MORE than a third of employees have considered leaving their job in the past year because of their manager, according to a new Leadership Jersey survey.
The results also showed that 92% of staff would prefer to work for a ‘leader’ rather than a ‘manager’, with women far more likely to be described as the former than men.
In the questionnaire results, 49% of female bosses were rated as leaders compared to 38% of men in the same position. Last year, males and females were rated the same.
The data also revealed that – perhaps worried about the results – only one in five managers in Jersey offered their staff the chance to give feedback on the boss’s performance.
This year’s Assessing the Quality of Jersey Leadership survey formed part of a keynote speech by business fixer Kevin Keen at the Leadership Jersey event recently held at the Pomme d’Or Hotel.
Mr Keen lamented the finding from the survey – completed by more than 600 members of the business community – which showed that 81% of managers had not provided the chance for their direct reports to appraise them during the past 12 months.
He said: ‘Your organisation – and, in turn, you – will be more successful if you provide a safe space for your people to give you feedback.
‘Please be one of the 19% that do rather than the 81% that don’t. It may be hard to take that feedback but it’s important.’
The results were presented by Emma-Louise Veitch, of All Things Customer.
The survey also showed that 36% of respondents had considered leaving their job because of the person they reported to, while 33% had not received an appraisal during the past year.
Other key dangers highlighted by Mr Keen were the concept of ‘wilful blindness’, with some managers’ seniority and the lack of objective feedback making them convinced that problems within their business were somebody else’s fault.
Attendees were urged to ‘walk your talk’ by Mr Keen in doing the things they asked and expected of others, going ‘back to the floor’ at least once per year and listening closely to those handling feedback from customers.
Leadership Jersey, which is supported by the JEP and Bailiwick Express, was set up in 2015 by Mr Keen as a not-for-profit organisation to promote and support the development of better leadership in all aspects of life.
