Webinar Summary

Fight the Under-Management Epidemic: How to Build a Culture of Strong Leadership

Opening Remarks

John Laverdure (Senior Director of Learning Solutions at TTA): Welcome everyone! Strong leadership is the backbone of any successful organization, but under-management is surprisingly common and holds teams back. Today’s session will shed light on what’s happening beneath the surface and how to fix it.

Introduction to Bruce Tulgan: Bruce Tulgan is the founder of RainmakerThinking and one of the world’s leading experts on management and leadership. For over 30 years, he’s researched what the best leaders do differently. He’s the bestselling author of books including “It’s Okay to Be the Boss” and “The Art of Being Indispensable at Work.”

What is Under-Management?

Bruce Tulgan: Under-management is hiding in plain sight in almost every organization worldwide. While micromanagement has become a household word that everyone seeks to avoid, micromanagement is actually extremely rare. Under-management is a mountain where micromanagement is just a molehill.

Definition: Under-management occurs when leaders, managers, and supervisors are not doing enough leading, managing, and supervising. Specifically, they’re not providing:

• High structure, high substance guidance, direction, support, and coaching
• Meaningful team huddles
• Enough meaningful one-on-ones
• Clear expectations
• Performance tracking
• Problem-solving support

The 8 Costs of Under-Management

1. Problems occur that didn’t have to occur
2. Problems get out of control that should have been solved easily
3. Resources are squandered and have to be recouped
4. People go in the wrong direction for days, weeks, or months before anyone realizes it
5. Low performers hide out and collect paychecks
6. Mediocre performers mistake themselves for high performers
7. High performers get frustrated and think about leaving
8. Leaders have a hard time delegating

Research Background

• 32 years of research on the front lines of the workplace
• More than 500,000 participants in surveys, interviews, focus groups, and seminars
• 400+ organizations involved
• Some interviews lasting 10+ years
• Key finding: It’s getting harder to manage people

The 7 Myths Preventing Strong Leadership

Myth #1: The Myth of Empowerment

Reality: Sink or swim is not empowerment—it’s negligence. Real empowerment requires:

• Planned team huddles
• Structured one-on-ones
• Clear priorities and ground rules
• Regular dialogue about work progress

Myth #2: The Myth of Fairness

Reality: Treating everyone exactly the same is only fair in a commune. In business, fairness means:

• Giving everyone opportunities
• Doing more for some and less for others based on merit
• Recognizing that everyone is a special case
• Treating high and low performers differently

Myth #3: The Myth of the Jerk Boss

The 5 Common “Jerk Boss” Behaviors:

1. Making decisions without good information
2. Pretending things are up to people when they’re not
3. Letting small problems slide until they become big problems
4. Pretending to be friends instead of building genuine rapport
5. Soft-pedaling authority until things go wrong, then getting angry

Myth #4: The Myth of the Difficult Confrontation

Reality: Most managers don’t have enough ordinary conversations, so when they finally talk, it becomes confrontational. The solution:

• Have regular structured dialogue
• Make expectations clear along the way
• Take a “walk every day” (regular check-ins)

Myth #5: The Myth of the HR Police

Reality: HR is there to help, but you must:

• Document performance consistently
• Keep detailed notes of interactions
• Track expectations and outcomes
• Build a partnership with HR

Myth #6: The Myth of the Natural Leader

Reality: You don’t need to be a natural leader. The fundamentals can be learned:

• Nuclear scientists at national labs learned these skills
• 19-year-old Marines become better managers than 90% of private sector managers
• It’s about practicing fundamentals, not natural talent

Myth #7: The Myth of Time

Reality: If you don’t have time, you don’t have time NOT to lead. Management upfront saves time by:

• Preventing unnecessary problems
• Avoiding rework
• Leveraging others’ productive capacity
• Following the “Smokey the Bear Rule”: It’s easier to prevent fires than put them out

The 8 Steps Back to Fundamentals

1. Get in the habit of managing upfront in advance, every step of the way
2. Practice situational leadership – Ask: Who? Why? What? How? Where? When?
3. Talk like a teacher or coach – Break things down, spell things out
4. Make accountability a process, not a slogan
5. Make expectations clear every step of the way
6. Track performance every step of the way
7. Solve small problems before they turn into big problems
8. Do more for some people, less for others based on what they deserve

Practical Implementation

Getting Started:

1. Ask yourself: Am I willing to do something different?
2. Set aside one hour per day for managing upfront
3. Make a list of your direct reports
4. Think about what you need to discuss with each person

Key Principles:

• You’re not the referee; you’re the coach
• Focus on solutions, not problems
• Low performance should not be an option
• Keep learning—take charge by learning