What are the costs of poor management? Plantation managers––now as in the days of the Old South––view people as disposable objects. To the plantation manager, there is nothing wrong with stealing talented people from well-managed companies rather than investing, nurturing, and training the company’s own employees. According to an article in Manage, it is not unlike “being a corporate slum landlord. Keep raising the rent while letting the assets deteriorate.”
Why then are managers puzzled by employees who are highly motivated outside of work but show little initiative on the job; people who put in time but no energy; people who spend more time working on their résumés than on the activities at hand. A management style that produces these results obviously won’t be enough to compete in today’s global economy, especially given changes taking place in the attitudes of workers today. In fact, the result of this plantation-style management is already causing a disastrous collision between the needs of businesses and the demands of today’s workforce.
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Frank,
The symptoms of poor management can easily be rationalized by a manager as somebody else’s problem, unfortunately. I hope the clash you mention at the end of your post alarms enough managers to see the rising tide for what it is: an opportunity to create a renaissance period of managers and employees coming together creating great works.
Shawn
You’re right on the mark. This is something that can be fixed. All it takes is the realization that it works. It’s better to try it, on your own free will, rather than being forced to go there after your results have suffered.
Have a great day!
Frank
Frank, I regularly encourage my clients to poach their competitors’ best people. Here’s why: the best workers, if they are not currently working for you, are working for someone else. Not every employee is a high-performer. Some are great utility employees who can raise their game but not everyone will or can be be top 10%. Getting a top performer to move over to your workplace is easy. Keeping them is hard.
Highly engaged employees are usually the result of highly-engaged managers. Employees will engage in direct proportion to how well their managers engage them. Until managers get that, they can blame all they want and nothing will change.
Kevin
http://www.kevburns.com
Well said Kevin. Well said.
I especially like your comments, “Getting a top performer to move over to your workplace is easy. Keeping them is hard. . . Highly engaged employees are usually the result of highly-engaged managers. Employees will engage in direct proportion to how well their managers engage them.”
Have a great day!
Frank