Think you’re the only manager having trouble taking the leadership reins? Think again.
A new study reveals that more than 86 percent of managers at Fortune 1000 companies aren’t “fully engaged” in in their roles, are still operating primarily as individual contributors or are stuck in transition to the manager role.
The five-year study by ConceptReserve looked at 2,600 managers at 149 Fortune 1000 and other large organizations across the United States and Eastern Canada. According to preliminary results, the five biggest challenges that new managers said they faced:
- Doing versus managing the work
- Managing former peers
- Letting go of being the expert
- Lack of time to get things done
- Producing results versus developing and coaching people
“Our proprietary research reveals that this leadership crisis among managers is more than 10 times worse than the 1970s and at least four times worse than the 1990s,” said John Davis, ConceptReserve’s CEO, in a press release. “The hard reality is that if managers do not make a timely transition to the manager role once they become managers, they will not make the kind of contribution their organization requires.”
I’ve come across all the difficulties listed above in my past incarnations as a manager, and I’m the first to admit it ain’t always easy when you’re bumped up to boss status. Have you had similar challenges? Have you worked for a manager who just couldn’t step into a leadership role? Has your company struggled with empowering newly promoted employees, or created a management-training program? I’d love to hear your feedback.
(image by Hamed Saber via Flickr, CC 2.0)
