Addressing the 4 main reasons why managers fail.

One of my focus this year was to improve my skill to lead leaders. During my learning process I read the interesting 4 Reasons Why Managers Fails Harvard Business Review article, written by Swagatam Basu, Atrijit Das, Vitorio Bretas and Jonah Shepp from Gartner. (I really suggest you to read it!)

This article discusses the increasing challenges faced by leaders in today's evolving organizational landscape. In addition, based on the analysis of data collected from more than 9,000 employees and managers, found that nearly half of managers – 48% – are at risk of failure, based on two criteria: inconsistency in current performance and weak future outlook.

The exposure to the risk of failure can have dangerous impacts on direct employees like low performance and satisfaction, reflecting in client satisfaction and the capacity of companies to innovate.

Based on researches and the two criteria mentioned above, managers can be at risk of failure, primarily due to four key reasons:

1. Lack of Self-Awareness: Many managers do not recognize their strengths and weaknesses.

2. One-Way Empathy: While managers are expected to be empathetic towards their employees, the lack of reciprocal empathy from employees increases the risk of manager failure.

3. Unproductive Manager-Employee Relationships: Many employees do not find value in their interactions with managers.

4. Misalignment of Work with Goals: Managers often prioritize immediate work support over aligning employee tasks with broader organizational and individual career goals. This misalignment can lead to manager failure.

Motivated by the content of the article and due to the fact that I like to work towards people development, I am proposing each leader to do a leadership development exercise to attack the four top predictors of manager failure, first doing an assessment and then, trying possible actions based on your assessment.

I will highlight below, the main point about each reason and a suggestion of a self assessment and actions to address each one.

1. When Managers Lack Self-Awareness 

"Managers who are unaware of their own strengths and development areas are nearly three times more likely to fail as those who possess this self-awareness." 

Assessment: 

• Am I defensive in response to constructive feedback? 

• Do I prefer to not delegate tasks, even when I don’t have the right skills for them ?

• Do I seek for approval from senior stakeholders for decisions I should be able to make independently? 

Possible Actions: 

• After each leadership action, pass through the quick assessment described above, and be ready to identify a weakness to be addressed or a strength to be kept or evenr improved. 

• Evaluate if the culture of your company fits to your way of thinking and act. A misalignment of the culture and you will impact a lot your lack of self-awareness. It can bring some actions on the table to address the misalignment. 

• Execute a 360º evaluation and evaluate the points identified. 

• Just listen when you receive a constructive feedback and clarify if you don't have details. After that, think about the feedback and facts that were presented and create an action plan to improve.  You must have discipline 

• Delegate the tasks, being clear about the main purpose of the tasks and the expected results. After that, be available to help the person in case of need and stablish a checkpoint, to see how things are evolving... Focus on the results. 

• Instead of seeking for approval from Senior stakeholders, align the expectations about projects, tasks or challenges that are under your responsibility... It is also import, to give drives to your Team. In addition, align your communication style according the stakeholder that you are talking. If the person likes details , be prepared to give. For the ones that like just a summary and go direct to the point, do it. 

• Simulate situations with the peers or leaders, that touch the 3 topics  of the assessment. 

2. When Empathy Is a One-Way Street  

"Gartner research has found that a lack of team empathy increases the risk of manager failure by 3.7 times. When we break down the factors contributing to a lack of team empathy, we find 35% is caused by a lack of upward empathy shown by employees toward their manager."  

Assessment: 

• What are you bringing as a differentiation to be the leader of the team?

• Do your team already expressed that they have the skills required to do your job in a better way ? 

• Have I clearly explained my responsibilities as a leader and their impact on team results?

• Do I provide opportunities for team members to participate in decisions and understand the complexities of my role?

• Am I able to balance individual team needs with organizational priorities without causing resentment?

• Do I encourage my team to share ideas or feedback about how we can improve our work dynamic?

• Are you trying to find a working style that accododate what you want to achieve and what the team will be more productive with a good atmosphere ?

• Do I recognize when the team demonstrates empathy and explicitly encourage this behavior?  

• Do you think that the team members believe that you are solely accountable for achieving team goals?

Possible Actions: 

• Be close to the team members, showing, by example, your value, the reason you are here. Use the impediments or pain points to it. However, pay attention to not do things that are their responsibility.  

• Explain your role and responsibility in the context of your leadership. 

• Ask for team opinion or even delegate, when you need to make some decisions that is valuable to share, for example, in a new team member selection process.

• Define the Team workflow to deliver the activities/projects together with the team, find an agreement. 

• Stablish a Team contract where the work style is discussed and agreed.  

• Give kudos for team members when an empathic situation between th team occurs, explained how valuable this value is.

• Give clear drives so the team can set realistic goals that they will have a ownership of them. 

• Celebrate the Team members achievements putting them on the spot. Just one point of attention, about the criteria of the achievement to celebrate, it can be a good way to challenge them 

• When you need to present a work that the team members did, give the drives about the audience and purpose of the presentation and ask them to present. You can maximum introduce the job, emphasizing their work. 

• Highlight Team success stories, mentioning their names and also the Team as a whole. 

3. When Manager-Employee Relationships Are Unproductive 

 "...managers whose direct reports can’t derive value from their interactions are 2.7 times more likely to fail. 

Our research has found the most valuable employee-manager interactions occur when managers make some key shifts across these four dimensions: 

• Cadence: From ad hoc or unplanned interactions to regularly scheduled meetings. 

• Ownership: From managers setting the agenda or leading the conversation to employees driving the interactions. 

• Objective: From output-focused conversations (what work employees complete) to behavior-focused conversations (how they get work done). 

• Orientation: From more regular manager-employee one-on-one conversations to more regular team-based interactions. This isn’t about increasing the level of social engagement; it’s about creating opportunities for teams to discuss strategic initiatives or brainstorm together." 

Assessment: 

• Are you scheduling regularly interactions with the Team Members? 

• Is it you or the Team member that lead the conversation ? 

• Do you show interest about how the job was done?  to help , celebrate, share, give more drives?  

• Do you think team members identify that you are concerned about them? 

• Are you creating forums or engage team members to create it, that the Team, together, discuss and share? 

Possible Actions:  

• Schedule useful interactions with the Team and Team Members, that you can promote team synergy and valuable discussions and actions.  

• During your interactions listen more first, before say something. Let the team member to express what they need, want, think.  

• Push the team members to find answers by themselves. 

• Be close to projects/tasks showing your interest to help, identify pain points, good practices or reinforce drives. 

• Celebrate with the team 

• Bring interesting topics and dynamics to team meetings.  

• Give concrete feedback with facts and actions to improve, and be close to help in the evolution. 

• Keep the door open :-) 

4. When Employees’ Work Doesn’t Align with Goals 

 "...when managers do not align their employees’ work with both organizational and career goals, they are 2.4 times as likely to fail. 

This misalignment can look like: 

• Employee goals that are unambitious or inappropriate for their level 

• Employees needing to spend significant time on undocumented goals 

• Goals that are updated frequently, without proper communication or explanation." 

Assessment: 

• Are you aware of your company strategy and goals  ? 

• Can you see an alignment between your department/area strategy and the company goals ? 

• Is your Team effort aligned with team members career goals and the Team/Department/Area  goals? 

• Are the team members goals ambitious or appropriate for their level ? 

• Are the team members spending more time in topics that are not important?  

• Are the goals changing without any communication ? 

• Do you have knowledge about your team members career aspirations? 

Possible Actions:  

• Stablish a goals definition process that presents from the Company high level goals until the Team goals. 

• Share a clear statement about what is expected for each role in your team. 

• Use a framework to define the goals in a  clear, measurable and meaningful way, for example the SMART. 

• Let the team members thinking about their own goals, aligned with the drives that were shared. 

• Discuss the career aspiration of each team member 

• Evaluate the defined goals and the team members career aspirations 

• Discuss the goals with the team members to have a clear alignment of expectations and agreement 

• Follow the goals and coach the team members about the goals actions evolution 

Leadership is a journey of continuous improvement, self-reflection, and meaningful connections. The insights shared above are not just about avoiding failure, they are about seizing the opportunity to elevate your leadership and inspire those around you.

By embracing self-awareness, fostering mutual empathy, cultivating productive relationships, and aligning work with meaningful goals, you can create an environment where both you and your team grow. These are not one-time efforts; they require persistence, discipline, and a genuine commitment to growth.

So take the first step today, assess where you stand, implement the suggested actions, and watch the transformation happening. Let this be your year to lead with purpose and authenticity. The rewards will be well worth the effort.