The Pernicious Problem You Didn’t Know You Had: Team-First Managers

If you have ever sat in a meeting where employee turnover was being discussed, and if in that meeting, they discussed problems and potential solutions to the turnover issue, you have probably heard someone chime in with what sounded like a very insightful observation: “you don’t quit a job; you quit a manager.” We’ve all heard it a hundred times, and it honestly sounds pretty valid. Whenever it is said, the responses range from gentle nods of tacit agreement to someone mumbling under their breath “you can say that again.”  

Data collected by TMA Performance over 25 years of employee survey responses from thousands of organizations tells us that employees do, in fact, quit organizations all the time for all kinds of reasons that do not include their managers. The leading reason employees leave jobs according to exit survey data is for a growth opportunity at another organization—increased responsibility or increased money. Still, we know that managers play a fundamental role in engaging their employees—they just might not play the role you think they play. In most employee surveys we see a very common theme: employees love their immediate teams, which includes co-workers and direct managers. In our same survey benchmarks that hold direct managers in very high esteem, we see lower scores related to confidence in executive leaders. We see low scores in employee voice and organizational communication. We see middling scores related to confidence in the future of the company.  

The same employees who love their managers have tepid opinions of the organization overall. They have low confidence in executive leaders, they are dissatisfied with communication, they do not feel like they have a voice in the organization, they feel their career prospects are limited, and some feel like they don’t belong in the organization. How an employee feels about their manager has almost nothing to do with whether or not they feel like they belong in the organization. We know that belonging is the most common driver of engagement across all the organizations we have surveyed over the last decade. If I feel like I belong in an organization, I am far more likely to also engage in that organization.  

What do managers have to do with a sense of belonging? Most managers do an excellent job of fostering belonging at the team level. Why doesn’t that positive feeling transfer over to the organization? This brings us to the problem you didn’t know you had: Team-First Managers. 

What is a Team-First Manager?

The tendency of most managers (especially new managers) is to wrap their arms around their teams and protect them. The happiness of the people on their teams is their highest priority. If you asked most managers to identify the members of their primary team, they would identify the people who report to them directly. Such managers are willing to go to battle with other departments and the overall organization on behalf of their teams. All of this sounds great, right? Wouldn’t you want to work for a team-first manager? Here’s why it becomes a problem. The practice of defending a team against senior leadership and other departments leads to a separation. Being a team-first manager may seem altruistic. In reality, behind all of the acts of bravery on behalf of the team is a deep-seated desire to be liked by direct reports. Managers who want to be liked by their teams have a very hard time playing the role of organizational spokesman. In fact, they might see speaking on behalf of the organization as “being the bad guy.” The very mindset that employees need to be protected from the rest of the organization is pernicious.  

What’s the Harm in a Team-First Manager?

When employees take a job, they are taking a job with the organization—not with the manager. When employees get their paycheck, the paycheck comes from the organization—not the manager. When employees look to expand their careers, they look outside their own teams to do so. When employees need to make meaningful change, they need to do so with the help of other departments and executives. Indeed, the relationships employees form outside of their nuclear teams are maybe more important than the relationships they form inside their nuclear teams over the long term. Having success within a team—in a silo—only provides so much satisfaction, especially when the team’s goals are disconnected from the goals of the organization. Having success that is tightly integrated with the success of the organization is far more meaningful. In this case, employees are able to see their place in the organization and feel like they belong to something greater than their small teams. Other people notice their contributions too. Likewise, when team goals align with the goals of the larger organization, team members feel more involved in the organization than they do their own teams, and subordinating the needs of the team to the needs of the rest of the organization becomes natural.  

It is here that a manager can really make a difference. A manager that insists upon prioritizing team wants and desires over organizational needs will likely win favor with team members. The short-term harmony this produces might feel good for now, but over the long-term, team members will never fully integrate with the rest of the organization. Likewise, managers who fail to advocate for the organization when communicating decisions made by the organization, run the risk of creating a rift between their employees and senior leaders.  

Here’s how it happens: managers worry that decisions made by senior leadership will be unpopular, so instead of supporting and providing rationale and context for the decision, they take a defensive posture and either verbally or non-verbally let their teams know that the decision is something that is happening to them. The irony is that while this approach may engender a positive connection between the manager and the employee, the relationship between the employee and their actual employer becomes strained. It places the employee in the position of being the victim—at the mercy of the metaphorical “boogie man” that is the organization.  

A manager can and should have concern over how direct reports receive and interpret communications and decisions from senior leaders. The primary concern should be that direct reports have a firm grasp of the rationale and the impact of the decisions—both positive and negative. Above all, managers should find a way to be supportive of decisions and information that is passed along from senior leaders, even when the immediate perception is that the information negatively impacts their teams. 

Organization-First Managers

When I talk to leadership teams about being org-first managers, I often respond to a lot of misconceptions. The assumption is often that if a manager is on the side of the organization, they cannot be on the side of the team—as though the two entities are in some sort of opposition. In fact, the best thing for the team in the long term is that the manager takes an org-first approach. There are many similarities between org-first and team-first managers.  

Like team-first managers, org-first managers also:

• Treat team-members with fairness and respect 

• Care about the personal needs of team members 

• Invest in the development of team-members 

• Advocate for team members 

The difference of an Org-First Manager vs a Team-First Manager

Taking an org-first approach does not mean that managers abandon the relationships they have with team members. Some of the more destructive team-first practices, however, are abandoned. These include us-versus-them mentality, protecting team members from senior leaders, prioritizing team-member wants over organizational needs, and the mentality that assumes organizational decisions are happening to us.  

The org-first approach leans into positive behaviors and activities that engender positive feelings between team members and other departments, senior leaders, and the organization overall. Some of the things org-first managers do well are the following: 

• Build connections across functions and departments 

• Advocate for organizational strategy, direction, and decisions 

• Build excitement and optimism for the future of the organization 

• Prioritize organizational goals over the needs and wants of the team 

• Expose and connect team members to all parts of the organization 

• Align team goals to organizational goals 

• View and treat peer managers as primary team members 

• Align development of team members with future and current needs in the organization 

As we have researched engagement surveys over time, we have seen a consistent pattern emerge. How people feel about their managers and teams has very little impact on how they feel about the organization overall. We have also seen that the most critical factor in determining whether employees will engage is the relationship employees have with the organization overall. Research also tells us that managers have a critical role in shaping that relationship. If managers can help employees view the organization in a positive light and help employees see their current contribution in the organization as well as their path in the future of the organization, those employees are likely to feel a sense of belonging. When employees can honestly say they feel they belong in an organization, they are far more likely to engage. Managers who adopt org-first tactics will not only be able to form strong relationships with team members, but they will be setting their team members up to maximize their contributions and future careers within that organization.