I was reminded again this week of the many ways organisations can be incompetent.
I had been asked to help a manager whose staff were argumentative, surly and uncooperative. ‘There’s nothing I can do with them,’ he said. ‘They just don’t want to work!’ On the surface it looked as if this manager had indeed inherited a group of people who came to work to do as little as possible except collect their pay checks.
A few probing questions later and it looked very different.
The group had a history of change; of leaders, of location and of systems and procedures. Most of these changes had taken place without it seemed any communication, much less any consultation, with the group.
When the new manager was appointed a few months previously, he had come from another functional area and his expertise in his new job was not immediately obvious. He was thrown in the deep end, during a crisis, without any handover, and with a new IT system that had teething problems. In his understated words, ‘It was not an easy time for me.’
To add to his problems his management style is low key; too soft some might say. His preference is to work on relationships, and build up a team. I’m not sure he knows when or how to hold people accountable for the work standards he expects.
Inevitably the group has made up its own mind about the respect and trust they will show their new manager, and it is not a lot.
The only surprise in this situation is that we should be surprised. Given the background, how could things be any different from what they are?
But be careful. It’s easy to be critical from the sidelines. How often have you seen, or perhaps even helped create, something similar?
Have you ever been involved in a set- up?
June 12th, 2011 at 2:14 pm
Good post.I’m enjoy it.Thank you!