Something is going on out there.
At a recent meeting of a dozen or so CEO’s I attended, one raised a growing issue of concern.
He said that he had observed that a good proportion of his newer, younger mangers did not mange effectively and seemed disinterested in doing so. In particular, they avoided the necessary difficult conversations that went with the role and were afraid of anything approaching a confrontation with difficult staff. He added that he had wondered if these occurrences were a result of poor decision-making about managerial appointments or if the issue was more about better training in mangement. He had concluded that it was neither but more of a generational issue.
He felt that he needed to downgrade these management positions to less expnsive team leader roles but conceded that team leaders also needed to display management skills.
Almost all the other CEO’s present readily agreed with him – they were facing exactly the same problem.
I realise that 12 is hardly a scientific sample but it does make me wonder if we are witnessing the emergence of a new generationally-driven leadership issue – what will leaders need to do to ensure that their new managers are not only capable of managing but are effective in practice as well.
