Leadership performance determines whether an enterprise succeeds or fails. Leaders management-actions determine how employees deliver for the organisation. Business-owners and C Suites have opportunities to make a difference in the life of an enterprise and in the lives of employees; either negatively or positively. I have recently been reminded about the need to resist the temptation to micro-manage organisations; a business-owner had begun probing into the enterprise, exploring unsubstantiated rumours, creating all manner of unintended disruptions. After hearing rumours about one of his key people, this intrusive business-owner started getting involved at every level of the organisation. He caused considerably more damage than he could have believed possible before he stopped his uncontrolled thrashing around. This story had all the negative signs of intrusive micro-management causing chaos. There were instances of credit not being given where it was due. People who had been innovative and active-implementers were becoming demotivated following inappropriate praise for less-worthy employees. Boundaries were being broken, causi n g concern amongst management, with people wondering what was being said about them behind their backs to superiors. There was a breakdown in core interdependencies needed to link activities and create effective processes; sequential, reciprocal and pooled interdependencies were destroyed, with individuals and departments attempting to look after themselves rather than working together. Process trust collapsed, with people expecting others to let them down. When you have negative expectations, negative things
tend to happen. Motives were being continually questioned and shared values were disappearing.
Customer service was out of the window. Sales suffered. Profits slipped. Cash flow was damaged. The fundamentals of the organisation were weakened and the overall culture was unrecognisable to what it
had been only weeks beforehand. The old adage is true; it takes years to create a great culture but only days to destroy The old adage is true; it takes years to create a great culture but only days to destroy one
The old adage is true; it takes years to create a great culture but only days to destroy one
Lack of trust and the perceived need by the business- owner to become a detective (not a very good one
either) set the organisation back years. It became a place where people did not want to
work. Had this business-owner spent time listening to employees on a regular basis he would not have felt so separated from what was going on. He would almost certainly not have acted in the way he did, causing such negative disruption to the workplace. Had he been closer to the business with regular two-way communication, without being intrusive, he would almost certainly not have reacted to unsubstantiated
rumours in the way he did, causing the dismantling of the culture he and his key managers had taken so long to build. Employees need to know they are important and trusted. This goes for the most senior executives to the most junior staff. Everyone in the organisation needs to know their own role. They need to understand
how to achieve their short term objectives in order to successfully deliver the agreed goals of the enterprise.
If distrust seeps down from the top, it negatively infects all employees’ actions.
Encouraging a culture of trust is a key priority for the business- owner and senior staff; a place where people want to take ownership, accountability and responsibility for challenges and problems. People will then want to uncover recommendations and solutions because they are aware of their personal, departmental and organisational objectives and are aware of their freedom to act given set-boundaries. We need to encourage recognition for a job well done, measured against objectives which are agreed in regular evaluations. This will alleviate the need for any reaction to manipulative gossip and rumour, which can cause suspicion leading to intrusive micro-management, disrupting culture and crippling the financial future of the organisation