Top-performing managers help employees find roles that align with their strengths and goals, according to a September study led by University of Chicago researchers that analyzed data from 200,000 workers and 30,000 managers.
Here are seven things to know:
1. What differentiates top managers is their ability to guide or empower employees to move into roles that suit them better, study author Virginia Minni, PhD, assistant professor of economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, wrote in an Oct. 10 Wall Street Journal article. The study focused on data from a large multinational firm over 10 years and 100 countries.
2. About 25% of the managers in the study were identified as top performers — those who advanced through leadership ranks faster than their peers. Employees who worked with a top-performing manager were about 40% more likely than peers to move laterally within the organization within seven years of contact.
3. Employees who worked under a top manager and switched roles earned about 13% more than those with lower-performing leaders, and had about 16% higher performance metrics within seven years of contact. Changing jobs alone accounted for about 64% of the employees’ pay increase, according to the study.
4. Employees continued to experience gains in mobility and compensation even after no longer working directly with a top manager.
5. Some managers reassigned employees into new roles themselves, while others inspired workers to seek new positions. Employees under top managers were 50.5% more likely than peers to take on short-term assignments outside their teams and 9.7% more likely than peers to complete a profile on an internal job-matching platform.
6. Top managers spent nearly 20% more time in one-on-one meetings and offered structured, goal-aligned feedback.
7. Organizational leaders should measure and reward managers for development talent through strategic reassignments, not just team output, Dr. Minni wrote. She encouraged managers to identify employees’ strengths and match them to the best roles, rather than leaving reassignments to human resources.
