It shouldn’t be this hard for managers to invest in their teams

I’ve written articles about concepts like 68 percent of managers not being involved in their employees’ development. I’ve also seen things where only 34 percent of managers can name the strengths of their employees. These are depressing stats, much like 95 percent of managers not understanding core tenets of motivation.

Almost every manager I’ve had fits into one of these groups (often all three). At a certain level, it’s all bullshit. You can go fly to a leadership conference and learn “best practices” on the matter, but at a certain level you have to come back and care. That’s a growing disconnect in the digital age. E-mail is a time suck, but it’s also very easy to hide behind. So you can go over here and claim “OMG I’m So Busy!” but go over there and claim “Well, I’m managing them in that I’m e-mailing them deliverables every now and again.” People are often morons — and then they correspondingly think they’re geniuses.

Here’s a good article from Harvard Business Review on how managers need to remain “human” even in the “digital” age. A logical point, no? Here’s maybe the most logical point:

Last month, I attended ATD’s global conference in Orlando, Fla., along with almost 11,000 talent development professionals…