A bearonbusiness reader commented on a post earlier this week:
In my humble experience round tables are only good if management is willing to lay aside their egos and personal feelings and let employees really vent. I think sometimes it’s very hard for execs to listen to the bad things, but you have to. You should then take the suggestions given by the employees and actually do something with the feedback. Management should also not solely rely on surveys that only show opinions as a diamond on the purty power point or spreadsheet. Once that feedback is digested, management should be seen making the changes, not sending out emails and making HR make the changes.
Actions speak louder than words. I remember working at a pipeline company and when we achieved a bonus based on integrating another company the CEO himself went to every location and handed everyone their $250 bonus, and it was 2 crisp benji’s and 1 crisp Grant, all 7,000 employees shook his hand and received their bonus. No camera’s just you and CEO time.
His 18 execs held round tables and we saw them implement the changes personally, through direct action not emails, etc.
I have always managed by walking around. Management by walking around is not micro-management, it is letting your direct reports know that you are in the trench with them and that you are not afraid to get your hands dirty with them and they know you see exactly what issues they are having, etc.
In telecom I found it very frustrating that more times than not I had leadership in place that had no idea what I was doing. IOW they had never done my job before. There are not many that manage that can accurately state they ask a direct report to do something they have done before. I believe it is critical to have management installed in area’s they know and understand. This gives that leader the ability to motivate the team and be able to earn trust, credibility, respect and reputation.
I was taught that there is a difference between management and leadership. A manager is someone that manages expectations, deliverables, dates, etc. A leader delivers above expectations, well before the due date.
I think sometimes management never understands that trust, credibility, respect and reputation are earned and not just given out. This is probably why a certain telecom company even today is having serious issues.
Scott, it sounds like you had a long bout with working under poor management. The problem, I suspect, was not that all the managers were bad. Instead, it probably had to do with the cultures of the companies you worked for. Good management is infectious. So is bad management.
Telecom, as I have written about in the past, suffered as a result of the explosion of change in the post Bell era. 1980’s telecom “experts” cut their teeth as part of a monopoly environment. Those who thrived in this environment were not of the same type that would be successful in the new frontier of competitive telecom. Plus, the most successful were quite comfortable in their cushy 4th level Bell-head job.
The combination of the Internet, fiber optics, and competition in general opened the industry up to a bunch of young guns. So as money poured into competitive telecom, inexperienced and ill-prepared folks such as me were left to manage. The ones who shined (myself included) did so not because we were good people managers, but because we understood what needed to get done and, often by brute force, we got it done. Anyway, as our competitive telecom industry matures, good management and effective culture will be increasingly important.
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Dan,
You would be correct about culture. Culture is everything and sets the tone, if you have bad culture you will have pockets of bad leadership. If the bad culture starts at the top it will be very difficult for good managers to survive and will resort to using brute force to get things done.
I can say now I have some very awesome leadership and I strive to be infectious w/my own direct reports based on the example my upward vertical displays. I think you hit the nail on the head here and I do agree that Culture is probably the single most important thing a company can build.
If you have the right culture everything else will tend to fall into place.
But lets also be honest here, I have worked in companies that had superior culture and management still sucked
The real point I was trying to make is that to make a palce worth working for more upper level management needs to be engaged with the business, not at a micro-management level by any means, but execs define the culture and need to be the shining example and stewards of that culture.
I have seen it before that a great culture is defined and then you see the old do as I say not as I do creep in. Line level managers and worker bee’s see that and assume there is no culutre or have issues trying to understand what the goals and vision really are.
I personally think the single, most destructive force in ANY business is the appearance that bad culture is rewarded.
If an exec or upper level manager ignores what is being said and prefers to only listen to what they want to hear or see, and further insulate and surround themselves w/folks that engage in this behavior. Then the business is doomed, no matter what business it is.
Great comment!
Dan, how would you describe Zayo’s culture?
From the view as a CEO, what does a great culture look like?