‘Emotionally illiterate managers’ face firing line

Speaking at an event held on 21 January for Blue Monday in London, Professor Sir Cary Cooper said that ensuring managers were as competent in their people skills, as they are technically, was the single most powerful thing CEOs could do to increase wellbeing and productivity in their firms.

He told audiences of HR and health and safety personnel: “If I ran a company, I would do an audit of all my managers from shop floor to top floor, to find out which ones have the social and interpersonal skills, and which ones don’t. And get rid of them, or put them in some other job unrelated to people. That would make a difference.”

He said that much of the mental health and wellbeing debate hinges on manager competence, for example, a “socially sensitive” person would notice if one of their team seemed out of sorts, and would then be able to talk to them and see if they’re ok.

“We have people who are technically competent but emotionally illiterate. Until we can [fix] that we’re not going to grow as an economy.”

Cooper, who is professor of organisational psychology and health at the Manchester Business School, said that companies are increasingly taking interpersonal skills seriously as a factor of manager competency, particularly in their approaches to hiring.

“[Hiring] the next cohort of managers, firms should say, do they have the technical skills to do their job? Do they have equivalent people skills? If they don’t, don’t take them. I don’t care how good they are technically if they don’t have those [interpersonal skills], don’t take them.”

Professor Cooper’s comments follow research that found employees still feel unable to disclose a mental health issue to their manager.

Business in the Community’s Mental Health at Work Report 2018, based on a survey of 4,626 employees, found that only 16 per cent of respondents would approach their line manager for support if they suffered a mental health issue. Eleven per cent of respondents who had gone on to disclose a mental health issue said they had subsequently faced disciplinary action, demotion or dismissal.

The report released in October last year recommends training managers to spot the early warning signs of troubled employees, and resilience training to educate people about how to sustain good mental health. It says: “It is not acceptable for 67 per cent of line managers have received no training in mental health, as part of general training, management training or a specific mental health course.”

Cooper was speaking at Staples’ ‘happiness’ event held for Blue Monday, the name given to the third Monday in January, which is said to be the most depressing day of the year for workers.