The Best

I recently asked participants in one of my classes to describe the best manager they ever had.  While the list of attributes varied, there was one that appeared on almost every list – the manager focused on employee development.

One participant described it this way:

“My manager’s ‘true north’ is developing me.  She looks for every opportunity to let me try new things on the job and is always finding ways to help me stretch.  I really appreciate how honest she is about my current skills, and she’s great at clearly describing what it will take to get to the next level.

Once she came to me with a really cool development opportunity that took me away from my job for one day a week for 10 weeks. And so I wouldn’t worry about work piling up while I was away, she stepped in and temporarily took over one of my projects. How many managers do you know who would do that?  And she’s always encouraging folks on the team to partner up on projects where we can learn from each other.”    

There is no doubt about the respect this individual has for his manager.  As he described his experience, I saw heads nodding all around the room, and then others began sharing their own development stories.

Their stories reinforce what we know – developing  people makes a difference in many ways. The Corporate Leadership Council says that effective development improves performance by 25% and commitment by 29%.  Beyond these statistics, there’s the satisfaction of helping people grow and reach their full potential.  In addition, when you’re known as a manager who focuses on development, people want to work for you and filling open positions is easier. 

And, of course, there’s the pleasure of knowing that one day you might be the answer to the question “who’s the best manager you ever had!”