No matter what field or industry you work in, we’ve all had the experience of working for someone who was clearly not fit for the leadership role. In some cases, this was manifested in their inability to make key decisions and in the worst-case scenarios, it was like working with the boss from hell. Under these situations, it’s typical to wonder why someone who can’t effectively lead others would be given such a position. Now, thanks to two recent studies, some light has been cast on why these situations are more the rule than the exception.

In a recent survey conducted by CareerBuilder among over 2 000 US employers and almost 4 000 US employees, it was revealed that 58% of managers hadn’t received any form of management training. This finding most likely explains why 26% of these same managers admitted that they weren’t ready to become a leader when they took on these management roles.

Looking at the relationship between these managers and their employees, the survey authors found that managers cited motivating their employees and managing interpersonal conflicts between co-workers as the top challenges that they have to face as leaders in their organization.

As for the employees surveyed for this study, some of the top concerns they had about their manager were a lack of regular feedback, not listening to the concerns of the employees, and a failure to follow through on what their manager said they would do.

In another study, Bradford Thomas and Scott Erker from Development Dimensions International (DDI) conducted a survey of 1 130 supervisors and first-level managers to understand how they’re overcoming the challenges they face as leaders, and what obstacles might be preventing them from succeeding in these roles.

Like the CareerBuilder study, Thomas and Ecker also found that Click here to continue reading »”Becoming A Leader For All The Wrong Reasons”

Today’s piece is a guest post by global talent management strategist and international executive search professional, Dorothy Dalton.  Dorothy is based in Brussels, but also works in the UK and Spain and is a Partner at Hansar Transition Services. She’s a certified coach and trainer with a focus on career transition and management, with a special interest in supporting organizations in the creation and development of the best possible talent pipelines.  She has written several interesting pieces about how gender differences impact workplace interactions on her blog, insights that she shares in this guest piece below.

Let’s stop being trapped by political correctness. Do men and women need different types of management training? I think so.

A number of spin off issues came from my recent research on bullying by women in the workplace – but several were particularly interesting.

Workplace Mars and Venus

One of them was that both men and women alike, shared the need for management and organizational training with a specifically gender related thread. A sort of Mars / Venus for work place skills. This wasn’t specifically just about sexual harassment, but basic communication, conflict resolution and managing expectations. This flies in the face of the common corporate gender-neutral, one-size-fits all management training that exists in most organizations today.

Many would view this as a backward step. But is it really?

Jane Gunn, the Corporate Peacemaker and author of the book “How to Beat Bedlam in the Boardroom and Boredom in the Bedroom”, suggests that “difference is the starting point for adding or creating value. What is needed most is to understand the value that each gender brings to the workplace and how each gender can learn from, rather than feel threatened by, the other”.

Differences are not negative. They’re just different.

Shouldn’t we just be acknowledging the existence of gender differences and recognize that we all need training on how to deal with them, rather than assuming as we do now, that we can all slip into business (gender) neutral on our own. Click here to continue reading »”A Case For Gender-Related Management Training”