I’m co-facilitating a management development program this week. When I do this work, I often think about the managers I have had earlier in my career. Given that the research suggests that 80% of the people who leave an organization leave because of a bad manager, the probability of a person encountering at least one is pretty high.
One of the characteristics of at least one bad manager that I had was to consistently cancel our weekly update meetings because of other “more pressing issues. Not only did I go for weeks without meeting with this person, this manager had the audacity to ask me to complete my own performance review because the manager “did not have time. At the time, I thought that I was the only one who had experienced such behavior. Unfortunately, this kind of managerial negligence occurs more frequently than one would expect.
Most employees want to know what is expected, how they are doing (i.e., feedback), and the chance to develop. Meeting with a direct report on a regular basis is a critical management responsibility that offers an opportunity to provide these basic wants for employees. Failure to do so is likely to result in a de-motivated employee who is likely to look elsewhere for employment.