Does your manager sometimes remind you of the pointy-haired boss in the Dilbert comic strip? According to a survey by KeepEm.com, bad bosses belittle people in front of others, lie, demean, and micromanage. Not surprisingly, bad bosses can drive good people away, wrecking havoc on employee retention rates.

Recent surveys and research data serve to illustrate the critical role that leaders play in keeping the best and brightest from walking out the door. A Yahoo!HotJobs survey conducted in late 2007 found that 43 percent of U.S. workers would leave their jobs if they took issue with their manager’s style of leadership or if they weren’t getting the mentoring they needed to succeed. Other reasons for leaving were for a better salary (36 percent) and the potential for career growth (34 percent).

Survey respondents indicated that the ideal boss would let them work independently, yet is available and accessible when needed. Want to know what other skills and abilities this ideal boss would possess? Topping the list were communication and listening skills. Next was effective leadership skills. [Of course, I think that you can’t be an effective leader if you are a poor listener and communicator. But, that’s just me.]

Additional desirable qualities were:

• Flexibility and understanding
• Intelligence
• Teamwork skills
• Even temperament
• Interest in an employee’s development
• Ability to share credit
• Successful in finding and retaining talent
• Presentation skills

No manager comes out of the box with all these great skills and abilities. However, all of these skills and abilities can be learned and developed through training and coaching over time.

I’ve had my share of horrible managers. In most cases, I tried not to hold it against them because it was pretty evident that these bad bosses had never received any management training or coaching. I doubt that they even had an good role models to emulate. Survey data backs up my personal experience. A survey of 338 organization by i4cp and HR.com in August 2007 found that 47 percent don’t have any sort of new leader development program. People are promoted and left to figure it out on their own. Most of the time they get it wrong.

If you want to attract and retain the best talent, effective leadership development is key.