The Big Manager Realignment

Like many companies, as they grew they promoted their best people into manager roles. They were the first hires. The top performers in their discipline. The people they trusted because they had been with them from the beginning.

This is a normal, everyday occurring practice, and this is a story about how a company realized that those promotion decisions had led them down a destructive path.

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Managers were struggling to balance business priorities and leading. Employee exits were increasing. HRBPs were over-extended with employee relation issues.

As an organization they were spinning their wheels. Digging themselves deeper and deeper into the muck.

They’d brought in consultants to lead manager training and it felt like they were ticking a box, not actually affecting change. Attendance and engagement was lackluster, impact wasn’t noticeable after almost 12 months. It seemed as if manager’s who attended, fell right back into their well-worn grooves.

To make an impact they had to make a radical move. The data was already there in their engagement surveys, exit interviews, and struggles. They didn’t need another investment in focus groups and discovery interviews, they needed a solution that pushed the boundaries of what they were comfortable with.

They needed to do what had not been done before.

• They asked every manager if they wanted to be a people manager — and made it okay to opt out by offering the same salary and the title of “discipline principal” - still seen as senior in their area of expertise, without direct reports.
• For managers who wanted to continue their people leadership journey, they trained AND coached them. Core Skills: Developing Individuals, Building High Performing Teams. 1:1 Coaching: meeting every people leader where they were —providing tailored, focused, coaching.
• They created motivation and accountability by reengineering the processes that measured leadership success: performance management, promotions, stretch assignments.
• They communicated what they were doing and why. And, the “they” was the executive leadership team. Not HR, not L&D — but the most senior leaders in the organization. Success of their leaders was on their shoulders.

It was hard. Messy. Uncomfortable. It took time, and a long-term commitment to stick with it. And, they had to hold onto the belief that this type of radical change is what it takes to build sustainable success.

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This is the work I get excited to do. The different. The impactful. The norm-busting and status quo changing.

You ready? Let's talk.