Who's Bossing the Bosses?

CLEARWATER, FL--(Marketwire - September 2, 2009) - According to a Corporate Leadership Council study, the single most important factor affecting staff engagement is the quality of a person's manager, and another study found that 80% of people who resign from their jobs do so because they can't stand their boss. A Gallup poll revealed recently that nearly 25 percent of all employees in the U.S. would fire their boss if given the chance.

Yet, according to former IBM human resources executive Andrew O'Keeffe, most organizations avoid fixing the biggest internal restraint on their business -- lifting the capability of their managers and holding them accountable for their people responsibilities. O'Keeffe is author of the new novel, "The Boss," from Greenleaf Press Book Group (www.hardwiredhumans.com). He believes that company leaders and human resources professionals fail because they don't recognize the obvious -- that it's about addressing the tough stuff of bossing the bosses.

O'Keeffe believes that companies can systematically lift the quality of managers and reduce the negative emotional response and sapping of staff energy by following four simple rules.

--  Design a "Doable" Job - To enable managers to do their job, their role
    first needs to be structured so that they have a sensible number of people
    reporting to them.
    
--  Give Them Tools - Provide the managers with practical no-nonsense and
    not overly complex leadership tools (for recruiting staff, orienting staff,
    planning and reviewing work, conducting developing discussions and managing
    pay and rewards).
    
--  Invest in Skill Development - It is a blissful denial of reality to
    think that managers will be equipped to manage the people dimensions of
    their role by merely being appointed to their role. There is a desperate
    need for skilling -- of frameworks, ideas, concepts, and practice.
    
--  Hold Managers Accountable - Senior leaders need to know the managers
    who are doing well at their people responsibilities, and those who are not.
    Moreover, they need to be helped and then push the ones who lag behind.
    

About Andrew O'Keeffe

As a senior human resources executive with IBM, Andrew has worked closely with a range of bosses in diverse companies over his career. Andrew speaks frequently at conferences on the subject of leadership.

Contact Information: Contact: Rachel Friedman Rachel@newsandexperts.com