Is anyone still listening?

The confidence from the C-suite to the employee is down in most companies. The conversation is focused on cost containment and expense reductions. Budgets again are being slashed and people are being asked to “do more with less”.

Many companies are discarding the talent that took them to the top. Experts today note that Talent Management is more important than ever but it appears to be falling on deaf ears.

Are you listening?

Changes in the economy are often precursors to changes in the ways we do business. Why are we still focused on everything except what we need to do? We need to retain top talent and develop the future talent for our company needs. The ASTD just published a major report titled, “Mission Critical – Keep Learning. This publication demonstrates “How to Communicate the Value of Learning in Difficult Economic Times”. Their publication is calling for all learning professionals to get in involved and make sure they contribute to a successful talent management strategy. The author feels that the ability to get the right people with the right skills into the right jobs in a cost-effective way makes it possible for a company to respond strategically. The publication also goes on to say that the entire organization must make the learning function support the organizations goals. The key decision makers in the organization must see a meaningful relationship between learning initiatives and results. Now there is a thought! Be more effective than just focusing of efficiencies. Isn’t it time to make sure that all programs focused on people development are directly linked to business goals?

Are you still listening?

The next thing is for everyone to realize that our middle management is the “glue that holds the company together”. I just recently read an article in HR Daily Advisor titled, “Top Five Mistakes Leaders Make in Tough Times”. In her opinion, Ellen McDargh,CSP, CPAE, felt that in tough times, leaders become reactive and reactionary, huddle with only the corporate folks, subscribe to the “cut…cut…cut” philosophy, target new clients and customers, and subscribe to the “do more with less”. Middle management is the leader of the majority of the staff. They must focus on being effective and producing the desired results in areas that have been bludgeoned to death by cost containment measures and layoffs.

A recent survey of the American workers demonstrated that “Good Management” is the most important thing that employees want in the workplace. Things that finished far behind “Good Management” included respect of colleagues, money and benefits, learning new skills, and having a fun environment.

Is anyone listening?

We need to make leaders out of every employee but the most important ingredient for business success is the development of the middle manager. Middle management must elevate morale in poor economic times, retain and motivate the high achieving employee, their team is expected to comprehend the “bigger picture” in terms of strategy and recommended plans of action. It is more important for the middle manager to break down the strategy into goals that can be comprehended and implemented by the action of the staff. They need to give direction, monitor performance, discipline the staff, and demonstrate organizational effectiveness by getting results. In addition to all of this, they have to understand that their actions may put them in the same legal liability position as that of their company. That’s quite the responsibility! Shouldn’t they continue to learn how to manage their employees as well as themselves?

I have read article after article on the Benchmarks involved with Human Resources Departments and have not found Mid-level management development as one of the major benchmarks for success. I have heard about the metrics associated with organizational performance, HR service and delivery, employee engagement, voluntary turnover, HR practices, budget management, technology assessment, and more. What is HR and the C-Level doing to continue their company’s success??

Here at Innovative Leadership, we have focused our company on the development of middle level managers and our programs compliment all of the metrics ever associated with a strategically oriented HR Department:

1. Tools that qualify potential management candidates from the date of hire.
2. Training and Development Courses that highlight goal-orientation and business results
3. Provides an organization with the ROI prior to the start of the program
4. Offers a variety of cost effective platforms including online application.
5. Course evaluation processes measure the changes in the behaviors and skill-sets associated with high achieving mid-level managers

We do things differently and our results demonstrate just that. Please tell me just one thing . . . Is anybody still listening?