The Dirty Dozen Myths of Management
Dave Anderson
Well-intentioned managers are often misguided by "conventional wisdom" in building their organization. They get caught up with the latest fad-phrases and become devoted purveyors of buzzwords that sound and feel good, but don't necessarily lead to improvements. These myths of management deserve a second look to ensure the strategies for growing your dealership are grounded in more than "happy hot-tub talk" and lead to real results. Many of these precepts are sound, but only when fully understood and properly implemented.
1. "Empowerment is productive and should be implemented in our organization." Empowerment works wonders when people are well-trained, understand the vision and values of the organization and work in a non-oppressive environment. However, if you hire the wrong people, don't train them effectively and fail to communicate the visions and values of your company, don't empower! The first rule of empowerment is that when you take an "idiot" and empower him, all you get is an "empowered idiot." Empowering the wrong people can destroy your company. It's a waste of time to empower if your workplace is filled with bureaucracy, layers of hierarchy and abusive managers because you can't release the brainpower of those in your dealership with whips and chains.
2. "Micromanagement is negative." Micromanagement will slow your organization, drain morale and prevent your people from reaching their potential. However, as with empowerment, if you're going to hire the wrong people, not train or coach them effectively and fail to communicate values and vision, then I suggest you micromanage until you improve these conditions.
3. "Constant, clear communication is necessary for keeping the organization moving forward." Good communication is important to keep a team informed and energized. It's a morale booster and prevents operational breakdowns. The key here is "good" communication. Many managers communicate one thing, then do another. They make promises they don't keep, paint visions that never materialize, dictate a direction one day and reverse it the next. This sort of low-integrity, inconsistent communication is better left unsaid. Constant, clear communication can backfire when leaders talk right and walk left: when they promise the moon and deliver cheese or when their loose lips sink ships of discretion and confidence. Communicating responsibly is one of the highest forms of leadership. In fact, leaders that talk right and walk left should sit down and shut up. People might be in the dark, but at least they won't find themselves in the dark and being led down a destructive, demoralizing path.
4. "Everyone can be motivated. All you have to do is know which buttons to push." If a person doesn't have a passion for what they do they'll never be motivated for long despite your best pep talks, incentive programs, pats on the back and bonuses. Whatever motivation someone has is already in them. You can't put in what was left out. All you can hope to do is draw out what's left in.
5. "Talent is hard to find." Talent is not rare or special. Everyone has talent at something. What's rare and special is a manager who can see the talents a person has and match them appropriately with a job. What is very rare is a manager, once recognizing specific talents in an employee, being able to draw out and help the worker develop those talents to their fullest potential.
6. "Everyone has unlimited potential." A person's potential is always limited by how their talents and abilities match the job they're required to perform. To think everyone has unlimited potential in every role is beyond unrealistic; it's dangerously naive. While skills and knowledge for job duties can be learned, natural talent for performing the task cannot.
7. "Change will always meet with resistance." Change that benefits employees rarely ever meets with resistance. Change that is communicated properly, introduced intelligently and modeled by credible leaders minimizes resistance significantly. Most change is resisted because the transition is handled poorly. Finessing change is the job of leaders, and the best handle it very well. It's art, not science.
8. "Good leaders fix the weaknesses of their people and organization." Good leaders don't ignore weaknesses, but they spend more time developing strengths. They know that when you continually repair weaknesses, you're always playing "catch-up" and rarely gain any momentum or self-esteem. By developing strengths in people, you have the chance to become exceptional in certain areas and gain a competitive advantage. Focusing strictly on weaknesses results in mediocrity. Besides, when you ignore your strengths, they diminish. When you exploit them, they diminish your weaknesses. Good leaders know it takes more energy to go from miserable to mediocre than to go from good to great. They minimize the time they spend in ungifted areas by delegating areas of personal weakness and outsourcing organizational weaknesses.
9. "Leaders are born, not made." The pages of history are littered with enough deposed monarchs and heirs that lost family fortunes to prove leadership is not genetic. Some people are born with personality traits that are conducive to good leadership, but that doesn't make them leaders. Leadership is developed, not discovered.
10. "A positive, enlightened workplace filled with benefits is what employees want." Studies show overwhelmingly that the number one motivational and de-motivational factor in the workplace today is the manager. Employees would rather have a good manager in an old-fashioned workplace than a lousy one in a state-of-the-art workplace, echoing all the latest management buzzwords and laced with lucrative benefits. You must remember, "It's the manager, stupid."
11. "Delegating to others helps them grow and develop." Leaders must understand the difference between delegating and "dumping." Delegating can be the most demoralizing, confidence-sapping management practice. Leaders that delegate effectively define outcomes without methods; make themselves available for support throughout the process; provide the authority and tools needed to accomplish the task; meet with the "delegate" periodically, give accountability with responsibility and have the sense to match delegated tasks with the strengths of those to whom they are delegated. If you're not going to adhere to these principles, don't delegate.
12. "When your unit's performance falls off in your absence, it's evidence of your value and importance." If your department's performance falls off measurably during your absences like vacations, days off or while you're traveling, it's a reflection of poor leadership on your part, not your value as a leader. Good leaders create the conditions for success in their absence. They communicate vision and values, train their people effectively and have invested the one-on-one time in their inner circle to ensure success without them. When performance falls measurably or consistently in a manager's absence it's an indictment of his failure to teach, develop, and coach others to think, act, change, work as a team and seize opportunity. The most valuable leaders don't want to be needed, they want to succeed and invest in others to that end. Furthermore, if you get calls from subordinates looking for direction on your day off or if you call the office repeatedly while away from the office you're limiting your organization.
Small-minded, ego-driven leaders think they're indispensable. They are dead wrong. I don't mean to be unkind, but the next time you think you're indispensable, think about this: 30 minutes after you're dead and in the ground those you leave behind will gather in a church to eat fried chicken and apple pie while they talk about who's playing in the big ballgame that afternoon. Life goes on-with or without you. The best leaders know the only way to become indispensable is to become dispensable. So you might as well develop people that can think and act like leaders at all levels in your organization to carry the load while you're around and after you're gone. Besides, the true measure of a leader is not finishing "the race" alone: it's measured by how many he brings across the finish line with him.
Dave Anderson is president of The Dave Anderson Corporation, a sales, management and leadership training concern. Dave conducts "Leading At The Next Level" workshops and publishes "Leading At The Next Level" newsletter. He is the author of "Selling Above The Crowd: 365 Strategies For Sales Excellence" and his Web site, www.learntolead.com has free training articles and materials updated weekly. Dave is a member of The National Speaker's Association and conducts workshops and keynotes worldwide. danderson@dealeronline.com.
