The Cost of Bad Leaders
Our industry has went through highs and lows over the last 10 to 13 years We have used and heard the words, “Down Sizing, Re-Organization, Right Sizing, Cleaning House, Let the Dead Wood Go, Weeding out the Weak Players and last but not least “Early Retirement”… with or without a severance package. Bottom line is that most of us have dealt with this test in our industry. However, the people decision we have made during this time needs a check-up.
Poor leadership leads to unproductive stress, lower productivity that causes poor results. There have been studies, research papers and surveys that state what employees really want isn’t more money or benefits. They want to work at a place that is organizationally healthy.
Every time we sit down at a convention, industry meetings or cocktails with friends from our industry, there is always someone brought up in conversation and you can see the eyes turn and roll upwards as soon as the name is mentioned. It is these peoples decisions that upper management needs to reevaluate, specifically their operational managers’ decisions that were made in the past. There is an old saying “Mess up and Move Up.” Well, it doesn’t always work out for the best. Plus it will cost your company and growth opportunities.
The 4 Disciplines of a Healthy Organization
1. Build and Maintain a Cohesive Leadership Team. Make sure your new manager does not have to be trained in your industry.
2. Create Organizational Clarity. Let the planner be the implementer and ask for input from employees.
3. Over-Communicate Organizational Clarity. Hint: make your audience repeat your goals in their own words.
4. Re-in force Organizational Clarity through Human Systems. Remember the long term goal is more than the bottom line.
You can spend a lifetime researching this subject and find views and results that are 180° opposite of each other. However, one of the things that are almost common in the surveys, studies and papers was a simplified version of a managerial task cycle.
Managerial Task Cycle
1. You need to make sure your employee is aware of his/her situation.
2. Your employee needs to accept the situation.
3. Your employee must create a plan of action to correction.
4. Your employee must implement his/her own plan.
5. You and your employee must sit down and review the results and move forward.
The Managerial Task Cycle works for distributors as well as manufacturers. Remember if you have the right leader that can create and maintain the right work environment – when the team buys into the plan, anything can be accomplished. The hard part is finding the right leader that understands the process.
In the next few weeks take a serious look at your past decisions. If you not sure of your results, there are always good friends and/or third party companies that can conduct a health check report for you and your company to help you secure continue growth in the future.
And remember, “You are only as good as the people that represent your company.”
Read more from Paul Eitmant in CEW:
– A New Player in the Canadian Gray Market
– NAFTA Still a Good Show
– On Being an Effective Coach
– The Biggest Risks to Canada’s Economy In 2015 and Beyond
– Networks and Lighting Standards – Follow Up – One Year later
– How Healthy is Your Business?
– Social Media: Is It the Future for the Electrical Industry?
– Customer Service: A Key to Success
– The Right Price to Get the Order — the Last Look
– The Good Old Boys Club “Changing of the Guard”
– Who’s Next Within North America’s Electrical Distributor Channel?
– Generation Y – Next Generation – Never to old to Learn!
– LEDs: the Fastest Growing Product/Market for 2015
