Why Isn’t your Boss’s Boss Firing Your Bad Boss? More System-Level Issues
By Michelle Malay Carter on November 18, 2007
I’ve read quite a few articles lately advising unhappy employees to “fire their boss”.? This is easy for the employed to say, and it makes career gurus feel like they are helping disenchanted employees by empowering them.? It is a valid coping strategy for individuals, but it doesn’t address the system-level issue that caused the bad boss situation.
Most organizations place little emphasis on managerial leadership.? Further, organizations are systematically outsourcing more managerial leadership accountabilities to human resources, and therefore,?it’s no surprize that we are watching employee engagement plummet.
I’ve said before systems telegraph values and drive behavior.? You may say managerial leadership is important, but the proof must be found in the system.? Let’s take a look at performance management systems.
What Gets Measured, Gets Done.? A question to my readers who are managers:?
Do any of your performance measures relate to your managerial leadership effectiveness?? Or are all your measures related to outputs within the technical portion of your role?
Leave me a comment and let me know if any portion of your performance appraisal deals with your effectiveness as a manager.? If I get no comments, I will?reinforce my assertion that?organizations do not value managerial leadership.
The lack of accountability for exercising effective managerial leadership is stunning!? Why aren’t managers-once-removed accountable for tracking and evaluating the managerial leadership effectiveness of their direct reports who are managers?
Conclusion?
Until organizations view managerial leadership as a vital component of managerial roles instead of something managers should tack on at the end of the day if they have time, bad bosses will continue to terrorize work environments unchecked.? High potential employees with more options will continue to fire their bosses, and we will see organizations to continue to wonder where all their talented employees went.
How to Fix the System?
So, we are back to fixing the system.? For yet another reason, organizations must institutionalize two levels of accountability, one for the manager, one for the manager-once-removed.
I’m OK.? You’re OK.? Let’s fix the system.? Do your systems value or ignore managerial leadership?
Filed Under Accountability, Corporate Values, Employee Engagement, Executive Leadership, High Potential, Managerial Leadership, Organization Design, Requisite Organization, Talent Management
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