FEATURE INSIGHT
Leadership – nature or nurture?
Jerome Smail, freelance journalist, reveals recent findings about leadership and features input from the CIPP’s education director
E very business function requires good, strong leadership to be truly successful – and none more than payroll, where failure is simply not an option. However, such leadership appears to be in short supply, particularly in the UK. According to a survey – conducted in April 2018 by ADP and Circle Research – of 2,518 employees across five countries (France, UK, Germany, Netherlands and Italy), UK workers are the least satisfied with their leaders: ● 40% of employees in the UK say they are unhappy with the current quality of their leadership, which compares with an average across other nationalities of 33%, and ● 38% said they don’t feel their manager knows them well enough to understand their full potential. Jeff Phipps, managing director of ADP UK, believes poor leadership is having a direct and tangible impact on employee engagement. He says: “Too many
companies are still getting it wrong. It’s important that managers and leaders take the time to understand their employees properly. Workers are clear that they want to be valued and treated as individuals and so by knowing your employees, from their abilities to their desires, you can truly inspire, nurture and engage, which in turn will drive productivity and business success.” ...is leadership a natural ability or can it be taught effectively?... A YouGov survey of 2,006 UK employees commissioned by MHR appears to back up Phipps’s view of the effects of poor leadership. According to the study: ● as many as 80% of employees have experienced what they consider poor
management or a poor manager at least once during their career ● 73% of them have considered leaving a job because of it – in fact, 55% have done just that, and ● when asked whether their managers are equipped to deal with the human or emotional side of management, 58% of employees said they are not. Michelle Shelton, product planning director at MHR, says: “The survey highlights a widespread failure in the way organisations prepare and train people managers to take care of their staff effectively. “While managers are commonly trained in company policy and may understand organisational processes and procedures like the back of their hand, most don’t possess the people skills required to handle the human aspect of management and receive no training for this, which can have damaging and long-lasting repercussions when it comes to employee engagement, talent retention
| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward | November 2018 | Issue 45 40
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