Can business simulation training save you from a bad manager?

A business strategy simulation is a powerful professional development tool that allows you to see where your employees excel and identify strong leaders. However, in the same vein, this form of team assessment can also be used to identify areas in which your employees need to improve – it may even save you from promoting a bad manager. Unfortunately, personal performance and seniority are not always adequate measures for finding the right leadership.A good manager has to be dynamic, collaborative, good at communicating and have the ability to meet goals and deadlines regularly. With that said, a business simulation can help you identify a potentially good or bad leader by answering the following questions:

Can he or she delegate? 
Some bosses will naturally try to tackle a majority of responsibilities on their own. While leaders should possess the core skills to accomplish tasks and be able to roll their sleeves up and approach projects head on, too much doing and not enough delegating may be a red flag. A manager that is too focused on individually working may lose track of the big picture and not be able to effectively explain what other team members should be doing. A business simulation puts leaders in a collaborative situation in which delegation is key to accomplishing goals on a brief timeline.

Does he or she set realistic goals? 
If a manager consistently sets unrealistic goals it can put stress on other employees and lead to more regular failures. Time notes that when bosses always set the bar too high for the people they manage, it leads to employees feeling defeated, in which case they’ll stop trying to meet expectations. For employees to succeed, managers need to be able to motivate them and help them reach attainable goals.

How’s his or her time management? 
Time management is pivotal to being an effective leader. Since managers have to delegate tasks, check in with employees and concentrate on their personal workload, being able to make the most of the hours in the day is crucial to performance. Time states that when bosses are the first in and last out of the office, employees may be more hesitant to approach them for fear of taking up more of their time. Furthermore, this may be indicative of larger problems, such as taking on too much personal responsibility rather than distributing the workload evenly amongst employees. In corporate business simulations, teams are given a small window of time to work together and accomplish macrocosmic business goals, making it a perfect opportunity to test how your potential managers utilize their time.

How are his or her communication skills? 
According to CIO, a publication aimed at Chief Information Officers and other IT leaders, when managers are poor communicators it can lead to high turnover and other major issues. The source notes that communication is essential because it helps employees understand expectations, rather than try to complete a project with no direction. When managers can’t communicate and delegate, odds are more projects will have to be repeatedly reworked, leading to poor time management and potential missed deadlines. Since a business simulation serves as a team assessment, you’ll be able to examine how leaders communicate with their teams.

How does he or she handle setbacks? 
During a business simulation, different teams will likely have varying levels of success. However, this doesn’t mean that there aren’t good managers on teams that fall short. Take time to debrief and see how team leaders react in the wake of failure. A good manager will want to improve and make an effort to ensure his or her team succeeds the next time around.