If you look down, to the comments section, you can read the very valid comment from B-TA that I received to my original posting on this topic. It points out a problem that this reader sees as a cause for the behavior of the 3 types of people discussed in the article that forms part of my original posting. This reader is spot-on with his point about managers being a large, if not the largest cause for the creation of our three "problem children" mentioned in the original article.
It was always fascinating to me in working with every level of management in an organization that I/we were assisting. The fact of the matter is, that it was always the very senior executive levels and the very front line supervisors who were literally, always the most welcoming and the most willing to try to make change. It was almost always everyone in between who delayed, procrastinated, subterfuged, blocked, and stopped any attempt at improvement. It became apparent to me early in my career that while there were some middle (let's call them that) managers (about 10%) who really wanted to see improvement in their ranks and in their organizations, it was the others, the 90% who didn't want to see change. Alright, maybe it was 20/80% or 25/75%, but the truth of the matter is/was that the positive people were overwhelmed by the nay-sayers the vast majority of the time. That was exactly why senior management loved to have us come in, and why supervisors loved to have us come in. We helped both of them get things done. We got past 1) the victims, 2) the non-believers, and 3) the know-it-alls and got things accomplished.
Another comment made, but which I did not receive directly about the article added a fourth character to our list of problem persona's. A person by the name of Tracy Fesler posted on the LinkedIn group Executive Roundtable that she felt a fourth group should be added. She called them "Snakes." I'll let her tell you with her own words why as felt as she did?
http://www.linkedin.com/groupItem?view=&type=member&gid=1022597&item=82966319&commentID=65185983&trk=eml-anet_dig-b_pd-pmr-cn&ut=2BcfwgPBzpvR41
Tracy Fesler • Excellent article! I would add another type to this list, maybe call them The Snakes. These are the people who covertly destroy from within the organization. They’re the hardest form of internal destruction because they really are covert: Smiling to your face while cutting you or other staff down behind backs. This is the one who pushes away the good staff with hidden viciousness. One knows something isn’t quite right about them, about that smile or feigned courtesy. Well this is why. They’re doing damage behind the scenes. Real damage. Get rid of them before they clear our your good staff.
Well, I certainly can't disagree with Tracy. She adds a great new category and I have seen them in practice so many times I have lost count.
Middle management and management in general is so often the problem as B-TA initially pointed out in his comment to me. But, why is that the case? Many companies spend a great deal of money on training. But too often it is not coordinated with the needs of the organization or the person. Secondly the evaluation tools and processes we often found in client organizations were failures. They were one page "make them happy" forms, rather than be honest, ethical and tell them the truth to make them valued members of management tools. Also the large majority of the time, most people rushed through the evaluation process because they never seemed to have the time to do them and saw them as a burden rather than the important behavioral tool that they really were. As a result, people received half-baked feedback instead of being told what they really needed to hear.
All told, we've created these four beasts and now we must slay the dragons!!
Bob
It was always fascinating to me in working with every level of management in an organization that I/we were assisting. The fact of the matter is, that it was always the very senior executive levels and the very front line supervisors who were literally, always the most welcoming and the most willing to try to make change. It was almost always everyone in between who delayed, procrastinated, subterfuged, blocked, and stopped any attempt at improvement. It became apparent to me early in my career that while there were some middle (let's call them that) managers (about 10%) who really wanted to see improvement in their ranks and in their organizations, it was the others, the 90% who didn't want to see change. Alright, maybe it was 20/80% or 25/75%, but the truth of the matter is/was that the positive people were overwhelmed by the nay-sayers the vast majority of the time. That was exactly why senior management loved to have us come in, and why supervisors loved to have us come in. We helped both of them get things done. We got past 1) the victims, 2) the non-believers, and 3) the know-it-alls and got things accomplished.
Another comment made, but which I did not receive directly about the article added a fourth character to our list of problem persona's. A person by the name of Tracy Fesler posted on the LinkedIn group Executive Roundtable that she felt a fourth group should be added. She called them "Snakes." I'll let her tell you with her own words why as felt as she did?
http://www.linkedin.com/groupItem?view=&type=member&gid=1022597&item=82966319&commentID=65185983&trk=eml-anet_dig-b_pd-pmr-cn&ut=2BcfwgPBzpvR41
Tracy Fesler • Excellent article! I would add another type to this list, maybe call them The Snakes. These are the people who covertly destroy from within the organization. They’re the hardest form of internal destruction because they really are covert: Smiling to your face while cutting you or other staff down behind backs. This is the one who pushes away the good staff with hidden viciousness. One knows something isn’t quite right about them, about that smile or feigned courtesy. Well this is why. They’re doing damage behind the scenes. Real damage. Get rid of them before they clear our your good staff.
Well, I certainly can't disagree with Tracy. She adds a great new category and I have seen them in practice so many times I have lost count.
Middle management and management in general is so often the problem as B-TA initially pointed out in his comment to me. But, why is that the case? Many companies spend a great deal of money on training. But too often it is not coordinated with the needs of the organization or the person. Secondly the evaluation tools and processes we often found in client organizations were failures. They were one page "make them happy" forms, rather than be honest, ethical and tell them the truth to make them valued members of management tools. Also the large majority of the time, most people rushed through the evaluation process because they never seemed to have the time to do them and saw them as a burden rather than the important behavioral tool that they really were. As a result, people received half-baked feedback instead of being told what they really needed to hear.
All told, we've created these four beasts and now we must slay the dragons!!
Bob
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