When I was 19 years of age, I was promoted to Passenger Service Manager at Midway Airport in Chicago for Capital Airlines. I had no college, I had no supervisory or managerial training and there I was in charge of a shift with about 20 employees in customer service and twenty flights per shift. My experience level consisted of growing up on a farm in Iowa, being a baggage handler and then a ticket agent for 18 months.
Kind of scary.
How do you know whether you are going to do a good job or not?
Everyone else was at least ten years older than me in experience. So, I just asked them. I didn’t know any better than to be open and honest and ask for their feedback. Wow, did they give me helpful and outspoken feedback. It was very eye opening.
The Wall Street Journal’s Andrea Coombes recently reported that while 92% of managers say they are doing an excellent or good job managing employees, only 67% of workers agree. An additional 23% say their boss is doing a “fair” job and 10% find their manager is doing a “poor” job according to a survey by Rasmussen Reports LLC for Hudson, the staffing outsourcing firm.
We still don’t do a very good job supporting and training folks when we promote them into responsible management positions. Training, education and mentoring are all basic stuff, but so important. Also, many companies have had success with 360 degree reviews, with employees evaluating their managers. I guess that is what I was doing many years ago by asking for feedback.
Pretty simple concept. Before you decide you are a “great manager”.. ask someone that reports to you….Get ready for the input.
Does your company use manager evaluations? How has this worked at your organization? We’d love to hear from you.
Howard Putnam speaks on leadership, change, transformation, customer service, teams and ethics. He is the former CEO of Southwest Airlines and the first CEO to take a major airline, Braniff International, into, through and out of Chapter 11, getting it flying again in less than two years.
This article was originally included in Howard Putnam’s Leadership eSeries. You can sign up to receive his weekly thoughts on leadership by visiting: http://www.howardputnam.com/eseries.asp
