Managers need to take a hard look in the mirror to see themselves as others see them. That’s according to a new report by the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development. The report arises out of CIPD quarterly “Employee Outlook” survey which identifies a significant gap between managers’ image of themselves and the experience of those they manage. The report provides evidence of the size of the gap but does not offer much insight into the reason for it existence. I regularly experienced this “reality gap” as a senior manager. The policy was clear every manager should provide one to one meetings with their staff once a month. All managers claimed to do this yet staff surveys, feedback from training courses and disciplinary hearings all provided evidence to the contrary.When pursued most managers genuinely thought they provided regular one to one sessions with a few disclaimers for annual leave, sickness and the occasional double booking. The reality as evidenced by the supervision records was some what different. The gap was in the difference between sessions booked and those that happened. Managers were surprised at how many sessions failed to take place because one or other was on holiday or something else came up at the last minute. Once cancelled sessions weren’t rearranged often because there was another in what was already a crowed diary.The same difference in perceptions was found when exploring what was covered in these meetings. Managers were clear that they provided feedback, encouragement and discussed personal development. Employees said sessions were routinely used to allocate work, chase missed deadlines and occasionally sign a training form which they didn’t consider constituted discussing professional development. Some managers when challenged were even less conscientious saying that they didn’t think the policy on one to one supervision applied to all groups of staff giving admin as an example and saying experienced staff didn’t need that level of support. Or simply that they had too many staff to provide all of them with regular sessions.Some managers have good intensions but are just too busy, some know what’s expected and just ignore it as unrealistic and some think it is a waste of time. The research makes the point that good managers make the time to support their staff. 360 degree feedback might help managers see how their staff view them but even then some mangers would find it difficult to square the feedback with their perception of themselves. From my experience the most effective way to develop managers self awareness and people skills is through coaching were the coach observes the individual in a variety of management situations like a team meeting or a one to one session and provides detailed feedback.Blair McPherson is author of Equipping managers for an uncertain future which contains a detailed case study on the use of mentoring and coaching as part of a management development programme and is published by Russell House.
