Salt * Wet * Fish

Caught sight of an interesting article on Today newspaper. Something close to my heart and I guess something the causes much stress and frustration in the workplace.

David Graves
news@newstoday.com.sg

http://www.todayonline.com/articles/60047.asp

WHEN it comes to ensuring profits are maximised, a company relies on its management team. But what happens when a manager is under-trained? Or secretly doubts his or her abilities?

Incompetent managers will look for ways to deflect attention from themselves. This usually means someone on the team — and the business — will suffer.

It is a universal problem. Ms Yong Ying-I, chairman of the Singapore Workforce Development Agency, said at the recent 2005 Asia Pacific Leadership Development Conference: “Many survey results suggest that the leadership shortfall (in Singapore) today lies in areas that are key to success in the new economy — in the capacity to understand, inspire and engage people.”

In the United Kingdom (and Singapore, too, judging from the letters I get) I often notice that companies promote people into management positions for the silliest of reasons. Promoting people who have the qualifications but not the right “people” skills is folly.

Recommending someone for promotion to another department because they are not well liked or not very good at their job only “ships” the problem out — it is sheer stupidity. I have even come across people who were promoted simply because “it’s their turn”.

Can senior managers seriously expect people awarded management positions for these reasons to “understand, inspire and engage people”?

What companies don’t realise is that when they create managers for the wrong reasons, they are administering the first dose of poison.

I was once asked to write new bullying and harassment policies and grievance pathways for the UK arm of a multinational company which had discovered bullying in one sales team.

The team in question had been the most successful in the UK and its manager was given a well-earned promotion. An outsider was appointed as the new team manager — she had no management experience, but had been a team leader in the same field and had a degree in business and management.

Within a short time, sales figures started to slip and within five months, four of the nine-person team left or got a transfer. After eight months, a team member who was off sick with stress complained to the HR department.

Upon investigation by senior management, it was discovered that the figures the manager had been submitting did not add up and her team had become among the worst performers in the UK.

She had started by re-organising territories — this meant that almost all of the sales team had further to travel, which meant longer working hours. She took away individual rights to make on-the-spot decisions, insisting on approving everything herself — which created more paperwork and costly delays. She insisted on weekly out-of-working-hours sales meetings, replacing the once a month meeting that had always taken place during work time.

She constantly berated the high performers, and when challenged by seniors, blamed the dropping figures on individual performances, absenteeism or sickness. It was no surprise to me that sales dropped and staff left, because this is the typical outcome of having a bully in your midst.

It has to be said that the company offered no management training at this level and relied solely on the recruitment process.

This manager may have benefited from a good training programme. It is certain that the company would have benefited from having proper policies and complaint pathways in place.

Ms Yong notes that leadership development is the key to “raising workforce competitiveness”.

I would like to add this — if we employ managers who have no idea how to inspire and motivate people, those managers will almost always attempt to bully results out of staff.

The writer is the author of the best-selling book Fighting Back and facilitates workshops on workplace bullying. He works internationally and can be reached at davidgraves@talktalk.net