The Connector Manager Performance Advantage

And Why Other Approaches Do More Harm Than Good

Rethink employee development

Employees who report to effective manager coaches are 40% more engaged, exhibit 38% more discretionary effort and are 20% more likely to stay at their organizations than those who report to ineffective coaches. The problem is, much of today’s coaching simply isn’t effective, and managers are overwhelmed.

Knowing this, we embarked on a multiyear study of thousands of employees, managers and senior leaders around a simple question: “What are the best managers doing to develop employees in today’s workplace?” 

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    Graph displaying the Maximum Impact on employee performance given manager approaches to coaching and development.

    Connector managers triple the likelihood that direct reports are high performers

    Our 3Q19 Executive Guidance e-book covers surprising findings from the study, including the correlation between management approaches and performance. 

    Always-On managers — who provide continuous feedback — actually degrade employee performance by up to 8%, while Connector managers improve performance by up to 26%.  

    Download the e-book to learn:

    • Which of the four manager types are best and worst at improving performance
    • The myths behind the often favored, but detrimental
      Always-On manager type
    • How Connector managers make three core development connections for employees

    Quiz: Which manager type are you?

    As a senior leader, your role and reach goes well beyond the frontline manager role, so your impact as a Connector has the potential to ripple outward across the managers you manage. Do you know what kind of manager you are?

    Graphic displaying the four manager types: Teacher, Always-On, Cheerleader, and Connector.
    About Executive Guidance

    Since 2009, Executive Guidance has provided cross-functional best practices to help management teams make key decisions.

    Each issue focuses on the trends influencing bottom-line performance and provides guidance on how to achieve top-line performance.