The Management Commitment

We all know the saying: “People don’t quit companies, they quit managers.” It’s been cited repeatedly, most prominently by Gallup. While most studies don’t go into much further detail, our experience suggests this is not simply the result of clashing personalities. Rather, it’s a misalignment on what the employee and the manager expect from each other. Unspoken expectations can be a real landmine in manager relationships. While there is a lot of emphasis placed on getting position descriptions right for employees (also a good practice), few companies make clear to the employee what they should expect from their manager (and what managers need to provide to their direct reports).

What is a Management Commitment?

Many people are familiar with the concept of a Brand Promise. It’s a stated commitment from a company to its customers to provide a certain level of service or a certain quality of a product. The best Brand Promises are credible and memorable. They may be backed explicitly by some commitment to a customer if the promise isn’t met (e.g., a money-back guarantee). These are helpful not just as a marketing message to customers, but also as a guide for employees to know that certain things must be true to be successful. They serve as a standard against which all goods or services should be tested. If the process is being followed, and the promise not being met, something should be escalated.

Like a Brand Promise to customers, we recommend companies adopt a Management Commitment (or promise) to employees. The purpose, just like in the Brand Promise, is not to offer perfection, but rather to make clear to all employees that the organization is committed to giving them a certain level of management.

The Management Commitment serves as a standard against which both employee and manager can align on expectations for their relationship. We’ve included ours as a reference at the end of this post. One of the big inspirations for our Management Commitment was Microsoft CEO Satya Nardella, who defined the role of a leader at Microsoft as providing clarity, energy, and creating success in spite of constraints.

In a world where competition for talent is fierce, reducing voluntary turnover represents a significant value creation lever for most companies. Getting clearly shared mutual expectations on key relationships is one relatively easy way to both create a more enjoyable work environment, and to capture tangible economic value in the process.

A Guide to Making the Most of Your Management Commitment

• Draft your Management Commitment. Just get something on paper. It doesn’t have to be perfect, and it doesn’t have to be a novel. You’ve got ideas in your head and chances are they’re pretty good. If you’re stuck, ours is included below. Feel free to copy it as a starting point.

• Tie it to your Core Values if possible. Two of our values are Leadership & Trajectory, for example.

• Make it visible for your entire company. Ideally put it in a system with other key documents that make explicit what work is done (processes) and expectations for how people interact (culture).

• Ensure your People Operations / HR team and key Executives have a plan for receiving employee feedback if the employee feels the Management Commitment is not being met.

• When new employees start, make reviewing the Management Commitment part of the on-boarding process. Explain that they are part of making the team better, and that includes the managers. If the new employees feel they aren’t getting what they’re supposed to be getting, explain how they are to provide that feedback.

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The Persistently Management Commitment:

As new people join our organization, they often come from other companies or organizations with very different managerial philosophies. The purpose of our Management Commitment is to let employees know what they should expect from their managers. We want employees to speak up (to their manager directly, to People Operations, or to any Executive Team member) if these commitments are not being honored.

Speaking up is not "getting someone in trouble" or "throwing someone under the bus" (unless you are operating with ill intent). Managers are people (spoiler alert!). And sometimes people (even managers) need to be coached on strategies for meeting these obligations. As a company, we can't fix things if we don't know about them. We're all in this together and we need some common expectations so we can all know if we are veering off course. Thus, our Management Commitment:

• Managers provide Clarity and Context (up and down the organization):

  • I will understand employees' concerns, motivations and objectives:

    • Written goals and objectives regularly reviewed

    • Development plans in place

    • Solutions and/or actions documented

  • I will ensure alignment of my team’s efforts with company objectives. To do so, I will paint a Vision of what success looks like for our team so they understand where we are going and can contribute to helping us get there.

• Managers generate Positive Energy for the team (calibrating up and down as appropriate):

  • I will maintain a regular cadence of interaction with my team

    • Structured 1:1s at least bi-weekly

    • Departmental staff meetings at least monthly

    • Daily huddles encouraged as appropriate but not required

  • I will make a practice of running effective meetings that motivate or calm our team as needed, have a clearly stated purpose, drive alignment through clear agendas and actions, and facilitate participation from the entire team.

• Regardless of the circumstances, I am accountable for delivering Results while operating with integrity to our Values, Principles, and Objectives:

  • I will ensure communication of company values, principles, and objectives

  • I will help identify and remove obstacles to success.

  • I will ensure there are no failures by finding the Learning in losses and mistakes to ensure positive overall Trajectory.