On BusinessWeek.com Liz Ryan highlights the vicissitudes of management philosophy and selects ten management practices to avoid.
Ryan comments: "Every few years, a management book or philosophy emerges to change our thinking about the best ways to lead employees.
"With so many competing management theories in the mix, some ill-conceived practices were bound to take hold – and indeed, many have," she adds.
Ryan goes on to detail some of these misguided management practices in her list of ten. These are:
1. Forced Ranking
Don't evaluate employees against one another - instead, evaluate them against written goals.
2. Front-Loaded Recruiting Systems
Dispense with unnecessary checks, tests, questionnaires, sample work assignments and other mandatory drills and simply give hiring power back to your hiring managers.
3. Overdone Policy Manuals
Ryan recommends dispensing with an unnecessary or outdated policy every week and making it a requirement to have the CEO approve any that are added.
4. Social Media Thought Police
Don't take issue with employees using social media during work providing they're getting their work done. If the work isn't done then that problem needs addressing on its own.
5. Rules That Force Employees To Lie
Don't make new rules (for instance, sick-time policies) that reward employees for withholding information.
6. Theft of Miles
If your employees are travelling around the world to do your business, let them have the benefit of the air and hotel miles themselves rather than keeping them for the company.
7. Jack-Booted Layoffs
If you have to lay people off, don't treat them like criminals by escorting them out of the door immediately. Aim for non-immediate departures, with dignified discussions.
8. 360-Degree Feedback Programmes
Teach your employees and managers how to give one another constructive criticism instead of "sneaky group feedback mechanisms masquerading as career development tools".
9. Mandatory Performance-Review Bell Curves
Ryan argues that forcing performance-review distributions into a bell curve "exalts and institutionalizes mediocrity". She asks: "If you can't trust your leadership team members to assess their employees, how can you trust them to manage at all?"
10. Timekeeping Courtesy of Henry Ford
Don't manage white-collar "knowledge workers" like assembly line employees. Ryan says: "An obsession with arrival and departure times is not the way to signal to your employees, ‘We’re expecting great things from you.’" Set goals and leave the people to manage the "how-and-where issues" themselves.
Ten Management Practices to Axe
Liz Ryan, BusinessWeek.com, 05/02/10
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Timekeeping Courtesy of Henry Ford
One overlooked aspect of the Timekeeping Courtesy of Henry Ford is when management is petty about time, employees quickly learn to be petty back. I worked in a company where the boss was constantly on at employees about timekeeping; at 5:00 the place emptied out.