The effect of managers on others

I am not the first to notice this.  Managers have a massive impact upon others in the workplace.  I wonder sometimes if the poorly skilled manager realises how much impact he or she has the staff they manage?

I have just finished coaching a client who has become totally de-skilled.  This is an intelligent, competent and experienced individual.  Slowly, bit by bit, their confidence has been eroded. Once the confidence goes, it is easy for any individual (no matter how robust) to get worse and worse.  It is a vicious cycle. As the person starts to feel less confident, they make more mistakes or are hesitant making decisions. They end up seeking reassurance.  The manager then feels justified not trusting them in the first place and 'monitors' them even more....

Before you know it, the individual has lost confidence and then their abilities.  It can take a long time to repair this sort of damage. 

If you are a manager reading this, and you don't believe me... Please have a look at Daniel Goleman's work on working with emotional intelligence.  He found that we (humans) are very sensitive to this level of mistrust.  You only need to do a presentation and be undermined/interrupted one time too many by your manager (or an 'expert' in the room) and you will become de-skilled. It takes a really strong presenter to cope with this.

Call to action:

It is not original but here is the adage again: Catch your staff doing things right.  If you are going to criticise, do it gently and respectfully as each time you do it, you are taking a massive withdrawal from the goodwill bank account.

Take care
Paul