lead to disaster due to their urge to be at the front of whatever project is ongoing. While they are disciplined, their competitiveness can be unproductive or worse, disruptive, in a team environment. Culinary environments such as Michelin star-rated restaurants are frequently run by strivers, such as Gordon Ramsay. This type of individual tends to align with having a Career Work Orientation.

Finally, are the rarest of the archetypes- the Pioneer, making up 8% of the workforce. These individuals frequently have a vision in mind and will stop at no end to achieve these goals. Pioneers are strong-minded and will do their best to create lasting change. However, they are uncompromising and may have trouble seeing anything other than their own view. Many entrepreneurs are pioneers, along with activists. In today’s world, Greta Thunberg is known as a pioneer, with her strict views on climate change and global activism. She is seen as a leader throughout the world of sustainability but is often thought of as harsh due to her strict views.

Why do these archetypes matter?

These archetypes are important to track due to the appeal of creating a cohesive team, as well as understanding what tasks are best assigned to which worker. For example, giving something that is extremely meticulous to a giver will end in success, but won’t necessarily be the best for their mental health, since they may try to do too much and burn out. Similarly, giving a task that is a gamble to a striver is a contradiction of what they will naturally want to do, and will not be the best possible task for them.

In baseball, coaches frequently tell players to “play their natural game”, meaning that they should do what feels comfortable for them. In this case, you’re the coach. How will you choose to give tasks to your workers? By enabling them to do what they do best.

Software such as AIM insights will be invaluable in this case by allowing you to understand your employees on a much better level. By using task completion rates and success rates, you can deduce what archetype of worker your employee fits in, and then assign better fitting tasks going forth. Archetypes will help you understand your workers, give better tasks, and get better results.

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Equipping managers with data is a great first stop to helping them improve their performance

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Giving one on one feedback is critical to a manager being effective

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