Elements of Great Managing

Kent Blumberg says on March 28th, 2007 at 1:36 pm

Thanks for the kind words and the links. I’m planning a PDF compilation of these posts and will let you know when it’s available (free, of course).

Kent

Rich says on March 28th, 2007 at 3:04 pm

This book is based on Gallup’s Q12 survey that companies spend millions to utilize. When a company buys the package, Gallup sets up a 800 number for all employees to call for an “engagement survey.” The 12 questions in the employee survey are the premise of this book. Q12, this book, and the 2 Buckingham books are sold by Gallup as the solution to all your management and employee morale problems. It’s a crock. It’s just like every other program. If your management team and executive don’t commit, it’s going to be another money wasting HR blunder. My company did Q12 and it was a typical HR propaganda piece. The survey results came it, showing lots of places for improvement. Executives spent hours and hours reading the books, looking over the numbers, attending seminars, proudly displaying their new Gallup certificates of achievement (congrats, you can read books). With all this newly paid for knowledge, management did what is typical. They addressed the easiest issues to solve, typically the ones that can be handled by throwing money at the problem. The harder issues, where management has do work, seemed to be too time consuming to address. The next year, another round of surveys. The low hanging fruit from the previous year got a bump, but the real “engagement” issues that were ignored scored lower. HR trumpeted the gains, and had more meetings with executives about the unaddressed issues. The VPs committed to action. More meetings. More promises. Then company priorities shelved all the proposed action. Year three: employees are fed up with the survey and the lack of actual progress. Employees actually gang up and give the company the lowest marks yet. Surprise, surprise. HR ends their contract with Gallup and Q12 is never heard from again. We all wait patiently for the next management breakthrough, like competence.

Howie says on March 29th, 2007 at 12:55 am

I consider “valuing employees opinion” as a strong point in management. Opinions are important for every company. It’s the way companies generate some ideas. Some are probably from customers.

Benchoola says on March 29th, 2007 at 12:55 am

Sounds interesting

billbreedlove says on March 29th, 2007 at 5:20 am

They addressed the easiest issues to solve, typically the ones that can be handled by throwing money at the problem. The harder issues, where management has do work, seemed to be too time consuming to address.

Charlie says on March 30th, 2007 at 12:24 am

That is a great collection from Kent. His knowledge on management and it’s issues is vast and explained them well. I find some articles interesting and inspirational as well.

Kent Blumberg says on April 1st, 2007 at 7:18 am

Rich,

This is like any other useful view of the world: It’s only as good as those who apply the view to their actions. You have seen poor application of the 12 elements. I have seen just the opposite.

The beauty of these 12 elements is that they are actionable. If a work team tells their leader that they don’t know what’s expected of them at work, the leader then knows he needs to change his approach to setting expectations. If a work team says they don’t have enough choices in safety glasses, they can work with their leader to find better choices.

It takes real work to lead. With a model like “12″, a leader is more likely to work on the right things.

Kent

Helen says on April 1st, 2007 at 10:05 pm

Every minute issue concerned with management is already on some of the articles. I guess he said it all.

Interesting view about mentoring.