A Manager Will Always Do What Is Easy

Don't get me wrong, there are good managers out there. After so many years, I've realized that to be a good manager, there are very few things you have to know and do. The primary and most important are: 1) They have to work; and 2) They have to know what their company does.

We'll deal with the latter later (always wanted to say that ;-), as there is a heresy which has become gospel among managers is that a manager can manage anything. Well, that applies only if you want a bad manager.

But now we'll talk about work, something that is anathema to a large majority of managers. The work that managers are supposed to do varies with the level of the position, but in these days of slim staffing and accelerated deadlines, it is very important that your manager be right there to roll up his sleeves and assist when things get crazy. When deadlines are looming and things are not working, a manager can delegate all he wishes, it won't make a damn bit of difference. Even on what is called a 'fully staffed' project, all you need is for one of the project members to walk and the project is in serious trouble.

To really demonstrate why work is so important and so infrequent from managers, you just need to look at a company going through a slump. Sales are down and the cash flow is not good. In this type of situation there are actually a lot of things that upper management can do to reverse the downward trend. First, they can increase market penetration. This involves hiring more sales personnel in the right areas to just sell more. This does require a good knowledge of your markets. Second, the company can roll out new products. Again, you need to know your market and clear away obstacles to development. Third, you can become more efficient. This is more than just laying off people and trying to make one person do the work of two or three. This involves looking closely at the way the company does business and getting rid of unnecessary work. Unfortunately the author of 90% of unnecessary work is management itself. Finally, the last way to try to turn around a company is layoffs.

Think about all these methods. Which one is the easiest? Layoffs! Which one do you see happen the most? Layoffs!

The next time you get a really stupid pointy-haired boss announcement in your company and ask yourself why. Just remember, it was the easy.