Half of managers misjudge their workplace performance
New research from CMI reveals that over half of managers misjudge their strengths in the workplace – a situation which is hindering the performance of the UK’s already struggling businesses and public sector organisations.
CMI recently questioned UK managers to find out which aspects of management they thought they were best at. Of the 2,158 managers polled, almost half (44 per cent) said they excelled at managing people. Twenty-one per cent were target-busters, 19 per cent believed they were strongest at managing themselves and just 14 per cent felt they were born to lead.
CMI has since put those perceptions to the test by inviting UK workers to use a specially-developed self-diagnostic tool to work out where their strengths and weaknesses lie. The results strongly contradict managers’ perceptions, revealing that, in practice, UK managers are best at getting results (41 per cent) and strong leadership (37 per cent). Just 14 per cent of the 6,056 people who used the tool excelled at people management and a paltry eight per cent proved to be best at managing themselves.
CMI is blaming this strength-perception gap on a perilous combination of years of inadequate training and development for those in management roles and the increasing number of people who reluctantly fall into management positions. Sixty-eight per cent of UK managers categorise themselves as ‘accidental’ managers meaning they had no desire to become a manager when they embarked on their careers. Almost as many (63 per cent) had no management training before taking up a senior post and just one in five managers hold any type of formal management qualification.
More than 6,000 people have analysed their management strengths, and worked out which weaker areas they need to work on, by using CMI’s free Compare the Manager tool to date. The 12 quick-fire questions can be accessed at www.comparethemanager.com or www.facebook.com/bettermanagers
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According to research conducted by BT Business in 2009, "management failures" account for 2 in 5 staff resignations.
This statistic would certainly appear to support the assertion that there is a real dearth of management ability and it is having a very real impact on business performance and individuals alike.
Bit of a worry that with all the 360 reviews and other ways of supposedly evaluating both your performance and how others perceive you, that this still happens.
I think I'm a wonderful manager and all of my staff agree completely.
There's an interesting study here looking into how we perceive ourselves and how those close to us perceive us.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0020963
When Allik and colleagues compared what people thought of themselves compared with their friend's judgement, some consistent differences emerged. Here's what they found, on average, across all the participants:
What makes this interesting is the comparison with our Compare the Manager findings that people generally think they're above average (wrongly so).