One of yesterday's posts was about Dave Ramsey's talk at the Catalyst Conference.  Another one of the speakers at this year's event was Patrick Lencioni, the author of The Five Dysfunctions of A Team, Silos, Politics, and Turf Wars, Death by Meeting, and The Three Signs of a Miserable Job.

In his talk, Lencioni outlined what makes people so unhappy in their work.  Do any of these resemble your job?

    1)  anonymity - people need to know that someone cares about them, especially their manager
    2)  irrelevance - people need to feel that their job is benefiting someone else in at least some small way
    3)  immeasurement - people need to be able to measure for themselves whether or not they are doing a good job. 

There is a large body of evidence that suggests that a person's relationship with his or her manager is the biggest factor in whether or not that person stays in their current role.  Likewise, the manager has a very important role in ensuring that their subordinates are not miserable.  For instance, if the employees feel that they are making a difference in the lives of someone else, that the company cares about them, and that they are being productive, they are likely to stay at that organization for a long time.

Lencioni ended with the thought that management is ministry, in that the way that you treat your employees will impact how they treat the other people around them.  It will impact their marriages, their families and their friends. Thus, the role of manager is a very powerful role that should be taken seriously.

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