THIS WEEK

Is Your Management Style Limiting Your Business Success?

ALSO IN THIS EDITION

• HR Tip - Profiling Your Managers
• Business of the Week - Queensland Parliament
• Blog Post of the week - Racist McDonald's Ads
• Next Week ...

I have worked with stacks of businesses over the years. Often I am asked to name the most important indicator of whether or not a business will succeed or fail – my answer is always “Look at the CEO”.  CEO’s and their personal style can make or break a business.  

A good CEO sets clear direction and boundaries, provides assistance and support to the team and then gets out of the way to let them accomplish what needs to be done. They help unblock roads if needed and provide guideposts along the way – but their management style is such that they do it in a way that creates independence of action rather than dependence.

So here’s my list of the top 5 CEO management styles that most limit business success.

1. Ultimate Creator

Creativity is a good thing right?  Well yes and no. Creative types are great to get a new concept or project off the ground. They come up with unique ways of viewing the world and often have breakthrough thinking to old problems. The difficulty comes when the creator can’t just corral their thinking to one area. They end up constantly fiddling with things and never take anything to conclusion.

Employees get whiplash trying to keep up with all of the changes of direction, end up getting frustrated and either leave physically or mentally from the job. Often Ultimate Creators are dreadful at systems – even if they do have a system they are guaranteed not to follow it.

If this is you, then you need to hire people with structure around you. You need to stay within your flow of creating and outsource or hire people to do the nuts and bolts of the business.

2. Detail Nazi

CEOs are detail Nazi’s – constantly crossing t’s and dotting i’s.  One manager I was aware of literally would spend hours correcting punctuation of briefs and proposal of his employees – and would totally miss the point of what was being proposed.

Employees spend more time chasing micro details than thinking strategically which means the business misses potential opportunities.

If this is you, then you need to work out why you are focussing on micro details. Are you carrying fear about being out of control? Are you a perfectionist in your personal life as well? What are the key metrics you really do need to focus on? If you don’t know then get someone help you work out your metrics. Keep your detail focus on what really matters and let the rest slide.

3. Hot and Cold Boss

Hot and Cold bosses are those who some days can be exceptional – they are focussed, strategic, engaging leaders (on some days of the week) and then all of a sudden something changes. It could be the wind direction, or the lunch they ate – but all of a sudden they are scattered, absent and withdrawn. Employees can’t get an answer from them to save their life. Hot and Cold Bosses abuse employees for not taking the initiative and then abuse them more if they do.

Employees spend most of the day trying to work out which way the wind is blowing. When the boss is “on track” they quickly race in and try and get everything through as they don’t know when they will get the next opportunity (which leads to the boss being overwhelmed with work, dropping the bundle, getting angry etc).

If this is you – try and work out what is putting you in the grip of your inner 2 year old. The times when are off track means you are operating from a space of stress.  What can you do to better manage your stress (and the impact your stress is having on your employees and your business)?

4. Know it all

The know-it-all boss is often closely related to the Detail Nazi and is someone who has every answer to every problem (or thinks they should have). They must be involved in every decision and have the final word on everything. They often leave their own work undone as they are too busy chasing your stuff.

Employees never know the edge of their boundaries – so end up always passing everything up the line. The boss then gets overloaded and can’t work out why their employees don’t take initiative.

If this is you, then you can’t just stop being in the middle of everything and expect your business to survive. You have created a real problem where your employees now no longer know HOW to take initiative. You need to start setting clear boundaries and teach your employees once again how to deal with problems by themselves without involving you.

You also need to share the content in your head – at the moment you are the only person who has all of the answers because you didn’t allow your team access to the answers.

5. The warm fuzzy

The warm fuzzy manager wants everyone to like them. They don’t set rules and want the group to make all the decisions.  They procrastinate on making an answer and if someone complains, they will change the decision. They will avoid conflict at all costs – trying to get someone else to fix the problem for them or smile to the employees face and then moan about the employee behind their back.  

Employees may feel happy to be working with you, but have no clear idea about what is important or a priority so in the absence of information make up their own priorities. This means lots of conflicting priorities, simmering conflict and massive undiscussables in the workplace.

If this is you, then you need to work out if you are running your business to be liked or to make money. They are not mutually exclusive – but sometimes decisions you will need to take will not make you popular with your employees. That is a fact of life.

Some managers exhibit a few of these traits combined, and if this is you then you need to look at the dominant trait and start with resolving that one first.

If your business is not as successful as it could be – maybe it is time to look deeply into a mirror and ask yourself “How am I holding back my business?”

One of the best things you can do to build the effectiveness of your management team is to take them through some form of profiling. This could be TMI, MBTI or some other form of profile.

The intent is to create common language and understanding in the team about their individual strengths and challenges and how they can work most effectively together. Taking time out to work on the process of communication in the quieter times adds hours of productivity when the chips are down.

I also personally like the profiles that give you an indication of what you do when you are under stress, what triggers the stress and how to get out of it. Taking your profile to that level of discussion adds the most value to team success. For example, if you use MBTI ask your facilitator about doing an "In the Grip" session with the team. It is most enlightening!

OK - this is a strange one I know. This week I joined my daughter on an excursion through Qld Parliament. What particularly drew my attention was the attendants showing the school groups through and their love for the building as well as the institution. This was not a rote exercise for them - they genuinely loved what they were doing and loved sharing their knowledge.

I was also pleased to see the Speaker acknowledge on Hansard each school group as they came through. The kids felt included in the process of politics - it was no longer something that happened outside of them, they were now part of the process.

Later that evening I returned to Parliament as I had been invited to a Women in Business reception with the Premier. This was also fascinating as Premier Anna Bligh informed the 200 women present that this was the first time the Parliament of Queensland had hosted a women's only business reception. That really surprised me given all of the history of women's struggle for the vote.

It seems like even Parliament is starting to understand the need to listen to customers, include them and make it easy for customers to do business with them. Small business could learn a lot from their approach.

In this blog post I look at an ad McDonald's in Sweden are using to attract new employees and ask is it too clever for its own good.

You can have any colour as long as it is black

warm regards

Ingrid

Heart Harmony

PS: Please feel free to share this newsletter with people you feel could benefit from it.