Last week I was attending a round-table consultation on the development of Australia’s National Workforce Development Strategy when the topic of conversation turned to the value of good management. A number of people expressed the view that good management held the key to unlocking productive capacity for organizations, industries, and economies.

Then today I was interested to see that the people responding to this web-poll, “Why Do You Stick With Your Employer?” ranked “Good coaching from and interaction with my boss” as the leading factor in retention, rating it more than twice as important as any other factor.

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It’s clear that effective and engaging managers can positively impact the productivity and turnover of their departments – but less clear how you enable best practise management.

The Peter Principle, the principle that "In a Hierarchy Every Employee Tends to Rise to His Level of Incompetence", is a humorous idea, but still has resonance 40 years after it was originally described. I wonder if this is because there is often no guidance or mentoring for new managers to acquire the types of skills that good managers need, particularly those skills that can’t be taught in a classroom.

I’d be really interested to hear back from anyone who has experience with mentoring or other programs supporting people in the transition into management roles... and any evidence or anecdotes about the resulting long-term turnover and productivity impacts for their organizations.