Managerial Mindset and the Workforce of the Future
Workforce dynamics continue to change as different generations begin to work together - but the mindsets of management may be the determining factor for success.
It is undeniable that the quality of your workforce has a direct impact on your bottom line. Furthermore, the better your employees feel about your company, the more likely they are to boost productivity and increase the bottom line.
As the workplace has changed dramatically over the years, a common theme has emerged within intelligent organizations; create a better experience for employees that drives engagement and encourages retention of right-fit talent.
Rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and other technologies are accelerating the creation of intelligent enterprises, which in turn are immediately confronted with a pool deficient of qualified and success ready candidates. Much continues to be written about reskilling the workforce to enable people to become more valuable and productive in the digital world of business, but very little is presented addressing the role of management in the process of human capital optimization.
Are organizations producing the leaders necessary for the next generation to thrive, or will some simply continue to allow management tactics that are counter-productive or low in emotional intelligence? Or worse still, will critical talent shortages be exacerbated by those who refuse to budge off antiquated, even toxic, leadership behavior?
Each generation undoubtedly brings change to the workforce, but seventy-nine percent of managers say that they do not plan to change their management style to meet our next generation of workers. Adding to this rather perplexing position, more than a third (thirty-six percent) believe that managing employees from Generation Z will be more difficult than previous generations. According to demographers, Generation Z is comprised of individuals with birth years starting in the mid 1990’s to the mid-2000’s.
The lack of enthusiasm for America’s future workforce doesn’t stop there; more than a quarter of workplace managers anticipate major communications and training-related challenges, twenty-six percent of respondents believe that it will be more difficult to communicate with employees from Generation Z compared to older generations, and twenty-nine percent expect it will be more difficult to train them. More than 1 in 10 managers (sixteen percent) also expect Generation Z to negatively impact their company culture.
The minds of a great number of managers seem to be already decidedly set to “fail” before your new hire begins day one. These unfounded management biases must be overcome if you are to attract, develop, and retain the best and brightest necessary for growth.
Now, mix those preconceived opinions with the fact that of all the reasons people leave companies, having a bad manager tops the list. According to Gallup polls, a full fifty percent of employees who quit cite their manager as the reason.
Individuals may join a company for the growth opportunities, compensation, mission, or culture, but they frequently leave because they have a poor relationship with their manager. There’s really only one solution to this dilemma:
The quality of your managers and their management style must become your organization’s obsession if you are to compete for and retain the talent that will be charged with delivering desirable outcomes.
You must lead a change in organizational dynamics that starts inside the heads of those you entrust with talent success.
Managerial Mindset is a Key Driver of Employee Success
In 2008, Google conducted an intensive study to better understand the traits of its highly efficacious managers titled Project Oxygen. The internal examination of more than ten-thousand manager impressions included performance reviews, surveys, and nominations for top-manager awards and recognition. From this, Google identified ten behaviors of its best managers:
Is a good coach
Empowers team and does not micromanage
Creates an inclusive team environment, showing concern for success and well-being
Is productive and results-oriented
Is a good communicator — listens and shares information
Supports career development and discusses performance
Has a clear vision/strategy for the team
Has key technical skills to help advise the team
Collaborates across Google
Is a strong decision maker
One of the crucial attributes that came out of this research was a growth mindset--a term coined by Carol Dweck, professor of psychology at Stanford University. It's a firm belief that intelligence and talents can be cultivated over time.
By contrast, a fixed mindset suggests that intelligence and talents are predetermined. You're essentially stuck inside your current strengths and abilities. However, Google found that simply believing you and others can evolve makes you more eager to learn, challenge yourself, and experiment--which eventually boosts potential and performance.
Not surprisingly, research has shown that managers with fixed mindsets are less likely to give feedback or coach their direct reports. They are also less likely to solicit feedback or try to improve their own skills. After all, if you believe people can’t really change, what’s the point of giving or receiving coaching and feedback?
Managers with a growth mindset, on the other hand, understand that their job goes beyond just giving marching orders. “These managers,” writes Dweck, “are more committed to their employees’ development, and to their own. They give a great deal more developmental coaching, they notice improvement in employees’ performance, and they welcome critiques from their employees.”
As we addressed in our October 2019 X-Factor Leadership Letter, managers with a fixed mindset are less likely to try and help their employees through coaching—but researchers did find that managers with a fixed mindset who participated in learning and development workshops illustrating how people can grow and positively change were more willing to coach, and their engagement in and quality of their coaching greatly improved. It emerges that coaching can be encouraged if you first convince managers it has the probability of making a difference.
Google’s big ten list was highly predictive of team outcomes like turnover, satisfaction, and performance and the higher the scores a manager received on those behaviors, the better those three outcomes were for their teams over the next year. In fact, their team members were more likely to stay at Google, gave higher subsequent satisfaction scores on employee surveys, and were better performers.
Growth mindset management is not only critical, but also delivers better employee outcomes. These managers will not see our future workforce as a negative to contend with, or as an insurmountable challenge, but as an opportunity to mold young minds and build dream teams from those who others, of lesser skill and weaker perspective, unnecessarily doubted. Now, that’s a dynamic which will be hard to beat.
For more information on learning and development workshops for management mindset and emotional intelligence, please contact us here.