The Costs
of Bad Management
There exist some fundamental reasons for poor management
results in most organizations. Understanding the influences
on people is critical to being able to change the circumstances
that lead to poor management. This article will outline
some of the pressures affecting organization dynamics, and
propose some steps that should be undertaken to create a
more effective organization.
Let's review a common scenario from an employee's perspective:
You're a professional that is unchallenged, and unfulfilled
in your current organization. You feel that managers there
don't care about your work, and perhaps even less about
you as a person. They don't seem to be listening while you're
explaining things to them, and demonstrate repeatedly that
they've forgotten what you told them previously.
Perhaps this has been a recurring theme throughout your
career. How many managers have you observed in different
organizations that that behave in a similar manner; one
that defies all logic? You've changed jobs, but the same
problem keeps resurfacing. Routinely your manager assigns
you with a task, then forgets about you. Once you're well
on your way to meeting the task objectives, they stop in
to assign you a new and unrelated task. To make matters
worse, you're continually being "invited" into
meetings that seem to have nothing to do with your success
in the organization.
Poor management translates into very direct and high hidden
cost for all organizations. Since human resource investments
are among the top business costs, along with customer acquisition,
it's incredible to have to wonder why so many businesses
accept ineffective and sometimes plainly incompetent management.
According to the Gallup Organization, employees consider
their immediate supervisor as the number one factor in deciding
whether to stay or leave their current employer. This is
consistently listed ahead of other factors such as pay,
stock options, benefits, flextime, and company mission.
Why So Much
Poor Management?
In order to understand someone's behavior, one needs to
look at the forces that an individual is facing. Nearly
every organization provides financial rewards based one's
position on the ladder. In other words, pay is based on
title, and perhaps seniority also, to compound the problem.
People are motivated into a management role by money. Once
in that role, they adjust their lifestyle and the corresponding
expenses to make it virtually impossible to succeed in any
role, other than than of a manager. They face enormous pressure
to maintain their career or risk losing home, or perhaps
face marital instability.
As someone moves into a management role, their original
skills start to deteriorate over time. They find themselves
managing people with far more valuable skills than theirs.
Their subordinates are also better able to apply their talents
for the organization. In other words, the organization extracts
far more value from their staff, than from most managers.
For many, this results in a deep insecurity.
Since we've looked at some negative forces, let's consider
the positive forces for a moment. What are the positive
forces acting on a typical manager? For one, they are facing
a potential promotion in the near term. Their near-term
actions will be significantly influenced by activities that
increase their chances of being promoted. This explains
why managers frequently discount any ideas from staff that
will result in longer-term benefits for the organization.
Many long-term initiatives carry short-term risks. Most
managers simply want to look good in the near-term.
Taken together, financial pressures, professional insecurity,
and the need for short-term results create a mindset that
is far from optimal for making the best possible decisions
with all of the available information.
What To Do
About Poor Management
Let's start by getting to a purpose for management. Many
books have been written about this subject, so we need to
get to the core of the issue. Most succinctly put by John
Hellier from QModo "A manager's role is to facilitate
staff's success." Keeping this core principle at the
center of your company's value system will be the first
step.
Facilitation may require definition. The term has it's
roots in Latin, and in French the word "facile"
means "easy". Making it "easy" for staff
to succeed has nothing to do with telling them what to do.
Since most manager's don't know how to facilitate their
staff's success, they turn to trying to cover up their shortcomings
by issuing what seem like random tasks. Your competitive
advantage will be in developing a management culture that
lives and breathes to make it easier for staff to be successful.
Continued...
