Is There a Self-Delusion Epidemic Among Managers?
If all the children in Lake Wobegon are above average, maybe it is possible that half of the managers in Britain excel at managing people. In a recent survey of more than 2,000 British bosses conducted by the UK's Chartered Management Institute, 50 percent of managers boldly proclaimed their people skills were excellent. What happened when the CMI used an objective test to figure how skilled the managers really were?
CMI has put those perceptions to the test by inviting UK workers to use a specially-developed self-diagnostic tool to work out where their strengths and weaknesses lie. The results strongly contradict managers' perceptions, revealing that... just 14 percent of the 6,056 people who used the tool excelled at people management and a paltry eight per cent proved to be best at managing themselves.So that means that while almost half of managers think they're good at managing people, in reality only about one in seven actually are. The Dunning-Kruger effect in action. Do you think a US survey would find similar results in America, and how can so many managers get away with being so deluded? If you're interested in objectively assessing yourself and busting any possible self-delusions, there's an app for that. It's from the CMI and it's free.
(Image of head slap by kjarrett, CC 2.0)