THE RETURN

OF THE MANAGER
THIS TIME IT’S PERSONAL

Consultation edition
September 2016
MEET MIND GYM CONTENTS
Mind Gym transforms performance by changing the way people think. Managers matter 04

61% of FTSE 100 and 53% of S&P 100 companies use Mind Gym for major challenges, such as: I’m a manager. Get me out of here 08

• Building a high-performance culture (Microsoft, Thomson Reuters) The seven talents 10

• Delivering major productivity gains with more effective managers (Unilever, MetLife)
• Turning around employee engagement (Zurich, Telefonica) Relate 12
• Transforming customer service (Santander, Canon)
• Managing the human aspect of major re-organisations so they deliver in full Coach 14
(GSK, UK Government)
Energise 18
In 2015, over 500,000 leaders, managers and individual contributors took took part in a live Mind
Gym experience delivered by one of 250 qualified coaches in 40 countries, supported from Innovate 20
offices in London, New York, Dubai and Singapore. At current growth rates, nearly 700,000 will
participate in 2016. Thrive 22

Direct 24
MIND GYM BELIEFS Execute 26

Manager leaders: the forgotten level 28

5 minutes with a genius beats a month with a fool
Case studies

Unilever 30
People change only when they believe it’s in their own best interest
Thomson Reuters 32

Making it happen 34
One size fits no one
References 38

Little and often – think gym rather than health farm

We choose how we think far more than we realise

Science is sexy – in research we trust

© Mind Gym 2016

 From ‘The Office’ to ‘Horrible
Bosses’, in popular culture, managers
are portrayed as buffoons or beasts.

MANAGERS MATTER
No-one loves middle managers.

The C-suite sees them as inefficient, ripe for cuts and a

permafrost layer that prevents a winning strategy from
being realised by the worthy worker.

And yet, managers have the greatest challenge in company life: how to
understand, organise and motivate people to work together to achieve more,
better and faster.

Much of the time they’re expected to do this with only rudimentary guidance
and little release from all the other corporate demands.

This report is for people who manage people. It’s also for the executives of
organisations whose search for a competitive advantage can lead them to spend
vast sums on fancy IT systems and glamorous marketing campaigns that deliver
uncertain outcomes in indeterminate time scales. As this report will show, the
surer answer to their productivity conundrum is much closer to home.

Who wins?

In the recession of the 1980s, strategy determined which organisations came

out strongest. Rigorous analysis trumped intuition on where to focus limited
resources for maximum gain.

By the downturn of the early 1990s, the companies with the cleverest use of
technology found the fast track to recovery. Some used it to streamline their
supply chain, others to better understand their customers.

The companies that came out of the 2008 crisis fastest were those that focused
on people. The most effective way to do this is through the much maligned
middle manager.

4 © Mind Gym 2016 5

 Money for nothing

The great news for those holding the
company’s purse strings is that good
management costs little and delivers a lot.
The team at Stanford’s Graduate School of
Business measured the daily output for 23,878
workers matched to 1,940 bosses over five years
from 2006 to 2010, resulting in nearly 6 million
measurements1. The workers came from a wide
range of industries and companies but all did
routine, computer-based work, e.g. retail
checkout operators, airline gate agents and call
centre workers. As each worker had, on average,
four managers/supervisors a year, it was possible
to determine the impact of a good manager
compared to a poor one.
Replacing a poor manager with a good one
increased productivity from the same team
members by a whopping 13%. That’s greater
Fig 1: Great managers lead to better store performance
CASE STUDY
Scrapping a poor manager
for a good one increases Change from the middle
productivity by 13%
The traditional route to delivering
than the increase provided by many a costly (not change is either top down or bottom
to mention disruptive) IT investment. It was also up. But what if both are flawed?
greater than the boost provided by adding an
extra employee to the team (11%). Trickling initiatives down through
The electronic games industry is creative, a management hierarchy is
knowledge-based and requires swift, efficient unpredictable – will those in the
implementation. Each new game has two upper echelons really change? –
managers: the designer, who leads the creative slow and by the time change reaches
team, and the producer, who leads the team that the front line (if it ever does) a new
makes it all happen. The quality of the designer change is needed. Starting with
accounted for 7.4% of the variation in revenue, the front line is just as precarious.
and the quality of the producer, 22.3%. That’s Once the initiative has passed,
almost 30% of the success of a new game managers tend to return to things
credited to the quality of the two managers just as they were.
leading it2.
The UK banking division of Santander
transformed branch customer
service by equipping branch
managers (and their immediate boss,
the regional manager) to make real,
sustainable and energetic changes.
Some effort went into stopping
senior groups from getting in the
way, and individuals from the front
line were asked for their views at the
start of the programme. But the bulk
of the effort, and investment, went
towards changing how managers,
and ‘managers of managers’ thought,
felt and behaved.
Before the programme started,
Santander was among the worst
rated organisations (not just banks)
in the UK for service. Within eight
months, Santander branch banks
were at the same level as their peers.
Santander went on to win ‘best
branch bank for customer service’
two years in a row.

0.8
Transformational
management
0.6 It’s clear that swapping poor managers for good profit and reduced costs. There are plenty
Structured
management
ones improves performance across industries. more studies that make the same point:
0.4 But what about within the same company? better managers deliver better results5.
Consideration
Correlation

0.2 In a large US manufacturing firm, managers who
demonstrated effective communication and
0 inclusiveness, gave feedback well, encouraged
innovation and created career development
plans saw a 50% increase in sales3. In a chain
-0.2
of Dutch supermarkets (Fig.1)4, employees
were interviewed to determine managers’
-0.4
management style. Six months later, the
branches where transformational management
-0.6
was present reported significantly greater net
Net profit Controllable
costs
Compared to most other kinds of business
outlay, astute investment in the quality of
management delivers a more certain,
greater and faster financial return. And yet
most companies invest less in management
development than in the desk, chair and
computer that the manager uses. Overall,
on average, companies spend $976 per
learner per year6.

6 © Mind Gym 2016 7

 I’M A MANA GER.
GET ME OU T OF HERE
Most people who have to
manage people find it a
struggle. In a survey of
leaders, 68% admitted they
really don’t like managing
people7.
Management transforms
productivity, yet managers
don’t like doing it and are
widely considered to be
ineffective. What’s gone
wrong?
8 © Mind Gym 2016
01.
Management doesn’t
count for much
When it comes to rewards,
promotions and praise, being
a great people manager tends
to count for less than making
a strong individual contribution.
SVPs and partners in global banks
and management consultancies
tell us that while, officially, they
are assessed on people leadership,
what really affected their bonus
and promotion prospects was
‘hitting the numbers’. Even outside
the high-octane world of global
finance and professional services,
it’s not uncommon for poor
people managers who create
high personal value to be better
rewarded than excellent managers
whose personal contribution is
nearer the average.
02.
As well, not instead
People management is usually an
extra responsibility that is added to
managers’ current duties, meaning
they’re expected to fit it into ‘magic
time’ while still delivering on
everything they did as an individual
contributor. It’s little wonder then,
that managers spend as little as
10% of their week actually
managing front-line employees
and that this time is often spent
checking compliance or fire-
fighting immediate problems8.
What people management should
really be about is organising others
to do much of our old job so we
can contribute greater value to
the business. But this specific
and challenging skill is one few
managers are encouraged to
develop.
03.
Seeking the impossible
Some companies publish over 100
competencies or expectations for
their managers. This tends to have
two adverse results: managers
feel swamped and stop trying,
and competency frameworks
lose their currency.
The answer lies in making people
management sound simple,
doable and, above all, worthwhile,
which means focusing everyone
on the few management skills that
will have the most impact.
04. 05.
Management Good = popular
development: little
One of the biggest (and most
and late common) mistakes managers
make is trying to be pals with the
Management and career
people they manage. (Remember
development seem to be
Chandler in Friends?). Trying to be
inextricably linked: in order to
popular almost always leads to
progress, you have to manage,
ineffectiveness and loss of respect.
regardless of whether or not
you’re suited to it.
So, why do so many managers fall
into the trap? In part, because their
In theory, this shouldn’t be a
organisations push them. 360°
problem: management is a
feedback (which usually means
learnable skill. The trouble is that
upward feedback from direct
training happens too late (or not
reports) can become a substitute
at all), and when it does happen,
for assessing a manager’s
it rarely addresses the challenges
effectiveness. If your people
that most new managers face.
like you, you must be doing
In a global survey, only 10% of
a good job.
respondents said their company’s
front-line manager training was
The reality is that very good
effective in actually preparing
managers can, for a while, be
them to lead people9.
deeply unpopular, while poor and
ineffectual ones can be thoroughly
What managers want (and need)
liked. Upward feedback provides
is an ongoing programme of ‘quick
useful insight but it shouldn’t be
hits’ on tackling tricky situations:
taken as the whole picture, or
dealing with someone who’s
anything close. The real test
subtly undermining them, or
of a manager is in their team’s
moving from team member to
performance: both the results they
manager without alienating old
achieve and how they get there.
friends. They also want a
little-and-often approach,
which offers opportunities to try
out their new skills, reflect on what
works and get feedback on what
they could do differently.
9
 THE SEVEN TALENTS Evidence based

Mind Gym’s psychologists have analysed more their efforts in the other areas. Conversely, a
than 100 peer-reviewed studies to unearth what manager without this skill will find that, however
makes the most difference to manager much they excel at the other six talents, they will

ENERGISE performance. These talents aren’t exhaustive,

but if you want to focus managers on what will
make the most difference, this is where you
should point them.
TE
never have quite so much impact. The quality of
relationships determines how team members
perceive, interpret and respond to everything
their manager does – an interaction that is
known in organisational psychology as the

DI
There have been two recent and notable ‘leader-member-exchange’ or LMX.
CU

meta-analyses that carved up the masses of When a team member has a poor relationship

RE
data in rigorous and meaningful ways. The first with their manager, they’ll look for the worst.

CT
EXE

meta-analysis (popularised by the SHL Talent A good relationship means that the manager
Management Group) spoke of ‘The Great Eight’ gets the benefit of the doubt. Team members
manager competencies10. The second (by John will trust their manager’s actions to be in their
Meriac and colleagues) reliably reduced 168 own best interests and reciprocate.

RELATE
manager dimensions into seven core skills11.
The two lists were not only very similar, but they

CASE STUDY
also mapped onto Google’s work with people
analytics (see below), and Yukl’s Flexible
Leadership Theory12. This allowed Mind Gym’s
IN N

psychologists to create a simple but robust The team at Google gathered

E

model: the seven talents. more than 10,000 observations

R IV
OV

to find out what defined the

A global standard most effective managers from
TH

the rest. They identified the eight

AT

E The seven manager talents now form the core most important attributes, which
of management development in some of the are consistent with Mind Gym’s
world’s most admired companies, including seven talents13.

CO AC H Unilever (see page 36), and are being introduced

in dozens more. After a programme of training,
individual coaching and
First among equals performance reviews based on
Google’s eight attributes,there
One talent stands out above the rest. The ability was a statistically significant
to form, redefine, repair and maintain strong improvement in 75% of their
working relationships is like a prism, able to worst-performing managers,
multiply or dilute the effects of the other six which was very good news for
talents. A manager with strong working almost everyone.
relationships gets a disproportionate return on

10 © Mind Gym 2016 11

 RELATE
Form, redefine, repair and maintain strong working relationships
Fig 2: The scale of appropriate relationships

Category

Priority
Too close

Relationship
The right range

Outcome
Too distant

Output

The best working relationships aren’t
the closest or most harmonious. They
are the ones that get the best results
for the business.
Individuals who have good relationships with
their managers are healthier, happier14 and
have better careers15. They also perform better16
(putting in more discretionary effort17), are more
innovative18, more resilient during change19,
less likely to leave20, and better at responding
to feedback21.
Relationships between team colleagues are
also highly significant. In a study on NHS wards,
Professor Michael West (a former chair of Mind
Overwhelmingly
Gym’s Academic Board) demonstrated Feedback Only praise
critical
Descriptive
a correlation between strong teamwork
and reduced mortality22. Draw
Poor Ignore and
generalised
performance forgive
Building appropriate relationships with direct Raise, discuss, move on conclusions
reports, and ensuring they exist between peers, Team
requires a complex set of skills that most of members’ Protective Unaware
us hone throughout our career. The greatest wellbeing Attentive
opportunity for business is to give these skills
to managers as they reach the first rung of the Manager’s
Indiscreet Guarded
corporate ladder rather than wait until they personal life
Selective
step off it.
Team
Colluding Uninterested
In it together dynamics
Impartial
A manager needs to be clear about what the
Availability Interfering Absent
team is here to do. This can take the form of
Accessible
goals and targets, but it will be more compelling
if a manager can clarify a team purpose and See
build a shared identity to motivate and inspire23. themselves Friend Boss
as… Manager
Example profile of a manager
It also pays to be clear about how we are going
to behave towards each other. This form of
more explicit contracting sets expectations and
makes it easier for everyone to respond if they distant. Mind Gym’s psychologists, with the help a boundary is crossed and it will be doubly hard
are breached. of Professor Janet Reibstein (who sits on Mind to rebuild it.
Gym’s Academic Board) have started to define
Managers Sans Frontières the range for an appropriate manager-direct Equally, if you’ve ever managed a direct report
report relationship. In summary, it looks like this who frightens you slightly. Imagine a direct
In order to get the best from their teams, (see Fig.2). report makes a joke which is subtly at your
managers need to strike a delicate balance: expense – others smirk or laugh. A boundary
focus too heavily on the relationships The challenge with boundaries comes when has clearly been crossed but what should you
themselves and the goals slip out of reach; they are breached, whether by the manager do to maintain respect without looking like you
ignore a team’s needs, and commitment herself/himself or by their direct report. don’t have a sense of humour?
will falter. The answer? Boundaries. You’ve worked late nights, your boss is on your
back, you’re not getting much attention at home At the heart of Relate is understanding what
The most successful managers keep the – it’s only human to want a bit of appreciation. the boundaries are for appropriate working
relationships appropriate. They achieve this, Tempting though it is, as an exhausted manager relationships, keeping to them where possible
often unconsciously, by maintaining a suitable you must avoid looking to your team for and repairing them when they are breached.
balance between being too close and too empathy or positive strokes. If you do, then It isn’t easy, but it is critical.

12 © Mind Gym 2016 RELATE 13

 COACH
Enable others to be the best they can
The Stanford study that found a 13% increase
in productivity when poor managers were
swapped for great ones24 revealed the single
most important difference: coaching.
Rich pickings
Good manager coaching increases reports’
wellbeing, resilience, attitude to work, and ability
to achieve stretching goals25, as well as doubling
the impact of training programmes26.
Organisations whose managers coach
demonstrate 21% higher revenues than their
competitors27 and, in a huge global analysis
by PwC, the standard estimate of the ROI
for coaching was 700%28.
Not another model
From PRACTICE to GROW, there’s no shortage
of coaching models. Yet, despite all these
Commercial coaching is simple, flexible and undeniably
effective.
13%
Increase in productivity
21%
Higher revenues
14
acronyms, the quality of coaching in most
companies is mixed.
When it comes to improving performance, there
are six aspects of coaching that have the biggest
impact on a manager’s ability to coach: their
motivation, their mindset and four key behaviours.
Commercial coaching
At Mind Gym, we packaged these under the title
of ‘Commercial coaching’ and tested them with
branch managers in one of the UK’s leading
telecommunications companies.
In 55% of branches that improved performance
quarter on quarter, the manager also reported
using commercial coaching techniques. In the
branches where performance declined, none of
them did. Against a control group, in branches
where commercial coaching was used, the team’s
ability to hit their revenue targets rose by 29%.
29%
Ability to hit
revenue targets
700%
ROI for coaching
© Mind Gym 2016 COACH 15
 WHAT IS COMMERCIAL BEHAVIOURS A new way to coach for performance

COACHING? The managers of yesteryear approached development like an apprenticeship: showing

There are six ingredients in commercial coaching: a manager’s
motivation, mindset and four key behaviours.
MOTIVATION I believe it will help me
For managers to coach well, they must believe it’s in their own best interest. The trouble is,
coaching is like dieting – the sacrifice is immediate and painful, but the benefits don’t appear
until much further down the road. The trick is for managers to find a long-term motivation:
“It will make my job easier in the long run”, “I’m leaving a legacy”, “This will encourage the most
talented grads to work in my team”. Leaders can also do their bit to encourage managers to
coach: measuring managers on longer-term goals and behaviours makes them more likely
to coach their teams29.
employees exactly what to do and how to do it. Not only was this demotivating for the
individuals, the ‘monkey see, monkey do’ approach also left them woefully ill-prepared
for new and unexpected situations.
Then the pendulum swung the other way, with reports left to work things out for themselves,
helped by a manager who only asks questions: “What do you think you should do?” or the
eternally infuriating “What would you say if you did know the answer?”
Coaching is at its most effective when managers flex between ‘ask’ and ‘tell’32 (balancing
advocacy and inquiry), encouraging self-discovery but using their own expertise to facilitate
the employee’s learning. Mind Gym’s psychologists synthesised three key research papers33
on coaching for performance to identify four key behaviours that will help managers do just
that. They are:
Enable: Create a learning environment where coachees can fail and flourish
Challenge: U
 se insightful questioning to help coachees to think differently about their
most pressing challenges

MINDSET I believe in you Observe: P

 ay attention to an individual’s learning and provide specific and descriptive
feedback in the moment
Managers who believe people’s abilities are fixed and cannot be improved make ineffective
coaches. But managers who have a ‘growth mindset’,30 who believe that everyone can learn Guide: Use your expertise and status to illuminate, highlighting progress and successes
and get better (even if it takes a lot of hard work) see much greater returns on their coaching
investments31. This is necessary, but it isn’t sufficient. Here are a few other things that make up They fit into the learning cycle like this:
a healthy coaching mindset.
Review
How did
that go?
FROM TO

Distracted Focused
Challenge

Prejudging Curious Observe

Guide
Weakness-focused Strengths-focused
Move
Try it out forward
I’m okay/you’re not okay I’m okay/you’re okay Enable What will What can
you do? be done
better?

Parent/child Adult/adult

Performance Potential and performance

16 © Mind Gym 2016 COACH 17

 ENERGISE
Five ways to spread the zest.

01. PURPOSE Give our work meaning

Give hope, build momentum and share your passion
Emotional energy (both positive and negative)
is infectious34. This is called emotional
contagion, and it leaves managers with a choice:
act as they please and hope their moodier days
won’t affect their team (they will) or ramp up the
positive energy and spread it through the ranks.
Thankfully, there’s no innate skill required to be
an energiser, and no one personality type works
better than another – quietly passionate can be
more effective than jump-and-shout
evangelism. The benefits are almost endless.
Energised teams are more creative35,
collaborative36, efficient37, focused38 and
decisive39. They’re better at solving problems40,
better at handling conflict41, and less likely to
be absent or leave the business42. What’s more,
positive energy spreads through organisations,
multiplying performance as it travels. When
one team member energises another, the
performance of both employees improves43.
Does my work matter? Our job could involve anything from generating record profits to saving
lives, but if we feel it’s futile, we won’t be able to muster much energy. Managers can unearth
purpose by considering three questions: what motivates me on a personal level to do what
I do? How do my efforts contribute to a collective purpose? What is the ideal outcome of
my work? Helping your team visualise the outcome gives an extra boost of energy through
generating emotional connections. Paying attention to the ‘why’ is as critical as the ‘what’
when it comes to energising people.
02. PASSION Show you care, your way
Passion doesn’t have to mean jumping around in forced jubilation. What people want above
all from their leaders is authenticity44, so if demonstrations of extrovert levels of excitement
aren’t their managerial style, managers shouldn’t try to fake it. But they should find their own
version of passion – a quiet, unshakeable faith, for instance, or intense levels of focus. However
their passion manifests itself, expressing it in the right way is crucial. The best energisers use
language that is optimistic, engaging and decisive.

03. PRESENT Tune in and pay attention

Networking with a difference
Rob Cross, professor of management at the University of Virginia, has been leading new
research, mapping how energy spreads in large organisations48. In a highly energised
organisation, Cross’s mapping diagrams look like the one on the left – the majority of
people are conductors for energy, passing it on to others. In organisations where energy is
low, the diagrams look like the one on the right: there are fewer conductors, and the energy
stops when it reaches people who are unable to pass it on. Some people don’t have any
lines at all. These are ‘energy sappers’ who don’t conduct, receive or create energy.
Creating a climate of positive energy is as much about reading and responding to other
people’s emotions as emitting your own. The best managers are present – not just physically,
but mentally and emotionally. They leave their own worries at the door, tune into how their
team members are feeling by observing tone of voice, facial expressions and body language,
and don’t respond until they are truly ‘in the room’.
04. POSITIVITY Keep recognising progress
Over time, positive emotions help us to build new skills and resources, as well as increasing
our levels of creativity, inventiveness, ‘big picture’ focus, and resilience45. Managers have two
key parts to play in fostering positive emotions in their team. The first is affirming people so
that they feel valued. The second is giving people ‘hope’, which psychologist Charles R. Snyder
defines as both the willpower (motivation) and the waypower (skills and opportunity) to
achieve your goals46.

05. PROGRESS Recognise progress, maintain momentum

It’s easy to feel energised at the start of something. But when a team has been soldiering on
for weeks, or they’ve hit a rough patch, their energy won’t last without help. At this point, one
of the most powerful things a manager can do is show them the progress they’re making.
In a study of 12,000 people, ‘showing progress’ was the single most important thing managers
could do to improve their team’s day-to-day enjoyment of work47. Creating and celebrating
mini milestones throughout a long project, starting each week with a progress story,
or using one-to-ones to celebrate personal development are just some of the things
managers can do.

18 © Mind Gym 2016 ENERGISE 19

 INNOVATE
Create a community that’s willing and able to innovate
Fig 3: Behaviours that encourage and discourage innovation

Situation

Tends to talk about

Stifler

Outputs
Nourisher

Ideas

What to do to prevent
When something goes What went wrong
something similar happening
In most organisations, ’generators’ (those who wrong, focuses on and why
in future
are restlessly discontent with the status quo)
are worryingly underrepresented49 because the Gives their views first and asks Listens first, then gives
When chairing a discussion
emphasis is on execution skills over innovation. if there are any questions their views
It’s a bias that is pronounced in organisations
at every level – right the way up to the CEOs50. Pushes to decide on actions Encourages everyone to share
In project/team meetings and agree responsibilities their views and probes to
The truth is, we need both, to differing degrees quickly elaborate
depending on the organisation. In the Apples Comes down on one side
and Facebooks of this world, innovation and Validates and celebrates the
When people disagree of the argument and
execution skills aren’t just equally valued, they’re value of different opinions
explains why
intertwined: one cannot exist without the other.
Changes their mind as they
Opinions Consistent in their views
Nurture, not nature learn something new

The good news is that innovators demonstrate Sets stretching but achievable
In setting goals Sets unrealistic targets
key discovery behaviours that can be taught51. goals
We don’t have to be born innovators, but instead
by developing our curiosity, our exploration, our Focuses on the long term
In time horizon Focuses quarter by quarter
connections and our willingness to experiment, as well as the short term
we can all create a culture where innovation
can flourish. Prioritises maintaining Constructively challenges the
In relation to change
stability status quo
Are you a stifler?
Keeps a realistic focus on
Managers don’t need to be especially innovative When facing an idea Tests feasibility
current constraints
themselves, but there are consistent behaviours
they’ll need to develop (and just as many they’ll Without always sharing
need to put out to pasture) if innovation is Rejects an idea With a strong rationale
the reason
to thrive.
Prefers to share an idea once
Every manager should aim to be an innovation With a network Seeks input and tests ideas
fully formed or implemented
nourisher rather than a stifler (see fig.3).
Manages the risk by keeping Sets a clear framework for
In experimenting
close control experimentation

In translating ideas into Can minimise real concerns

Respects the details of reality
practice others hold about details

20 © Mind Gym 2016 INNOVATE 21

 THRIVE
Not so smart

Most of us are struggling with a very damaging addiction to

Be at your best more of the time
The average annual spend per employee on
wellbeing has doubled in the last five years52.
95% of organisations now offer some sort of
wellbeing initiative compared to 57% in 200953.
Sadly, none of the workplace gyms, bowls of
free fruit, or visits from the GP seem to be
making much difference. Two thirds of
employees feel overwhelmed54, and most
assume they will work while on holiday55.
Who is responsible for my wellbeing?
At the heart of the problem lies a common
misconception around responsibility.
the instant gratification of smart phones, whose ‘ping’ causes
our bodies to release dopamine.
The average person checks their phone 150 times a day60
and gets anxious after only ten minutes away from it61. Some
people even feel their phone vibrating when they know it’s
Organisations feel a duty to ‘fix’ the wellbeing of switched off62. And on average, employees can only focus
employees, when their role should actually be to for seven minutes before changing screens63. Many of us tell
equip employees with the psychological tools to ourselves we’re multitasking – and getting lots done in the
generate their own wellbeing. process. But since our brains only hold between five and nine
pieces of information at once64, switching back and forth
Nobody can thrive all the time, but we can all be between endless activities simply wastes attentional energy.
more mindful of unhelpful recurrent patters and
changing them. For instance, actively directing We’re at least 25% less effective when we multitask65. But our
our inner critic towards compassionate skittering attention has more serious consequences: it leaves
messages of self-care (see fig.4). Those us unable to switch off and recharge, which is damaging to
who manage this are up to three times our physical and emotional wellbeing. Individuals who thrive
more productive, more satisfied, and less (even in the toughest times) are those who can break out of
burnt out56. technology’s addictive cycle66.

Fig 4: Self-compassion
Managers first them thrive when things get tough59. This can be
done by answering three questions after
The best way to create an organisation of a positive encounter:
elf thrivers is to start with managers. Once they
uls Your
(In
cr are thriving, they’ll not only provide a model 01. What did that make me grateful for?
df
compassionate for employees to follow but be better equipped 02. What resources did it build in me?
in

ea
m

se

friend to help them along the way. 03. What’s the one positive thought I can
ur

keep with me to use in the future?

Yo

“Give yourself a break”

Kind mind
Your Your Walk the walk
vunerable future self Managers who thrive tend to be kind to
self “It'll be themselves57 and are willing to show vulnerability For sure, managers have a duty of care to the
“I feel forgotten at work, which actually increases our wellbeing58. people they manage but, just as critically they
exposed” in a few days” They also harness positive experiences to build have a duty of care to themselves.
their own psychological resources that help
Your inner
critic
(D
ec

ea “I’m a failure”
r

se
)

Managers have a duty of care to themselves.

22 © Mind Gym 2016 THRIVE 23

 DIRECT
Set the direction so people can make better decisions
when you’re not there
Attempts at great direction often end up like
gardening: we start with a grand design in
mind but inevitably end up stuck in the weeds.
Which is a shame, because plenty of research
demonstrates the importance of this skill67.
Of course, at times there is a need to get in
to the finer detail, but managers who excel
at directing will be able to flex their perspective
– zooming out to the bigger picture and in to
the detail – with ease and proficiency.
Harvard business school research over two
decades supports this view68. They found
managers who set direction best start with the
high-level perspective and shift their vantage
point regularly and seamlessly.
The research has also found that most people
have a default preference – so we all need to
master how to embrace the other view. Starting
with box-top leadership can make the
difference. Think of jigsaw puzzles with the
completed picture on the top of the box.
24
Zoom out too far and you will miss something
vital; stay too close and the content disappears
from view.
Zoom lens
What and how questions
Satisfaction of quick wins
To view each situation as unique
 o focus on the situation at hand
T  o see the wider context and all the
and what’s in our control
To get regular updates
Knowing the company vision from the outset,
along with how different pieces slot into it, will
help managers keep both the big picture and the
detail top of mind.
If managers start with the bigger picture, when
is the right time to zoom in? As with all the
7 talents, Direct is increasingly more about
enabling others. When a manager gets it right,
they only rarely need zoom in – their people are
making the right decisions and doing the right
things when they’re not around. Key to this is
continually reinforcing the direction through
every interaction - a speech at a townhall, a
team meeting or a 1:1 coaching conversation.
Getting these everyday interactions right makes
a huge difference. After all, it’s one thing to share
© Mind Gym 2016
Wide lens
Why questions
 romise of long-term impact/playing
P
the longer time game
 o fit situations into categories
T
and/or patterns
T
pieces in the jigsaw
 o be told about serious issues
T
or big successes
a vision but quite another to get people to
believe in it. Establishing shared ownership and
accountability is key. One of the most effective
approaches for gaining employee buy-in is what
Louis Fox calls ‘spiritual leadership’69. Managers
share the organisational vision in such a way that
employees not only understand it but develop
their own personal interpretation and reasons to
believe in it. Sharing stories and using inclusive
language (we, not I) are quick routes to this.
Often, the weeds are where the business risk lies.
There are plenty of terms – ‘micromanagement’
and ‘seagull managers’ – to describe the
negative consequences of zooming in too far.
Step back, zoom out, and keep reinforcing the
bigger picture to Direct with accomplishment.
DIRECT 25
 EXECUTE 01. FOCUS

High
(cont.)

Cautious Focused
Deliver on promises, on time, in style, with others

There isn’t much sexy about ‘execution’, but
when team Mind Gym asked the people at the
top of companies – from Paul Walsh, when he
was CEO of Diageo, to Luis Miranda, when he
was Chairman of IDFC (who built more power
stations than the Indian government)70 – what
Attention
impact on branch performance as the ‘worst’.
The hyperactive types kept coming up with new
activities and distracted the exhausted branch
teams so much that they weren’t able to follow Absent Hectic
through. The more lackadaisical regional
managers would give instructions on their

Low
they most want in their managers, the answer occasional branch tour but never followed up,
was unequivocal: the ability to execute. so the branch team would carry on as they
always had done. The net effect was the same.
Low Energy High
When RBS studied the impact of a tier of
71
regional management, they were surprised to The key to effective execution is focus and
discover that the ‘best’ managers had the same accountability.

01. FOCUS
Managers who find it difficult to get results tend to have trouble separating being busy
and getting things done. The urgency addiction can take hold, and, often with the best of
intentions, they try to do everything. The result is a lot of noise, an exhausted manager and
little to show for it.
The manager who executes well not only has a lot of energy but knows where to point it.
They identify what is necessary or likely to have the greatest effect and concentrate their
effort on that. They also recognise that their time is the scarcest resource in the team and
so learning how to use that well will deliver a greater return than almost anything else in
their control.
To tell how well focused you are, answer four short questions:
– Which one aspect of my role can have the biggest positive impact
on my objective?
02. ACCOUNTABILITY
Of the 17 traits that make organisations effective at executing72, at the top of the list was
accountability: “Everyone has a good idea of the decisions and actions for which he or
she is responsible”. In companies that were strong on execution, 71% agreed with this
statement; in organisations that weren’t, the figure dropped to 32%.
The ABCD of accountability offers a simple checklist to ensure that this is properly set up.
• Authority levels: what do your team have full authority to do
and where do they need sign off?
• Boundaries: what is in scope and what is not?
• Controls: how will you monitor progress?
• Deliverables: what needs to be delivered, how and when?
Of these, it is the ‘C’, Controls, that tends to need most attention. Part of the answer is data,
in particular information that is a strong predictor of future trouble rather than reporting on
what has already happened.

– What percentage of my time do I currently spend on this?
– What percentage of my time should I spend on this?
– How can I increase this percentage?
Controls also mean being clear about what deliverables are to be expected and when,
and then following up. Once a rhythm for reporting has been agreed, it is important that
everyone sticks to it. Check in too often and a manager risks all the pitfalls of
micromanagement, including ending up doing the work themselves. But fail to keep to
the regular reviews, and it may well be too late when you find that someone has veered
off course.

26 © Mind Gym 2016 EXECUTE 27

 MANAGER LEADERS: The forgotten level
However much they’d like to leave it behind,
most senior leaders still do a lot of people
management. And the more senior they are,
the more important it is for them to get it
right – errors can quickly ripple down the
management hierarchy, intensifying as
they go.
The most common mistake that manager
leaders (sometimes called ‘managers of
managers’) make is to manage their reports as
if they were still individual contributors (how
are you doing against your goals?) rather than
managers of people (how are you building the
capability of your team?).
Here are just a few of the key differences
between these three very distinct levels.

Individual contributor Manager Manager leader

You coach your direct reports

You coach your direct reports
You do your job well on how to manage others to
on how to do their job well
do their job well

You’re in direct contact with

You know how well the people who do the work You rely on data and your
you’re doing and whom and so have a clear view of managers to let you know how
to ask if you’re not how each member of your their people are performing
team is performing

Your technical knowledge may

You’re a technical expert and
You use your technical
you use that knowledge to
skills most of the time
guide your direct reports
be out of date and is likely to be
less relevant than your advice
on how to coach/motivate/lead
others to perform at their peak

You hold your managers

You oversee your team
You’re responsible for,
members and can have a high
and in control of, the
level of influence over the
quality of your work
quality of the work that they do
accountable for the quality of
their teams’ work, often with
little knowledge about what
those team members are doing
day to day (or week to week).

28 © Mind Gym 2016 MANAGER LEADERS 29

 CASE STUDY
Results

To evaluate the impact of the programme, a selection of managers who took part
in UMDP were asked a series of questions three months later. Here is what they
said:

Global management development at Unilever

I learnt new knowledge The programme has had

Unilever CEO, Paul Polman, set the direction for the business to grow from €40bn
100% and skills from attending
the programme
82.5% a positive impact on
my engagement
to €80bn whilst reducing its environmental impact and making a positive social
impact. HR intends to grow volume in every category, in every country, and central
to achieving these targets is talent.

The last employee engagement survey showed that line manager capability was an I have been able to
area that, if improved, would significantly impact the company’s ability to ‘win with successfully apply the The programme was a
our people’, which is a cornerstone of the Unilever strategy.
96% knowledge and skills
I learnt to my job. Of these,
95.5% worthwhile investment
in my career development
The Unilever Management Development Programme (UMDP) is the first time a 91% said they were able to
single programme has been introduced to build the capabilities of Unilever’s 15,500 apply their learning within
supervisors, first and second line managers across 33 countries. just 2-4 weeks

The ambition was to build a scalable, customised, global programme that can be
delivered quickly, consistently to high quality, whilst managing costs.
The programme has The programme was a
Although Unilever already had its own ‘standards of leadership’, they chose to adopt 90.5% improved my performance 100% worthwhile investment
the Mind Gym’s seven key talents that drive manager performance because these at work
are grounded in science. Two programmes were created: one for first-line
managers and one for manager leaders.

Each programme was built around the seven core talents but designed and pitched
for the specific audience. A manager that experienced both programmes as they
progressed up the company would recognise the core that runs between them
and yet would also learn something completely new. “Management development can sometimes
A robust online diagnostic provided every manager with a detailed 24-page report
be perceived as the poor cousin to leadership
revealing how their own self-rating compared with the views of those they manage, development, whereas the reality is that you need
their peers and their boss.
both to succeed and thrive. As well as the training
In order to deliver a standardised programme that resonated across markets and
cultures, a network of coaches was specifically recruited and up-skilled to deliver
transfer data which is demonstrating the value
the same core messages with local relevance and cultural acuity. created by applying these skills back in the workplace,
At the time of writing, over 2,500 managers have taken part in UMDP. In the next one of the things I’m most struck by is how this
few years, all managers will get the chance to partake in the programme and, in so
doing, set a new performance standard for Unilever. programme is reinvigorating the sense of pride in
being a great manager”.
Nick Pope, Global Learning Director, Unilever

30 © Mind Gym 2016 CASE STUDY 31

 CASE STUDY
Results

The programme has delivered a minimum 43% ROI, so for every $1 invested, $1.43
has been returned. This is based on the views of three separate audiences:

• Direct reports of managers

Management at Thomson Reuters • The manager of the managers
• The managers themselves

1. Direct reports
In 2008, the Thomson Corporation acquired Reuters to form one company,
Thomson Reuters. In the years that followed, the company focused on integration,
expanding its global footprint and deepening its services and products through Direct reports view of their manager effectiveness*
multiple acquisitions. This was a period of huge change.
1.2 * based on seven traceable questions
** increase is statistically significant
Consequently, the time and effort spent developing managers began to slip. The
existing learning and development programmes focused on a very small number of 1.0

managers in addition to high potential and diverse talent. Employee engagement

0.8 +0.039**
was suffering and a strategic capabilities analysis in 2012 revealed that the

MES score
fundamental basics of management needed to be improved at all levels. +0.028**
0.6 Manager did not
take part in MaTR
In 2012, Thomson Reuters appointed a new CEO, Jim Smith, and embarked on 0.4
a transformational journey. To achieve sustainable growth and a healthy return Overall population Manager takes (-0.016)
for investors, the leadership team committed to driving change to move from part in MaTR
0.2
and to as follows:
0

From: To:
• Internally focused • Customer focused 2. Managers of managers
• Siloed, duplicating efforts • Collaborative and simplified
• Fragmented approaches • Managing talent as a company asset
• Reactive • Here to win
• Performance-driven Said they observed an Said they noticed a positive
68% improvement in their direct
report’s management skills
57% change in the performance
of the team their direct
Thomson Reuters’ leadership realised that a highly engaged workforce led by skilled report manages
managers was key to achieving its bold objectives. Managers play a critical role in
translating business strategy into action by enhancing employee engagement,
effectively leading teams through change, focusing on outcomes and holding
teams accountable. 3. The managers themselves

Thomson Reuters needed to build these skills through a common framework

across its diverse businesses. Regardless of location, nationality or business unit,
all managers would have a consistent understanding of what it meant to be
a great manager at Thomson Reuters.
92% Said they learnt new
knowledge and skills
93% Said the programme was a
worthwhile investment
From this, the ‘Management at Thomson Reuters (MaTR)’ programme was born –
a global initiative designed to equip first-line managers with people management
skills to drive performance through their teams. Since 2013, 7,000 managers in
60 countries have taken part.

32 © Mind Gym 2016 CASE STUDY 33

 MAKING IT
HAPPEN
We hope that your company is one of the
thousands who already use Mind Gym to build
capabilities and change behaviour for the better. If
so, please continue with this (and if not, we hope
the fact you’ve read this far means that you’ll
give us a go).
Mind Gym’s team of psychologists have
developed a series of 180-minute Workout Pros
that delve deep into each management talent to
RELATE
Build relationships that are as
Relate profitable for you as they are
positive for your employees.
We can improve our impact
Your impact on others by understanding the
on others
motivations that drive people
to behave in different ways.
Use the Myers-Briggs Type
A tour of Indicator (MBTI) to understand
your mind what makes you tick and why
you do the things you do.
Prepare yourself to face difficult
conversations with courage and
Courageous
conversations confidence. Discover how to
master your emotions and stay
in control.
34
transform mindsets as well as skills. These are
also complemented by our 90-minute Workouts
designed to arm managers with practical skills
that they can apply immediately.
Over one million managers and employees in
50 countries have taken part in a Mind Gym
session, so they have been fully tested before
they get to you.
By doing the right thing in the
right way, you’ll soon find that
Trust me
people are turning to you as their
trusted advisor.
We can learn to manage conflict
positively by pre-empting the ways
Conflict
handling in which others will react, and by
controlling our response in the
heat of the moment.
Through empathising with and
Managing understanding the individual in
upwards question, we can manage upwards
with confidence and impact.
© Mind Gym 2016
COACH
Master the four key behaviours of We explore how we can use
great coaching and see your team positive and negative feedback to
Coach Great feedback
flourish, your reputation blossom, reinforce or change the behaviour
and your bottom line soar. of others.
Understand where we are, where
Imagine the boost to your team’s
Peak Shaping we’re going, and how we can get
performance performance if you could turn all of futures the best out of ourselves and our
your steady performers into stars.
team.
By approaching poor performance
with the right mindset and
U-turn
performance mastering the difficult conversations,
we can empower the person to turn
their performance around.
ENERGISE
By considering all the influencing
Become a crackling conductor of tactics available to us, we can
Energise energy with the power to
Influence &
persuade develop persuasion strategies for
invigorate and inspire your team. every situation and make people
say ‘yes’.
Many of us do not relish speaking
In order to motivate other people
in front of groups. By adding
we need to understand what Impressing
Motivate structure and practising delivery
drives them internally and groups
skills we can hugely improve the
influences them externally.
impact we make.
By appealing to people’s emotions
Inspire and values, we can enthuse them
about our vision.
KEY
Workout pro
Workout pro Workout Virtual workout
virtual
MAKING IT HAPPEN 35
 INNOVATE DIRECT
Seeing things from different Show your team where they’re Sharing bad news is not easy, but
Become the leader in your
Different perspectives allows us to generate heading, why you’re taking them Challenging we can learn ways to minimise the
Innovate organisation’s most innovative perspectives
Direct
messages
new ideas and spot new there, and what matters along pain, so that all parties emerge
team.
opportunities. the way. wiser, stronger and able to move on.

By understanding how the

By following a creative process we
Unleash your will be able to fully understand the
creativity
problem and generate innovative
ideas to solve it.
Discover a range of techniques to
Creativity for help even the most logical minds
logical thinkers
come up with creative and
off-the-wall ideas.
The hardest part of change is the
Delivering transition period and by managing
change
people’s reactions, we can deliver
our change successfully.
Seeing the bigger picture can lead
The big
picture to improved decision making and
more effective problem solving.
Set goals that will stretch your geographical barrier affects how
Remote
Goal setting team members and motivate them control team members connect both
to perform at their best. personally and professionally, the
remote manager can find ways to
ensure their team are working and
collaborating successfully.
We can adapt the tactics we use to
Dynamic delegate successfully in a style that
delegation
motivates the person we’re
working with.

THRIVE EXECUTE
You’ve missed the bus, again. Your
Create a culture of focus, discipline Find out the secrets to running
Discover how the power of choice office is making cutbacks. Learn
and accountability so your team Fleeting meetings that deliver what’s
Thrive can help you spend more time at Bounce back how to bounce back from the Execute
meetings
delivers in style and on time – needed with extra zest and the
your best. everyday setbacks that life throws
every time. minimum of fuss.
at us, and come out even stronger.

Being able to identify and
Give me understand our strengths can
strength
help us get more energy from
our everyday lives.
Get what you want from life by
Create your choosing to think optimistically,
own luck
spotting opportunities and taking
responsibility.
Through learning how to effectively
True collaboration is not easy to
Make it manage a project you can deliver Collaborative
happen solutions achieve, but there are tactics we
on time, to budget and with
can use to help us get there.
minimal hurdles along the way.

While we can’t create more time,

We can manage our stress and we can generate something of We can avoid disappointment by
keep it at the optimum level using greater value: more energy. If we Managing making expectations explicit and
Stress busters Extra time
different combinations of stress- expectations communicating changes
bring sufficient energy to whatever
busting tactics. we do, we will have both greater as they happen.
impact and extra time.

By thinking proactively and

Getting
things done overcoming our unhelpful attitude
to our tasks, we can get more done.

36 © Mind Gym 2016 MAKING IT HAPPEN 37

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