Rate Your Supervisor

Happy Friday,

Leadership is the only job a person can get, keep, and be praised, protected, and well-rewarded for, even while being really bad at it.

But the positive influence of a good leader can be massive, extending far beyond the P&L. So why do organizations allow poor, even destructive leaders to remain in place year after year? It’s simple:

1)    They were given the job for reasons other than their leadership skills.

2)    The person most responsible for putting them into the position is probably their current boss, who trusts or likes them and has a personal stake in them remaining.

3)    It’s an unwelcome hassle and time-sink to replace a leader.

4)    And here’s a big one – senior leaders don’t really know how good or bad their leaders are because no one ever asks the people being led.

I’ll soon offer a quick fix to #1 and #2 - can’t help with #3.

Solution to #4 – Once or twice a year at random times, ask everyone in the organization to name and rate both their immediate and secondary supervisors on a scale of 1-10 (SurveyMonkey). No guidance, just a number. If a leader’s average score is 6+, they get a pass. If it’s only a 5, have a serious conversation. Immediately focus attention on any leader scoring below 5. Find out why, but regardless of the reason, give that leader six months to improve their leadership score or they must forfeit the slot.

Sounds harsh, but here’s why: Imagine the many ways the organization would have been better served by a more competent leader in that position—reduced overall risks, better staff retention, a more loyal and enthusiastic team, easier recruiting, better workplace reputation, better financial results, etc.

The difference in business outcomes between the sub-optimal leader currently occupying the role, and a more inspiring, or at least less destructive leader, is the ever accruing opportunity cost of inaction. Leadership is either the job or it's just a title.

Sending a ‘Rate Your Supervisor’ survey is simple, quick, and has powerful secondary effects. When leaders know they’re also accountable to the people they lead, they have an incentive to pay attention to how they impact them, and to improve.

Making leadership competence a requirement for keeping the position incentivizes better leadership selection, i.e., you wouldn't choose someone you knew was destined to fail.

Send the Rate Your Supervisor surveys to random groups at random times without any fanfare or discussion before or after. Address any issues quietly. The very existence of the survey will have a positive effect. And the results will enable you to directly address the primary driver of employee engagement – the leadership of leaders.

You can't improve what you don't measure.

Have a terrific weekend!

Dave

Feedback and blowback, hit dave@goodnewsfriday.com

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Written by me, not ChatGPT, with speed assist and blunder avoidance by Grammarly.