Action plans are only as good as the system that supports them. After the survey closes and priorities are set, managers are often expected to deliver results without the structures, skills, or motivation needed to succeed. So, what can HR professionals do to help managers actually function?
We asked upcoming SPARK HR speaker, I/O psychologist, and host of the Manager to Manager podcast, Kamaria Scott, for her solutions in the face of these hurdles. Scott focuses on the organizational enablers that help managers follow through with confidence, shifting the focus from planning to doing. HR Daily Advisor had the chance to sit down with Scott and get a sneak peek at her upcoming SPARK HR session and learn what HR leaders need in order to support their managers.
Here are our 3 biggest takeaways:
Managers Make the Experience
We’ve all had that one job, early in our career, that gave us odd ours, worked us to the bone, and left us exhausted. But when you think back to it, all you remember from those long shifts is how much fun you had alongside your coworkers and leaders. Why? Because there was a manager that cared, who acted in your best interest, and showed up when it mattered.
Scott emphasizes, “Every strategy, every major change you do in an organization, has to go through a people leader.”
Having to Give What They Don’t Receive
It’s no secret that it’s hard being a people leader and a manager. Scott outlines several challenges we’re all too familiar with: unfair expectations, feeling pulled by both leadership and employees in opposite directions, and chief among them, having to give energy and support that they don’t receive themselves.
The solution? Scott sights her podcast, as it “gives a voice” to these HR leaders and Managers to discuss and find solutions to these all-too-common problems.
Can You Read the Results?
Graphs and Data are the driving force behind so many decisions in the workplace, but rarely are they given the attention and detail to be thoroughly understood so that leaders can actually act in they way that they need to. “Can they even read this?” Scott asks.
Scott asks the question that separates strong managers from the others; “Can they interpret the results, and can they find the most important thing that they need to do.”
Want to learn more? Catch Kamaria Scott live at SPARK HR 2026, April 28–30, in St. Pete Beach, FL, for her full session: How to Enable Managers So Action Becomes Reality