Caught in the Middle: Why Developing and Retaining Middle Managers Can Be So Challenging

Published: May 28, 2008 in Knowledge@Wharton

Almost every company has them. They may number six or 6,000 and they all share the same job category -- middle managers. They are often referred to as the "glue" that holds companies together, bridging the gap between the top management team and the lower level workers. They implement strategy and organizational changes, keeping workers engaged during both good and bad economic cycles.

 

However, middle managers also can be a challenging group of employees to develop and retain. According to a 2007 Accenture survey of middle managers around the world, 20% reported dissatisfaction with their current organization and that same

percentage reported that they were looking for another job. One of the top reasons cited was lack of prospects for advancement.

 

"Many companies are seeing significant turnover in middle management ranks, and with significant turnover, they don't have the ability to execute strategy," says vice dean of Wharton Executive Education Thomas Colligan. "Top management can

spend all their time creating strategy, but without someone there to implement it, where are you at the end of the day?"

 

In addition to strategy implementation issues, the cost of turnover is extremely high for companies. Colligan noted that one large partnership facing a 20% turnover rate did a calculation in which it concluded that for each 1% it could reduce turnover, it would increase partner earnings by $80,000.

 

"Middle managers are very important to attract, develop and retain, and some companies are becoming painfully aware of that." These observations are even truer in a down economy that is struggling with higher gas and food prices,reduced consumer spending, downsizing and a degree of uncertainty that is affecting industries across the board.

 

David Sirota, co-author of The Enthusiastic Employee: How Companies Profit by Giving Workers What They Want, predicts that middle managers will "again bear a significant part of the pain that the current economic conditions will bring." After the last downsizings in the 1980s and 1990s, many of the middle management positions that were eliminated have reappeared. These could be likely targets again, he notes.

Joe Ryan, adjunct professor at Wharton Executive Education, agrees. As companies go through economic cycles like the current one, middle managers get hit with the elimination of rewards and incentives and, in some cases, layoffs. This is particularly true now in the financial services industry, he says. "In cost-cutting times, knee-jerk reactions happen. There is a paradox where middle managers are essential, but end up sacked when restructuring occurs. It's a rough situation because the people needed to run the most important projects are in the middle."

 

If companies don't manage change well, they will confront a "frozen" middle management and "vicious cycles of low morale and low engagement," Ryan says. "Regardless of the economic climate, companies need to build a resilient workforce and engage the middle to go forward, because this is where change occurs."

Lack of Advancement

Middle managers are essential in organizations, in part because they link senior management and the rest of the company. Sirota describes them as "the glue across upper and lower levels as well as horizontally with other departments."

According to Jane Farran, a senior fellow in Wharton Executive Education and managing partner of the consulting firm C4, with the economy under siege these days, "a lot of belt tightening is occurring. Many companies are nipping and tucking to make their numbers." That's not a good strategy, she suggests.

Indeed, when companies have tried flattening their hierarchies in the past -- thinking that middle managers are extraneous and a few layers of them could be eliminated -- the result was not what they expected.

"These intermediaries have a very important role," she says. "The middle managers translate strategy and the big picture so that it makes sense and is applicable for the day-to-day workers." At the same time, middle managers are taking note of workers' needs, making their own observations of client interfaces and shop floor activity, and relaying that information up to the senior managers. In addition, "they are a buffer between the top managers" and lower-level employees.

If middle managers are so valuable, why would they report dissatisfaction and leave their companies? A primary reason is lack of advancement opportunity, says Sirota. "When companies downsize, they will often cut middle management ranks. But even if companies just stagnate, advancement opportunities are limited. This hits people very hard, particularly people in their late 30s and 40s."

Bringing in new people -- as opposed to promoting from within the company -- can also present a "tremendous frustration" to middle managers, says Sirota. The track records of external people are typically not as good as internal employees who have a deeper knowledge of the company. "And when someone new comes in, he or she often has a view of existing middle managers, [one that says], 'If you were already working here, then you can't be too smart and we need to clean house.' This has a

detrimental effect on a workplace."

In addition, using search firms to fill top positions from outside can send a message that "maybe middle managers shouldn't stay at that company any longer," says Colligan. He describes one company which historically brought in top-level leaders from the outside, resulting in the departure of managers one level below, many of whom went on to become CEOs and CFOs at other companies. "The company had great people who knew they would never become CEO if they stayed. I'm not suggesting that there is never a time to use search firms, but for some companies, the search firms are almost their human resources department."

 

Whether they aspire to be a CEO or not, middle managers need a plan that will take them to the next level, Colligan adds. "If a middle manager sees that ... there are opportunities to grow, then retention is increased versus a company that sticks someone in a slot with no development or discussion about moving him into another position, even if it's a lateral move to expand experiences."

 

Thousands of boutique search firms are calling middle managers these days to entice them to take a job at another company. If people are not on a track, or are unsure of where they are going in the next couple of years within a company, they are more vulnerable to being picked off by a competitor. "People tend to be tweaked by these calls," Colligan says. "You don't have to be totally dissatisfied. You might be doing

okay, but see that this new opportunity could improve your station in life and offer more compensation.

People compare jobs more quickly today than ever before and there is more of a willingness to change." Other top reasons for dissatisfaction among middle managers include micromanagement by senior managers and lack of respect, says Sirota. "And sometimes the senior leader is just really ineffective; middle managers don't want to be in a company that is run by that type of person."

Then there is the stereotypical situation in which middle managers have no authority but all of the accountability, according to Wharton management professor Jennifer Mueller. These managers must navigate "the upward hierarchy extremely well and also influence people beneath them," she says. "This can be complicated and frustrating because the ways in which these things happen are often not codified

in terms of the relationships people have."

Navigating the various relationships upward, downward and horizontally can be an emotional management challenge, adds Wharton management professor Sigal Barsade. "This is particularly noticeable with organizational change. If you are a middle manager, there may be a change that you didn't have much to do with, but you need to translate it to your people and make them feel protected and valued.

However, you are also someone being impacted by the change. Because you didn't design the change, you might be left feeling like you don't know what to do yourself, but you still need to comfort, protect and inspire your people."

Indeed, middle managers are often torn in two because of the need to play a translation role – listening to the top and being responsive to the bottom, says Farran. "When you talk to them, they feel that strategic thinking is the last thing they have time for, and they almost always feel unappreciated and misunderstood."

The 60/20/20 Rule

"When people come in the door, 20% will make partner no matter what you do; 20% will not make partner no matter what you do, and 60% will make partner if you do the right things," says Colligan, referring, for example, to law firms and investment banks. In other words, the highest performers will succeed and the lowest performers will not succeed. However, for those 60% in the middle, "the right things" can make a big difference.

Given the high cost of turnover and the importance of middle managers in implementing strategy and change, how do you "do the right things" to help those people move up?

Individual development plans that are connected to corporate goals, and access to educational opportunities can play a big role in increasing retention rates, Colligan states. "While many companies don't have robust education programs, they can send employees for an executive education program on marketing, strategy or finance -- something that enhances their skills as a middle manager. It tells the manager that the company cares about him or her. Companies that do this on a regular basis tend to find turnover lower."

 

While most organizations don't readily admit to neglecting middle managers, it can happen because senior managers tend to be so consumed with strategy, particularly in today's rapidly changing markets, Colligan says. "I can understand top management focusing on strategic initiatives, but they need to be careful not to spend all of their time doing that. Some time should be spent on the development and retention of middle managers."

Another solution gaining popularity today is coaching, Colligan adds. Coaches are no longer brought in only for remedial reasons. Today it's more like having a personal trainer. "The example is, 'You don't think you need a coach? Tiger Woods has three.' They are mostly used for top managers, but you are starting to see them used for middle managers as well. Those employees may get group coaching, or they might do a 360-degree review and self assessments with Myers-Briggs types of tests to learn their leadership styles. Most middle managers who go on to top management positions certainly go through that, with more individual coaching coming in later as they move up."

Part of this group coaching might include learning about the dynamics of being in the middle, suggests Farran. "We often advise middle managers to first, recognize the dynamic and second, not get drawn into trying to solve all the problems of both top and lower managers. It helps middle managers immensely when they feel that they aren't the only ones who feel this way.... We recommend that they meet with their peers across an organization to compare notes about messages from the top and issues from the bottom, to help with problem solving and to gain perspective."

Barsade notes that participation can also be key in reducing turnover. "Really involving middle managers and allowing them to participate in a change decision, design and implementation will lead them to have more buy-in and ownership so when they have more accountability, they can step up to that."

Ryan stresses communication as a key element for finding ways to engage midlevel managers in understanding a company's new strategic initiatives -- "helping people at the middle understand in more tangible terms what they need to do. This may include more concrete objectives, examples and messages so that people who interface with customers or run processes understand where the company is and what it needs to do differently."

As for tools to retain middle management, Mueller suggests that bonuses and incentives aren't that helpful. "These are things that happen once a year or are relatively small." Instead, what's important is treating employees with fairness and recognizing their contributions. "When people perceive inequity in their environment because they put in more than they are getting, or inconsistencies where others are

putting in less and getting more, this can create all sorts of dissatisfaction," she says. "Also, all of the different things that middle managers do aren't necessarily being recognized because they are working with so many people across the organization who aren't necessarily communicating with each other. Recognizing value is part of how fairness translates for this group."

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Bain & Company's Sri Rajan: 'Private Equity Has to Show Indian Companies the Value It Can Bring'

Published: May 29, 2008 in India Knowledge@Wharton

In the wake of the U.S. financial crisis, valuations of Indian firms have

tumbled -- something which the private equity industry has been careful to

note, according to Sri Rajan, partner and head of Bain & Company's private

equity practice in India. Over the next few months, he predicts, "we'll see a

lot more deal flow with private equity firms in India." Rajan, whose work

with private equity funds includes mergers and acquisitions, post-merger

integration, offshore outsourcing and assessing entry and exit risks,

discussed the industry outlook with India Knowledge@Wharton at the

Wharton India Economic Forum in Philadelphia.

An edited transcript of the conversation follows.

Knowledge@Wharton: Has the U.S. financial crisis affected the private

equity industry and India?

Rajan: I think that the impact [in India] is primarily because the stock

market has been impacted. The private equity industry is looking at what is

happening in India very closely, because valuations have come down over

the last couple of months. And what [funds] are hoping is that at some point in time, these downward

trends in valuations will have an impact in terms of the attractiveness of some of these assets.

We haven't seen an increase in the amount of deal flow yet, and we haven't seen the impact of valuations

yet on Indian companies. But, my perspective is that over the course of the next two or three months, we

will see that impact. And we will see a lot more deal flow with private equity firms in India.

Knowledge@Wharton: Is that very similar to what you think might happen in other emerging markets

as well, like China?

Rajan: I think that it is. The one big difference between India and other emerging markets like China is

that over the last three or four years, there has been a significant amount of activity in the private equity

industry in India -- and that is not true for China. So, in terms of both volume and the quantity of private

equity money that has been put to use in India, it has been far higher than China. I think that's the one

basic difference that will lead to increased deal flow in India, compared even to China.

Knowledge@Wharton: What, in India, would you say are the most attractive sectors for investment at

the present time?

Rajan: If you look at the trend over the course of the last three or four years: In 2004 and 2005, the most

attractive sectors were the IT sectors, IT companies, BPO companies and so on. In 2007, the most

attractive sectors were real estate and infrastructure. That is where the bulk of the money went in.

It's a little difficult to predict what will happen, given what's going on with valuations. My sense is that

we will see a lot of activity across all sectors if valuations stay where they are. We're going to see a lot

more activity in manufacturing, which we haven't seen a lot of over the course of the last few years. I

think that India is becoming a manufacturing hub for a lot of subsectors. And, given that, I think there

will be a lot more deals that will happen in manufacturing than what we have seen. My sense is that

services will come back as well. As valuations of services companies also become more attractive, I

think that you will see a lot more of deal flow over there.

Knowledge@Wharton: In making investments, or actually evaluating investments in emerging markets

like India, what kinds of attributes should firms be looking for?

Rajan: The challenge with doing investments in India, especially private equity investments, is that you

have to look at both the macro picture as well as the company very carefully. And, in many instances,

that information is not available very readily -- or not as readily as it might be in the United States, for

example.

So, one of the things that private equity firms have to do is to really understand the macro picture --

understand what the trends are -- but more importantly, have a very good sense about the quality of the

asset, the quality of the company that they are buying, both from a financial perspective and also from

the quality of management team perspective. I think that those are actually very important things and are

as important as accounting diligence and legal diligence, for example, and are what a private equity firm

should look for.

Knowledge@Wharton: One issue that comes up for private equity in any market is finding the right

people to run things. In India, this seems like it is especially an issue. Is that issue likely to get worse, or

do you think that it will get better?

Rajan: I think that it is going to get worse before it gets better. Over the course of the last couple of

years, a lot of money has come to India. There are a lot of funds that are setting up shop in India. I don't

think that that's going to calm down.

I think that we are going to see many more funds which have not yet set up an office in India, but are

looking to set up a presence over there. And, I think that there is going to be a lot more difficulty in terms

of getting talent, especially people who understand what the private equity landscape is like in India, and

how to do deals over there. And so, my sense is that it's probably going to get worse before it gets better.

Knowledge@Wharton: What do you think it would take to make it better?

Rajan: I'm not sure that there is a "fix," so to speak. I think that there are a lot of people who are moving

from other parts of the world to India. These are people who have experience in terms of private equity

deals with offices in New York or London or Hong Kong. So, those people have the private equity

experience. I think the challenge is that those same people will now need to come to India and develop

the relationships that are necessary to make private equity deals happen -- and that, I think, will take

time. So, I'm not entirely sure that there is a quick fix. We're going to have to wait this one out for the

next year or so.

Knowledge@Wharton: Aside from the larger market shocks that have been taking up all of the

headlines, what kinds of trends do you see taking place in private equity in general?

Rajan: One of the things that the private equity industry is concerned about, apart from valuations, has

been the regulatory framework within India. So far, the private equity industry has been unregulated for

the most part. I think that the government has started making noises about potentially controlling flows

into India. I'm not entirely sure where that will go, but that's certainly one concern.

The second concern really is the access to domestic debt markets. In India, it is very difficult to access

domestic debt to do buy-outs, for example. And so, what a lot of private equity funds do is set up

offshore vehicles in order to do that. The debt market has to be developed a lot more for private equity

funds to access that. I don't know when that will happen. I think that it's a matter of time and it's a

question of when, not if. But, I would say that those are two of the issues that private equity firms need to

think about.

Knowledge@Wharton: What sort of opportunities do you see coming up on the horizon?

Rajan: I think that the opportunities are actually very large in India. I say this because I think that the

opportunities exist in almost every sector. We just heard from a panel on infrastructure that talked about

opportunities exist in almost every sector. We just heard from a panel on infrastructure that talked about

the need for a trillion dollars over the course of the next ten years. I think that in terms of opportunity,

there is clearly a lot that exists whether you are talking about infrastructure or you are talking about real

estate, there is a lot of build-out that needs to happen in India; whether you are talking about services

companies or manufacturing companies. I think that the need for capital exists.

And so, I'm not actually at all concerned about the opportunity that might exist in India. I think that what

the private equity firms have to come and show to Indian companies is the value that they will bring. The

value that they bring is not just capital. It has to be far more than that. It has to be expertise. It has to be

the ability to increase or to improve governance practices and so on. In my mind, those are things that

will really differentiate private equity firms from one another. I don't think that there is really an issue of

opportunity at all.

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Service sector growth confidence highest in India

 

The confidence of a robust growth in the services sector is the highest in India among the four BRIC countries including Brazil, Russia and China, with none of the 1,400 respondents of a survey by a global consultancy anticipating any drop in revenues.

"Almost 60 percent of BRIC service providers expect a rise in business activity over the coming year and only around two percent of firms anticipate a decline," says the survey conducted by KPMG.

 

"Confidence was highest in the Indian service sector. Around 60 percent of firms there expect a rise in activity while none expects a decline," as per the survey findings released here Tuesday.

The respondents of the Indian service sector also expect the growth in activity to be supported by a strong rise in volumes of new business with 56 percent of all companies forecasting an increase in new work.

Revenues are also set to rise markedly, underpinned by increased marketing activity, the introduction of new products and entry into new markets, says the survey, adding the forecast came despite intensifying competitive pressures.

Approximately 38 percent of companies stated that the availability of credit to their companies had improved compared with the situation prior to the financial market turmoil, which commenced last summer.

Only around eight percent of firms noted deterioration in credit availability and just two percent reported that their business was being constrained as a result.

However, the report said: "The cost of credit was widely reported to have risen since the start of the credit crunch, with 47 percent of companies signalling higher borrowing costs and less than eight percent noting a decrease."

"The buoyant confidence in the BRIC service sector suggests that rapid economic expansion is set to be maintained in 2008 and into 2009," said Ian Gomes, chairman of KPMG's New and Emerging Markets Group.

The KPMG survey is conducted four times a year covering manufacturing in January and July and services in April and October.

Viral Thaker
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21 Definitions

A candidate's guide to recruiter-speak

Every industry and profession carries with it its own distinct jargon. In fact, it is the measure of recruiters' worth to be able to pick up on the unique lexicon of the positions for which they recruit.

Being able to spout off the verbal equivalent of Google Adwords also preempts most candidates' assumptions that as recruiters, we're slightly above amoeba but slightly beneath bonobo monkeys on the evolutionary ladder. (The monkeys do admittedly win by default, though like recruiters, they have been known to eat their young, although most of us do this figuratively through the invention of the concept of "entry-level" employment.)

There's been a lot of attention paid to the banalities of "corporate speak," those words such as synergy, deliverables, scalable, and, my personal favorite, paradigm shift, which sounds suspiciously like a Led Zeppelin cover band or a Tom Clancy novel.

Additionally, there is a preponderance of words that have absolutely no meaning whatsoever to anyone outside of a specialized functional area.

As an accounting and finance recruiter, I am able to speak quite convincingly about Tier One ERPs, f(x) hedging, and econometrics. In fact, I can come across sounding a bit like a wonk, which I will consider a professional asset, given my inability to do simple arithmetic.

I feel a little bit like an expatriate; I'm able to speak the language with some proficiency, but throw in an idiom or colloquialism, and I'm rooting around for my dictionary.

Meaningless Catch-Phrases Take Off

Slowly but surely, these buzzwords have trickled into the public consciousness because most of these words are reserved for candidates specifically. The overwhelming majority of our etymology, in fact, was specifically created for less-than-desirable candidates.

As recruiters, it is vocational anathema to create a negative impression on a candidate, or to in any way create a negative reflection on the organization we represent. A successful recruiter strives to make each candidate feel like his or her interaction with the company was a successful one, even if it was, in fact, the worst disaster since the Hindenburg.

To prevent further confusion, I've provided a quick guide for candidates to decipher recruiter-speak with the hope that it eases the search process by providing the subtext of the terminology recruiters use the most.

While corporate recruiters are honest, we are never brutally honest. Our errors are of omission, and we tend to accentuate the positive, whether in presenting an opportunity, rejecting a candidate, or even closing an offer.

A Growing List

This list is by no means definitive, but it is a start any suggestions or additions are greatly encouraged.

• Sourcing (v) Usage: "I sourced your resume and thought that you might be a great fit…" Definition: The entry of keywords onto a job board.
• Exciting (adj.): Usage: "We've got an exciting opportunity currently available…" Definition: An open headcount that needs to be filled as quickly as possible.
• Prescreen (n) Usage: "I'd like to set up a brief, exploratory prescreen." Definition: The conversation by which recruiters ascertain if they can afford the talent in question.
• Visibility (adj.): Usage: "This role has high visibility to all levels of management throughout the organization." Definition: The phrase most often used to describe a position with the smallest margin for error and highest turnover rate in the company.
• Growth (n): Usage: "This position is really a great growth opportunity." Definition: The naturally occurring phenomenon by which workers find fulfillment doing exactly the same job in a different company.
• Ad-hoc (adj.) Usage: "There will also be some ad-hoc projects required." Definition: A catch-all phrase used by corporations to describe the countless hours of manpower invested in activities unrelated to one's job function, generally evoked at the whim of departmental heads.
• Expectations (n) Usage: "What are your expectations for your next position?" Definition: The test commonly used during the screening process to see whether the candidate is capable of reading a job description and changing tense from third- to first-person.
• Stable (adj.) Usage: "It's a very stable business unit." Definition: When the collective tenure of a department's employees preempt any consideration of change or improvement upon the status quo.
• Reinventing (v) Usage: "We've had challenges in the past, but we're reinventing ourselves and our processes." Definition: A commonly used tactic employed by recruiters to explain recent or forthcoming layoffs (see: derecruit, reorganization, shared services, offshoring, outsourcing, et al).
• Competition (n) Usage: "You've got some pretty stiff competition for this position." Definition: A word used by recruiters to preempt disappointment for the candidate by establishing expectations upfront. Alternative definition: A tactic employed to make an extremely undesirable position appear more enticing.
• Team (n) Usage: "We're looking for a team player." Definition: The intangible qualities associated with a candidate who will not make waves and demonstrates the willingness to accept abuse by supervisors and fellow staff.
• DOE (acr.) see also depending on experience. Usage: "I am unable to provide a salary range for the position as it is DOE." Definition: Whereby a company unable to pay market rate for a position compensates by placing the blame on candidate deficiencies.
• Best practices (n): Usage: "We're a best practices organization." Phrase has not yet been defined. See meaning of life, UFOs.
• Work-life balance (phrase): Usage: "We put a real premium on work-life balance." Definition: The ratio of one's time at home to one's time at work. The smaller the ratio, the more likely the employee is paid on an hourly basis.
• Overtime (n) Usage: "There may be some slight overtime involved." Definition: An institution imposed by corporations to increase shareholder value without increasing headcount by maximizing working hours of employee population, up to and including Saturdays, holidays, and seminal life events.
• Feedback (n) Usage: "I'll provide feedback from my hiring manager as soon as I get it." Definition: Generally construed as a one- or two-word answer by which hiring managers summarily reject top candidates.
• Next steps (phrase) Usage: "We'll be in touch regarding next steps." Definition: A phrase used to put off rejecting marginal candidates for as long as possible until an offer is accepted by a more qualified party.
• References (n) Usage: "We're going to begin checking your references." Definition: The process by which a recruiter contacts previous coworkers of a potential hire from a list provided by the candidate in an attempt to bring objectivity to the hiring process.
• Background check (n) Usage: "You're our final candidate, but I can't extend an offer until your background check clears." Definition: A control imposed by corporations in order to slow recruiters' ability to extend an offer for a period of time that perfectly coincides with a candidate's extension and acceptance of other offers. Alternate definition: An industry whose practitioners continue to thrive despite the Internet's abilities to perform the same functionality at a fraction of the cost.
• Benefits (n) Usage: "We are proud to offer a comprehensive, competitive benefits package to all employees." Definition: A tactic used by corporations to attract full-time employees and entice temporary ones into menial labor.
• Offer letter (n) Usage: "Congratulations on joining our team. I'm sending over an offer letter that contains all the information you're going to need." Definition: A document or set of documents that contains all information relevant to one's employment with a company, denoting the last communication between recruiter and candidate until the candidate becomes eligible for transfer consideration.

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You Didn't Pick Things Up Quickly Enough

Is it an employee's fault they didn't know what to do?

My friend was released after just 20 days on the job.

She was given work assignments to complete that had never been discussed in the interview. At her exit interview, her manager admitted he had overestimated her technical skills in the interview. She had not professed extensive technical skills in the interview. She was given no notice that she was to be terminated, just asked to come to the conference room at 3 pm on what turned out to be her last day.

Reflecting back, she realized that there had been virtually no communication with her manager over her last three days leading up to her termination. What's ironic is that she was actually getting a lot of work done then. She felt that she was finally just starting to get the hang of things.

This was during the time when her manager was probably meeting with HR to work out and finalize her termination. At the exit interview, she was told that she "didn't pick things up quickly enough."

My friend had asked lots of questions of her manager while employed there, particularly when given work that was beyond what had been discussed in the interview. But whenever she asked her boss about her assignments, he talked about other things and never really answered her questions.

When a manager says something like "you didn't pick things up quickly enough," this can also be seen to mean, "I didn't take the time to manage you well."

Especially with new hires, managers have to invest a lot of time in integrating the new employee. When a new piece of equipment is obtained for the office, there is often instruction in how to use that piece of equipment, at least for the person who is responsible for using it. We may even send the person to training in how to use the machine.

Sink or Swim?

We don't seem to do that consistently with people. We throw them into situations and expect them to "sink or swim." We cannot afford to have too many new hires sink. It just costs too much money.

It costs a manager something more than money to admit that he may not have managed the person in the way that they needed to be managed. He didn't take the time to figure out how to motivate the person. He didn't figure out how the new person learns best, through careful instruction or trial and error.

The cost is that the manager has to admit that he made a mistake. That he was wrong. It's much easier to blame the now-terminated new hire:

• "You didn't pick things up fast enough."
• "You weren't communicating enough."
• "You didn't understand the culture here."
• "You were a bad fit."

In all these cases, the common denominator may have been that the manager didn't do a good enough job in interviewing the person or integrating the new hire into the workforce in the first weeks or months. In every case, the manager blamed the employee for what may have been the manager's shortcoming.

Managing is hard work. It's not intuitive. No one is born a manager. Some people are born leaders, but managing requires training and it takes time.

Good managers can be developed, but only if they are given the time to learn, also the same way new hires need time to develop.

Managers need to master a broad skill set to be effective in all phases of the role:

• Understanding how the department operates so that the right mix of jobs is created.
• Interviewing (which is so much more than just talking to people) to effectively determine whether candidates have the correct skill-match for the position.
• Orienting the new hire to the workplace and to the job and his or her colleagues. Integrating a new hire takes weeks, not hours. Too frequently, managers leave orientation up to HR. No offense to HR, but new hires are too valuable to be trusted only to HR. The HR team has a critical role to play in integrating new employees, but the new hire is going to listen far more to what their new manager tells them than anything HR has to say.
• Setting performance objectives so that the new hire clearly understands what is expected of him or her.
• Giving feedback on an ongoing basis, not just at the end of the year in an anxiety-ridden performance evaluation.
• Recognizing and rewarding people for their effort as well as for their accomplishments.

When you look at all the expectations that we have of managers, it's easy to understand why we invest so much in management development and training. It takes time to become an effective manager. Anyone promoted to management generally figures this out in the first few days on the job.

The piece that too often gets overlooked is training our managers in people management. How to interview candidates, how to select the right ones who can be most productive in their environment, and how to continue to get the most out of them on the job. Managers need to learn how to engage their staff so they give their best effort on the job as opposed to just doing enough not to get fired.

The good news is we usually give new managers the time to figure out how to do their new job, in part because of all the time and money invested in developing this person to the point of promotion.

No doubt, this new manager would certainly be annoyed if after a few weeks in the new position, their manager called them into a conference room and started in with, "You're not picking things up quickly enough."

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Manpower shortage hits Indian Animation Industry.

The Indian animation industry is expected to double its revenues to nearly $1.5 billion by 2010 but is still hampered by lack of skilled manpower, mainly due to lack of facilities and preference for traditional career options.

"At the close of next year, the industry will require at least 25,000 more trained hands to fill the gap and by the year 2012, the industry will have room to accommodate 300,000 professionals, if not more," Atul Vohra, in-charge of the education division of the Maya Academy of Advanced Cinematics (MAAC), told IANS.

 

At present only a little over 10,000 professionals are working in this techno-creative field.

Although there are about 500 private animation-training institutes, apart from a few government-run colleges having animation curriculum, India, as of today, has only a handful of institutes teaching high-end animation techniques.

"If there was earlier an anathema towards animation among Indian students, I would rather blame their parents and guardians for it. Because, until recently, the elders in this country had a misconception that animation was all about drawing cartoon figures and so they felt there were no career prospects in this field. They never encouraged their wards to take up animation as a professional course," Vohra pointed out.

 

The Arena, the animation division of APTECH, is the oldest of the lot in imparting animation training and it also has a variety of high-end training courses, while the six-year-old MAAC specializes on imparting training in 2-D and 3-D animation.

There are now about 100,000 students, who are now undergoing training in animation, VFX and gaming in different parts of the country. When the first batch comes out next year, they may fill the gap to a certain extent, but the want of skilled professionals is still the bane for the development of the animation industry.

According to Ronand D'Mello, managing director of Maya Entertainment Limited, the parent company of MAAC, the lack of animation training institutes in India is the chief reason why the misconceptions about animation among the elders in India persisted.

"When the IT boom started in India about 15 years ago, they rightly saw a bright future for their children in the IT industry. But they were not as much enthusiastic to push their children to take up animation as a course for full-time study even though it was largely an offshoot of the burgeoning electronics industry. This is one of the main reasons why there is a big manpower shortage in the Indian animation industry today," D'Mello informed.

It is with a view to generating interest in animation among the younger generation of the country that MAAC has now signed a tie-up deal with Mumbai-based Toon Club, a division of Climb Media, which specializes in imparting the basic animation training to the children.

Their joint venture, MAAC-Junior Toon Club, will get off the ground in Mumbai later this month.

"The venture is not aimed at giving full-time animation training to children. Our objective is to generate curiosity and interest among them about what animation actually is, so that when they grow up they would have had the basic knowledge about the field to pursue higher courses in it. The basic concept is to give their creativity a fillip with definite direction at an early age," Vohra explained.

MAAC already has over 30,000 students undergoing training in animation in its 60 centers in India, Nepal and the Middle East in 3D animation and visual effects.

Similarly, Toon Club's courses are also designed along international lines. It recently received the Award for Excellence - Special Jury Recognition for children Animation by ASIFA.

Despite manpower shortage, the Indian animation industry has made giant strides of late and the country has become the outsourcing hub for many western animation studios as well as for Hollywood.

"Though we are creatively superior to many other countries, we have still lagged behind in the technical aspects of the animation industry. While in many European countries and also in Singapore and Malaysia, animation training is being given at the school level, it is still not included in our school curricula. But next to IT, animation is going to be the next big thing in India in the next five years. We had better prepare our children to reap the benefits," said Vohra.

 

Viral Thaker
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