We had a class about management style earlier and everyone wrote a blog about it too. When I read this blog on Harvard Business Review (http://blogs.hbr.org/corkindale/2010/02/why_good_people_skills_matter.html) titled, Why Good People Skill Matter in a Recession by Gill Corkindale, it reminded me how to manage employee and what to avoid. It is amazing how deep theory X management style is rooted in today’s business world. For some, threats and punishments are still the most effective ways to manage employees. The example from the blog, the female executive was ready to change her management style to better manage her employees until recession started. She abruptly changed the course of her direction and reversed back to her tough and abrasive style that annoyed to her peers and employees according to feedbacks. She fired employees using recession as excuses and made her employees harder by threatening to fire them so she didn’t have to deal with people management issues. As we discussed in class, such management style may work in the short term, but in a longer period, such style will not work well in today’s business environment. What surprised me the most was that, she understood that she needed to change her management style in order to advance her career in her company. Whatever reasons she was not doing herself any favor for her either. Granted, the pressure of producing results are higher than in good time, employees are tend to work harder to justify their job security, but people are showing their true color in the high pressure situations. I believe she missed an opportunity to demonstrate her abilities that she was capable of being a good manager and inspirational leader to get the most out of her employees.
In the blog, Gill Corkindale also listed several draw backs of such management style. Employees will not have any loyalties to the managers and the organizations. Once opportunities are open, those employees will leave their organizations. The second draw back is that manager will lose the trust of the employees. The third draw back is that work quality will be poor since employees who are not motivated will not care about their work quality as long as they get the job done. Perhaps there is another very important reason such management style won’t work is that over the long run, employees will become less creative and the organizations will become less competitive in the market place.
Gill Corkindal listed several guidelines on how to manage in the blog during the recession. The below are directly quoted from the blog I think is worth reading:
“
• Be visible. Walk around, hold meetings and speak in small groups
• Be as open, honest, fair and decent as possible Be serious and realistic but remain positive and hopeful for the future
• Keep people in the picture even when there is little concrete news. Share as much information as you are able — in person, in meetings and through frequent updates — about the challenges the company is facing and how it is performing. If you don't know what's going on, say so.
• Give people frequent opportunities to discuss and ask questions about the situation
• Be a role model. Do your job well and stay positive. This will ensure there is a positive mood in the office and that morale is high so people can work with fewer distractions.
• Engage your staff — leverage their expertise, involve them in decisions and remind them of the shared responsibility to pull the organisation through the crisis.
• Encourage and motivate people through positive feedback and extra help if they are struggling. Don't be over-critical as this may backfire on you.
• Let your people know how much you value them. This can be done through positive feedback, recognition and rewards such as small gifts or flexible working. If people feel they are valued, you will have their loyalty and support.
• Keep an eye on your peoples' health and wellbeing. Recessions are stressful
• Ensure that you have good training and development programmes in place — these are a good investment for the future and will pay dividends when the organization has come through the recession. Coaching and mentoring also foster self-reliance and self-worth, which are important factors when it comes to keeping motivation high. “
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Thanks for the link to the article. I found it very interesting and it indeed ties into Sioux's presentation on Theory X/Y management. It is very important as a manager (this is my personal philsophy) to always remember your team are people and prefer to be treated respectfully and to be valued.
ReplyDeleteOne of the points above: "Let your people know how much you value them. This can be done through positive feedback, recognition and rewards such as small gifts or flexible working. If people feel they are valued, you will have their loyalty and support."
ReplyDeleteFor me, I think this one is especially key. If people don't feel as though they are valued, they are more likely to want to leave.
I think that feeling valued is more than about recognition, however... some if it is about listening to what their goals are and helping them achieve those goals. For example, if a programmer is very good at their job but states they want an opportunity to gain some leadership skills, simply praising and recognizing their programming skills (without working to give them opportunities to lead, even small ones) will eventually lead the programmer to feel valued for their programming skills but devalued overall.