News media often home to the accidental manager

The pivotal role of management training in bolstering employee satisfaction, productivity and retention.

Fostering a culture of trust and productivity where employees can thrive is the hallmark of a good manager.

However, according to a Chartered Management Institute survey of over 5,500 UK workers, 82% of people who take on management roles have never had any formal management training.

This group is known as “accidental managers” and the difference between the skills and abilities many of these managers don’t have but need is known as the “leadership gap”.

Accidental managers are all too common in media, where limited education budgets are usually reserved for multi-media training and newly-minted managers must figure out the role as they go, often at the expense of their team’s happiness and development.

Though some “accidental managers” do flourish through mentorship, coaching and self-directed learning, or simply by adopting the good practices of their own previous managers, others flounder, and this has a considerable impact on the people they manage.

Effects of lacklustre leadership

In the same survey, one in three people surveyed said they had left a role due to a negative relationship with their manager (31% of managers and 28% of workers), while others said poor leadership caused low motivation, declining job satisfaction, and increased employee turnover.

Some 50% of workers who say they have an ineffective manager are planning to leave the organisation in the next twelve months – before October 2024, compared to just 21% of workers who say they have an effective manager.

Clearly, good management is vital for employee retention. And those with formal management training are far more likely to trust their team, feel at ease spearheading change projects, and be confident confronting bad workplace behaviours.

Looking at the why

So why are unqualified people promoted to management positions? Well, 46% of managers agreed that people were promoted based on internal relationships and profile, rather than their ability and performance.

Physical presence matters too. Of those surveyed, 34% agreed that people who spend more time in the office/onsite are more likely to progress, and this is echoed in a number of surveys conducted around the world too.

Depressingly, three out of ten managers (31%) agreed that people with caring responsibilities were less likely to get promoted.

Ultimately, effective managers – whether accidental or not, make employees feel valued and appreciated, motivate teams to do a good job, help to foster a good company culture, and advocate for high-performers when it comes to compensation and benefits.

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