THE CONNECTED MANAGER 
Building Leaders and Increasing Engagement Through Connection

The Connected Manager Program results in an engaged workforce by focusing on building and sustaining highly effective leaders that care about and connect meaningfully to the people they manage. Based on the evidence that connection cures disengagementand focused on The 8 Qualities of Connection that allow managers to get the best out of their humans, (not just the most). The program trains and develops your managers while providing regular assessments to leverage accountability, feedback that allows for change and recommendations for company-wide engagement.

8 QUALITIES OF A CONNECTED MANAGER
CORE PRINCIPLES
PROGRAM BENEFITS
STATS AND FACTS
PROGRAM COMPONENTS
PROCESS AND INVESTMENT
WHY IT WORKS
THE CONNECTED MANAGER MANIFESTO

The 8 Qualities of A connectED MANAGER
The qualities of a Connected Manager encompass not only what a manager does, but also who they are. When you think of the best managers you've had, we're willing to bet they exhibited most of the qualities listed here. And, clearly, the opposite is also true - often painfully true - bad managers have large gaps in these key areas.

Core PrincipleS

  • Disengagement (a.k.a job misery) comes from 3 areas – 1) feeling unknown (anonymity), 2) not knowing how your job makes a difference in the company (irrelevance), or 3) not being able to measure progress/accomplishments (immeasurement)*
  • Connection is the key to engagement – connection to people, connection to career path and connection to the company
  • Managers are the key to connection 
  • Employees who are connected to the goals, mission and initiative of the company are typically led by great managers
  • Connection is not just about what a manager does (great work), it also encompasses core character qualities (great humans)

The Program Benefits – “Development with Accountability” 

  • Increased engagement and connection across-the-board through managers who are connected to the people they manage.
  • Intentional and regular training and development focused on the 8 Qualities of Connection provided for your managers, customized to provide the development they most need.
  • Simple, timely and ongoing meaningful assessments of your managers without the hassle of interrupting your entire performance management system or cycle.
  • Robust reports on each of your managers, given to you quarterly. You’ll have real-time data on how connected your managers are.
  • Deployment of all assessments from our offices. We handle it. You don’t mess with it. 
  • Actionable recommendations given to you at the completion of each assessment cycle. You’ll have a bird’s eye view of what’s working and what isn’t, and not just in The Connected Manager realm. 
  • Insights for additional indirect impact from tangential findings. Typically, this process also reveals gaps in other aspects of company operations and employee performance. We’ll share all findings for the C-Suite to review implications and consider action. 
  • Continuity year over year to increase consistency of management across your company

The Stats and Facts


  • Gallup measures the impact of employee engagement as 21% greater profitability, 41% reduction in absenteeism, and 59% less turnover.  
  • Gallup has discovered that a staggering 70% of the variation between great workplace engagement and lousy workplace engagement can be explained just by the ​quality of the manager or team leader.
  • Employees who feel their voice is heard are 4.6 times more likely to feel empowered to perform their best work.
  • The Connected Manager program is designed to build and sustain employee engagement and develop your leaders using proven methods to improve managers’ ability to connect with their humans.
  • TCM is informed by 20+ years working with hundreds of leaders using dozens of proven methods. The result is the most practical and effective program of changed behavior, increased connection and development of the leaders of your company. We’ve rolled the best aspects of proven assessment, communication, training tools, and experienced advice into a minimally disruptive, highly effective protocol for increasing employees’ engagement while building up and into your leaders. 
  • While still a young program, our three-year beta partner reports a 26% decrease in turnover, a move from scoring in the 36th percentile to the 96th percentile in employee engagement scores, and a 16% increase in employee satisfaction.
  • Because the program has built-in customization and routine assessment, we’re confident we can make your managers Connected Managers who measurably improve your employee engagement too.

Program ComponentS

THE PROGRAM PROCESS AND INVESTMENT

Once your company is up and going, the Connected Manager process is a quarterly routine of assessment, reporting, training and development. Don't forget! We deploy everything from our offices. You don't have to manage or mess with sending out assessments, tracking people down and compiling information. In addition to assessments, training and reporting, our first year together will also involve prep, customization, immersion and a gentle but quick ramp up so you can begin to see results right away. Process and price below. 
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Engagement is renewed annually. Price is subject to change.

Why The Connected Manager Program Works

It’s no mystery why people perform – although it can feel like it! When people are “doing well” they have clarity, understanding, feedback and accountability. The Connected Manager program works because it directly addresses 5 of the 7 factors that affect job performance while indirectly impacting the other two.

The Connected Manager Manifesto – An Example
(we work with you to create your own meaningful manifesto that becomes your rallying cry for change)

Connected Managers are powerful leaders who readily and easily connect with the people they manage. Connected Managers can be defined by the following characteristics: 
 
  • Available/Approachable
  • Trustworthy
  • Empathetic/Compassionate
  • Open/Flexible
  • Vulnerable
  • Ability to Coach
  • Tactful
  • Non-judgmental
 
We believe that these characteristics will look different on different managers. We also feel they allow for diversity and the quirks of personal style. 
 
Many of our managers are great examples of the above characteristics. Although, not exactly alike in style, they are our most successful managers. We acknowledge, however, that we have not always required the above characteristic/behaviors of our managers and therefore we have allowed inconsistencies throughout our agency. By creating new expectations, we cannot only allow for connection and success in our company but also remove some of the unintentional roadblocks to greatness that we may have allowed.
 
It is not always easy to spot an unsuccessful manager, especially for those managers who do great work for our clients. 
 
Unsuccessful managers may exhibit the following:
 
  • Manages up well but not respected or loved by team
  • Reluctance to share personal information with others
  • Shows little interest in being with work people when not at work
  • Stays in office and rarely walks around/interacts
  • Has better relationships with clients than team members
  • Is stingy with praise
  • Is easily stressed or stress is obvious to others
  • Overreacts, is not able to stay calm during crisis
  • Is insensitive and unable to read the emotions of others
  • Is arrogant – more concerned about image than impact
  • Shows little concern for the growth path of employee, only themselves
 
It is not enough for a manager to claim they have the above characteristics of a successful manager. They must also exhibit supporting evidence through observable behaviors. 
 
It is not enough to hire and train for these qualities. We must also provide a standard and regularly measure our managers against this standard. 
 
Only by providing feedback and accountability will we create the environment that enables our managers to connect readily to the people they manage.