Why Businesses Make The Mistake 82% Of The Time Hiring Managers!!

 Joe Leary Founder - Lead Source Digital Maketer's/KYC Consulting/ Former Owner of Araban Coffee Co., Inc & Beacon Hill Coffee Roaster's

Why Businesses Make The Mistake 82% Of The Time Hiring Managers

I have been in 100's of businesses. Mostly small to medium sized privately held businesses.
One of the most glaring shortcomings many of them have, is believe it or not, their management
team.

I was reading a Gallup poll that was performed about 3 months ago. It was studying 7500 businesses.
The purpose of the poll was to find out, based on a very exhaustive criteria, if the businesses were hiring the right people to be managers. Now this wasn't just lower level managers, it was all managers within an organization.

What it found was that businesses make the mistake 82% of the time hiring managers! The more I thought about it, it really does make sense. This also goes hand in hand with the fact that 52% of employees leave their jobs, not because of the pay, or the tasks, or even the long hours! They leave because of their direct supervisor, or someone in a management position!

To me, that really says a whole lot. First of all,  I was a bit stunned that it wasn't pay, but then I really started to think about all the people I have met in my career, and all the people I have promoted!

Yes, I made a whole lot of mistakes as I look back on it! It is almost a natural progression. You have an employee who has been loyal, hard working and productive. Hey, wake up!!!
Those are not the traits you are looking for in a manager!!

Believe me, I made the same mistake for probably the first 10 years as a business owner. Call me a slow learner. But, at least I finally did. 82% NEVER DO!!!

Managers Should Be Hired Just To Manage!

If you have ever been in a business, who are the employees that are managers? They are usually people who have longevity, right? They have been there 15, 18, even 20 years, and they "worked their way up". Well how many times have you heard that?

HIT THE BUZZER!! That is in no way, the criteria for making these people managers! As a matter of fact, it goes against everything that should qualify someone as a manager!

I get it, they have been loyal. Great! They may have even made a giant contribution to the business and, by all means they should be rewarded. But individual victories and job performance does not mean they have the first idea how to manage anyone!! 

If you look closely at some of the more successful corporations the 1 thing all of them have in common is that they have the RIGHT management team in place.#businesstips

Many times multi-million or even billion dollar businesses have hired CEO's and upper management that don't even have direct experience in the industry the company is in!

Why? Because these professionals can do 1 thing extremely well. They can manage and delegate! You see it more and more, but not nearly enough. That's why Peet's Coffee hired the former CEO of weight watchers, or the former CEO of The Gap is now running a dot com business, etc..#howtoincreaseproductivity

Do you think that it really matters? Well I'm here to tell you it doesn't. It is many times more important to have a leader or upper management that knows one thing, how to manage talent! You don't need to know the intricacies of a particular business to be a successful manager. You just need to know how to manage and hire the right people to do that for you.

There is no magic formula. The problem is many businesses are not doing this. If you are not, you are doing your business a huge disservice!#employeeadvice

Maybe it is time for you to take a seat? Well that's another whole blog topic, isn't it?

The thing is, the more I am around small business owners, the more I can see they need outside eyes. I would honestly say that over 90% of all business owners are leaving a significant amount of money on the table annually because of their limitations and "tunnelvision".

Now please don't take that the wrong way. They are mostly successful, hard working, honest, and way above average when it comes to intellect, feel, etc, etc..


That doesn't mean they don't need a little direction or help. They very much do. But then you have the problem of dealing with the ego. There is plenty of that in all walks of life, but especially it seems in this sector.

Let's face it, they are commonly over achievers, earn well into the high six figures or even 7 figures per year and what they say goes, day in and day out.

How do you reason with a person like that. There are ways.
Otherwise I would be pretty much sunk. However, I have the one thing that 99% of these, so called small business experts and consultants have never experienced. I have walked in their shoes for over 27 years. That is a long time, and I have seen just about everything. 

I am not discounting the person that has come out of Harvard B school or the Babson Masters Program or anything else. I am just stating a undeniable truth. There is no replacement for experience. Because until you are in the real life, huge decisions can instantly change your life seat, you have no idea what that feels like.

Anyway, enough about that.

The moral of this story is, as a business owner, the next time there is a need or whatever for a management position, really stop and think about who would be best for that position.

If it means going outside your business, by all means, take the leap. You will reap the benefits for years to come.

Sorry for the lack of images and graphics in this post. I just wanted the content to be read and consumed. I understand the need for good looking posts that are pleasing to the eye.

I just felt this was an important subject that needed to be addressed. My posts going forward will be more pleasing to the eye.

This post is my first in many months. The reason being, that I have been consumed with a few very interesting projects and I am actually writing a book about my experiences.

It is about half way done, hopefully I will finish it and have it done for an early spring release. But I am back to this blog, and will be hopefully posting at least twice a week.

I am forever grateful for the people that have followed this blog and it gets a tremendous amount of organic traffic, despite the horrible name. Ha. Not very well thought out at the time.#smallbusinessstrategies

I hope you found this informative and helpful. If you are a business owner or decision maker and you would like to contact me, please feel free to do so. I am dedicated to helping this sector succeed and not ever have to worry about their futures. I can be reached at jleary60@hotmail.com, call me @ 781.626.0511

I look forward to your comments, feelings or any interaction with this post or blog. 

Thank you for reading this and following the blog.

Joe Leary