Nate works as a manufacturing manager in a major company that makes truck steering systems. To do his job, he regularly collaborates across the organization, whether it’s with purchasing or quality or engineering. One of his…
The fact is that despite the collaboration revolution, with its flatter organizations and self-managed project teams, there is always somebody in charge who is making decisions. Choices are considered up and down the chain of command.…
The biggest takeaway from our research is this: The vast majority of managers do not provide feedback often enough. For the most part, micromanagement is a rare occurrence. However, while most managers should be giving more…
There are volumes of research that have attempted to distinguish between leaders, managers, and supervisors: Leaders focus on the big picture, managers focus on details, and supervisors focus on carrying out the details. Leaders inspire, managers…
Most managers today would agree that feedback is key to employee success. But unless that feedback is high quality, performance will never improve, no matter how frequent your one-on-ones with direct reports. The results of…
Despite how unique your management challenges may seem, the common denominator is likely unstructured, low-substance, hit-or-miss communication. When things are going wrong in a management relationship, that is usually at least part of the cause. What…
After huge recent fluctuations in the job market—and despite ongoing downsizing, restructuring, and reengineering—unemployment is at record lows and employers are facing more severe talent shortages than any time since we at RainmakerThinking began our workplace…
These are some of the things that today’s young people are telling us in interviews: “They act like their power is unquestionable, but anyone can be cancelled overnight.” “My boss doesn’t fully trust me to work…
Managers today are under more pressure than ever. The pressures of managing a hybrid workforce, navigating increasingly enmeshed cross-functional collaborative relationships, and retaining as many people as possible are really adding up. Plus, managers still have…
Our research shows that when things are going wrong in a management relationship, almost always, the common denominator is unstructured, low substance, hit-or-miss communication. With the added complications of managing some combination of remote, hybrid, and…
