In the weekend edition of USA Today- USA Snapshots there is an interesting article - “80% of all employees including managers themselves, feel they could do their jobs without their managers.” I highly recommend reading it.
This astounding statistic reaffirms for me the need to re-evaluate the role of managers, particularly when this is reinforced by a Faas Foundation/ Mental Health America study called ‘Mind the Workplace’ found that 2/3rds of North American employees feel they cannot rely on their supervisors for support when things go bad.
These stats reinforce my belief based on extensive research that most managers are restrainers vs. enablers – very indicative of a culture of fear.
In my experience, where managers are emotionally intelligent, organizations can decrease the ratio of managers per employee and increase performance, engagement, innovation and creativity.
Illustration: Dureall Ramsdell