Sari LEVINE Wilde ’97, Managing Vice President at global research and advisory firm Gartner, has written a ground-breaking book that identifies the working style of managers. In The Connector Manager: Why Some Leaders Build Exceptional Talent – and Others Don’t (Portfolio 2019), she details the results of a worldwide, first of its kind study of over 9,000 people.
Following the conclusion of the study, a team of in-house analysts was deployed to assess the compiled data. Their results identified that all managers could be classified into one of four types. Of the four groups identified, it was the Connector Manager, an individual whose training style connects employees with leaders of other departments to benefit from additional areas of expertise, that outperformed all groups.
Wilde rounds out the data-driven research with case studies, including interviews with managers and employees at firms such as IBM, Accenture, and eBay. She illustrates behaviors that define a Connector manager and identifies why other types of managers are less effective. In the book, solutions are also provided for all types of managers to achieve greater success.
