Leadership Development Blog

In an April 2019 episode of podcast This American Life, host Ira Glass begins the show with a story from David Kestenbaum, producer and managing editor.

“David, so, what problem was this supposed to solve?” Ira asks.

“The teachers were trying to get the kids to stop tattling,” David replies.

They go on to describe one teacher’s solution to the overwhelming and time-consuming number of “tattles” she receives from her 20 students, each between three and four years old, every day. Her solution? Attach a large red phone to the classroom wall and instruct kids to, “Tell it to the Tattle Phone.” Immediately and enthusiastically, they comply.

They say “people leave managers, not companies,” and there’s plenty of data to validate this.

Managers have consistently been shown to have the highest impact (both positive and negative) on employee retention, engagement, performance, and even customer satisfaction.

But what precisely do modern managers struggle with? What are they good at? And how can you help the managers at your company get better?

Over the last year, we’ve asked 1,000s of employees at fast-growing tech companies to rate their managers using Google’s Upward Feedback Survey methodology.