Connection

What’s the most important decision a company makes? 

• Should we introduce a new product?
• Should we merge with another company?
• Should we open a new sales office?

While each of these is important, none of them is the most important question a company should ask.   It’s not even the second most important decision a company can make.

By far, the most important decision a company makes is who to hire.   Each and every employee who joins the company makes the organization either a little better or a little worse.   He or she can be an ambassador thus attracting more talent or can be toxic and push current employees out the door.   So inviting new employees to join the organization is of utmost importance.

The second most important decision – ahead of new plants, new products, new services, new office space, new policies, and hundreds of other decisions – is who to promote into a management position.

Why such an emphasis on who becomes a manager?   Because, as the saying goes, no one quits a company; they quit a boss.

Managers, particularly frontline managers, wield influence over other employees.   These supervisors are responsible for the performance and engagement of multiple employees so the organizational impact these leaders have is significant.   Choosing the right people to manage other employees is therefore elevated to silver medal status on the decision-making podium.

Is there a key element in choosing first-time supervisors and promoting supervisors to ever-higher authority levels?   Yes!   And it can be found in one word:
                                   Connection.
That’s what makes for a good manager — the ability to connect with others.

When I work with organizations, I’m amazed at some of the managers I meet.   They don’t smile.   They don’t talk much.   When they do talk, it’s more of a mumble.   And that’s just during introductions!

When we begin talking about management, it’s clear they don’t have good interpersonal skills which most often results in poor performance for both the team and the supervisor.   I’ve even come across one manager who flat out said, “I really just don’t like people.”

Liking people and having the ability to connect on a personal level is the most important factor in being an effective manager.   Legendary Packers coach Vince Lombardi understood this.   Yes, he was a very demanding “boss” and had high expectations from his “workers.”   Yet he also cared for them deeply and expected the team to care for each other.  

Author Michael Lee Stallard stated it this way in a   September 2014 blog  entry:  "Vince Lombardi had a passion for relationship excellence too. He loved his players. He told them they must love one another and said love made the difference on their team.”

That idea of loving your teammates can be found in the report Future Work Skills 2020.   This research points to Social Intelligence as being one of ten key skills required for business success:
​
Social Intelligence: the ability to connect to others in a deep and direct way, to sense and stimulate reactions and desired interactions.

Organizations must move away from promoting people simply based on things like individual performance or tenure.     Certainly these items are part of the promotion equation but the overriding selection criteria is the people factor.   An effective manager is someone who is both likable and who likes other people.  Key to an organization's success, then, is finding those supervisors who deeply care for the people in their charge.

As Simon Sinek once said:   "How management chooses to treat its people impacts everything -- for better or for worse."
​
What do you think?  Agree?   Or is there a different #1 factor for supervisor success?  ​

---