Best "Better Management" Blog

John Hollon, Editor-in-Chief, of Workforce Management writes one of the best blogs you can find on management. (Free registration is required, but it's not intrusive at all.) He comments with insight and dedication, identifying and suggesting alternatives for problem management styles. His job is watching employment news so he can always find items that make your hair stand on end.

John's logic and common sense make you wonder how these managers get to where they are. Recent comments about Bob Nardelli, echoing others a year before his outrageous severance package, make it obvious why that outcome was inevitable - and make you wonder why Chrysler thinks he might work out there. It's only a matter of time for guys like this. The bigger question is whether they will take down the entire company - a real possibility in this case. But, still, how do they get there to begin with? This one has to make you question the legacy of Jack Welch, Nardelli's former CEO and a GE Board that would even let him get to the level of consideration.

One problem is the immense power we accord the role of "boss" in any organization. Thousands of bosses at every level lament they can't fire anyone because of union rules, legal protection and other impediments to free-wheeling lashing out. They go through life frustrated, yet it's often with these bosses specifically that somehow everyone feels punished... and not just the weak or bad ones, but almost everyone working for them.

Bad bosses create a self-fulfilling prophecy. Most of their best employees leave because they can and they hate where they are. The boss may not be able to fire the bad ones, but finds plenty of ways to force the good to leave. The remainder tend to be exactly those the boss deserves, complains about and feels justified in persecuting and ordering about. It becomes a reinforcing downward spiral into misery, minimal effort and poor results.

Only when a company builds a culture that develops good and refuses to tolerate bad behavior will we see this change. Developing positive habits in how people are treated isn't difficult, but everyone has to make it a priority. Then the bad employees, including the bad managers, leave because they are passed over, can't get a foothold and don't want to be faced daily with the fact they don't fit.