Why “Connector” Managers Build Better Talent

HBR IdeaCast

Harvard Business Review

Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Communication, Marketing, Business, Business/management, Management, Business/marketing, Business/entrepreneurship, Innovation, Hbr, Strategy, Economics, Finance, Teams, Harvard

4.4 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 12 November 2019

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Sari Wilde, a managing vice president at Gartner, studied 5,000 managers and identified four different types of leaders. The surprising result is that the “always on” manager is less effective at developing employees, even though many companies encourage supervisors to give constant feedback. Instead, the “connector” manager is the most effective, because they facilitate productive interactions across the organization. Wilde explains what the best connector managers do, how to be one, and how to work for one. With Jaime Roca, Wilde wrote the book “The Connector Manager: Why Some Leaders Build Exceptional Talent -- and Others Don’t.”

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everyone it's Kurt we need your help with our annual survey this is your last chance to help us get to know you so we can make idea cast even better for you
0:09.8	it's easy just go to HBR.org
0:13.0	podcast survey.
0:15.0	Again, that's HBR.org slash podcast survey.
0:19.0	And, thanks for listening. Welcome to the HBR Idea cast from Harvard Business Review. I'm Kurt Nickish. One of the best ways to achieve personal success
0:51.4	in the modern organization is to become the type of manager
0:54.7	that the best people want to work for.
0:57.2	And that manager is the one who is great at developing employees.
1:01.8	After all, business is changing.
1:04.5	Responsibilities are constantly shifting.
1:06.7	Workers want to upgrade their skills.
1:09.1	A team of researchers at the Global Advisory Firm Gartner wanted to know what the best managers do to develop employees in today's busy work environment.
1:18.0	They surveyed 5,000 managers around the world in different functions,
1:22.0	and they looked at how successful employees of those managers are.
1:25.6	What the researchers found is that while many companies are telling managers to lavish a constant stream of feedback on their direct reports, that's actually not working.
1:35.1	In fact, it's counterproductive.
1:37.5	The data reveal there are four main types of managers out there, and the manager giving
1:41.8	constant feedback is not even close to the most
1:44.7	effective one in today's climate. Here to talk about the different types of
1:48.9	managers and which one comes out on top is Seri Wild. She's a managing vice president at
1:54.4	Gartner and along with Jaime Roca at Gartner she wrote the book The
1:58.7	Connector Manager why some leaders build exceptional talent and others don't.
	...

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