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What keeps management stuck in old fashioned, outdated or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