Your managers are losing money! They don't mean to. They can't help it, but you can. You see, managers who don't know basic leadership skills can't stop this hemorrhage of money and probably aren't even aware it's happening. Are you? Here are some signs that your managers are costing you money.

1. Your employee turnover rate is high. You will always have employee turnover, it's a cost of doing business, but if that turnover rate is more than 10% - 15% per year, you're losing a lot of money. It takes anywhere from 50% to 150% of an employee's annual salary to replace lost employees that are trained and knowledgeable. Think about that in regard to your profit margin. How many items, or services, or contracts must you sell to make that up?

2. You have too many disruptions like EEO complaints and high absenteeism. Sure, people complain and they sometimes miss work, but when it happens more than a few times over a year you have a problem and your losing money.

3. You're receiving too many customer complaints. How many is too many? Of course you don't want any complaints but there will always be a few. Look for the same types of problems from a range of customers.

So, how do you stop managers from losing money?

1. Help them understand that leading people is the most important thing they do. It's common to separate management responsibility and leadership responsibility, relegating more junior positions to a strictly management role. Yes they do more "management" things, but it's the people under their responsibility who will make or break the organization. You should keep in mind that junior level managers have more day-to-day, face-to-face contact with your employees than those who are designated as leaders.

2. Provide training in more than the paperwork that goes with the job. Yes, the administrative details are important, but those managers are now responsible for leading people; something for which they probably have little or no experience.

3. Support them! If your managers don't think you have their back, they will not make the tough decisions; the ones that will make money.

Here's a bonus tip! Develop a leadership culture in your organization. That means developing and training leaders from their first experience as a supervisor throughout their rise in the organization. It isn't an immediate step, but is essential to your long term success.