Thursday, March 7, 2013

Is Your Management Style Stuck



Is you management style stuck?
Tim Connor

Let’s face reality – either your management style is working or it isn’t and how do you know?

Thousands of organizations go out of business every year and many of these casualties were unnecessary.  The major cause of every business failure is that management was stuck in mindsets that were cultivated over many years and were just no longer relevant or appropriate in a rapidly changing world. The business owners or executives running these failed organizations were unable or unwilling to embrace the positives and future potential or possibilities driven by change and chose to remain stuck in the past.  In essence their management styles were just no longer pertinent given the rapid developments in technology, the impact of a global marketplace or the needs or concerns facing their customers.

Over the years I have worked with hundreds of great clients who get it – change is relentless, the world is evolving and to stay in business requires imagination, creativity, passion and the willingness to let go of archaic policies, procedures or philosophies that just no longer work.

These organizations embraced a bottom-up culture where they tapped into the experience, ideas, solutions and suggestions of employees who deal every day with reality.  Management that fails to acknowledge or respect or even encourage this form of staying in touch and believed that they could run their organizations top-down soon learned that their fate was sealed – and not in a positive way.

What keeps management stuck in old fashioned, outdated or senseless approaches that may have worked twenty or even five years ago that are just not creating the positive results they say they want or even need?

For starters there are two very dominant ones – ego and arrogance.  Ego that kept telling them that they know best – that they were the only people in the organization that were in touch with reality – that they always had the best solutions and everyone else should accept, respect and honor their actions, choices and decisions.  Ego that drove them into a form of isolation that kept them out of touch with real challenges and issues facing their organization and its future.  Ego that convinced them that they were the smartest people in the room.

And arrogance – well, a close cousin of ego.  Arrogance - a haughtiness or self-absorption that dominates all actions, decisions and behavior in a way that sends a message to others – don’t challenge me – I am right.  Do it my way – or else.  I have been here for years – I started this organization so listen to me and just accept my approach.

There are many forms of management style and to be honest these need to keep evolving in order to keep pace with a changing world but in the end these styles either work or they don’t.  What are the common ingredients in a management style that is effective in coping with change, growing an organization and remaining profitable and competitive?  Just seven folks –

1)Have a management style and approach that continuously taps into the experience, creativity and ideas of all employees and listens not from an ego perspective but out of respect.

2)Be willing to let go of what isn’t working and embrace ideas, solutions or approaches that can work if given the time, opportunity and resources.

3)Learn to adapt quickly and effectively to situations that you didn’t see coming.

4)Keep your eyes on the trends in your industry, the world, your market and with your competitors and customers and anticipate and prepare for them rather than react to them.

5)Keep developing your employees with refined and new skills that permit them to stay relevant, creative and motivated.

6)Use the lessons from the past in a positive way but let go of the baggage that is no longer necessary or healthy.

7)Have a re-invent, re-energize, re-charge and re-new approach to every aspect of the business.

Willing to do all seven?  If not, don’t be surprised when you have to close your doors and walk away from a ‘used to be successful’ enterprise.    

No comments:

Post a Comment