Hey, This Is My Job!

HEY, THAT IS MY JOB!

Functional control takes place when you let the people hired do their job. Dysfunctional control takes place when the CEO micromanages the organization and does not give any small amount of responsibility to middle management, thus causing middle management to micro manage their subordinates. Micromanagement is defined as "a management style where a manager closely observes or controls the work of his or her subordinates or employees" (Miniute-Cobb, 2010). Micromanagement frustrates employees by smothering creativity and causing fear which keeps employees from giving valuable input. Micro management causes frustration among employees and when those employees become frustrated enough they will seek employment elsewhere.

According to Med Yones (2007), "Leadership is the most important competitive advantage of a company, not technology, finance, operations or anything else." A company is only as good as the leadership. The company only accomplishes what the leadership allows it to accomplish. In so many ways a company is the reflection of the leadership at the helm. When you see a company in crisis you can start with the offending employee to find what happened in a certain instance. But, if you start tracing the problem backward, up through the ranks, you will find the problem and it generally will not be offending employee. Employees do what they are told to and it seems to go that way up through the rank and file. The buck has to stop somewhere and generally that is at the CEO's feet.

While there is always someone who makes the decisions, that same someone has to take responsibility for those decisions. At times the operations manager or program manager receives the blame when a project or operation goes wrong. In many cases, the operations manager passes the blame when a project or operation goes wrong to the supervisors, who, in turn blame the employees. It is a cycle that is repeated many times in companies across the nation everyday.

HEY, THAT IS MY JOB!

Human nature causes people to blame someone else for the problem; no one wants to be wrong. I was once told by a CEO that I was ultimately responsible for everything that occurred at our company whether is was good or bad. I was an "office manager" that in reality performed the work of an operations manager. I worked long hours, was paid a salary, and never was given the autonomy or recognition I deserved. The CEO was a controller that couldn't stand to let one iota of his control gets away from him. It appears that insecurity stands in his way as well.

"A failed (or failing) business is the result of poor performance. Poor performance is the result of incompetent or dysfunctional leadership team. In my experience, the main reason for poor organizational performance is not the lack of business knowledge, but rather negative internal politics." (Yones, 2007) The CEO of this company has a BA in Political Science and over thirty years experience in the industry; he knows what he is doing. Yet he is not insightful enough to realize he is stifling the growth and prosperity of this company because he does not trust any of the managers to do the job as well as he; this company cannot grow. One man cannot do it all; eventually he will have to trust others to help him.

The steps to change the micromanager inside are as follows:

1. "Admit it. The first step to loosing the label is admitting you may have micromanagement tendencies" (Lemmex, 2007).

2. "Solicit feedback from your managers and staff. Once you recognize that you may be a micromanager, you will want to figure out if your actions are harmful to you and your staff or merely necessary for greater good of the organization" (Lemmex, 2007).

3. "Identify the root cause of your micromanagement tendencies. If you find that you display that are harming your relations with your staff and potentially making you an inefficient member of the organization, you may want to explore the causes of your micromanagement" (Lemmex, 2007).

4. "Seek advice, guidance, and training. Once you are more aware of the root cause of your micromanagement style, you will be able to seek the advice, guidance and training necessary to change" (Lemmex, 2007).

"The best way to access the effectiveness of a leader is to look at the goals attained for a certain period of time" (Bateman & Snell, 2009). If you can see positive forward progression you could ascertain this individual is an effective and successful. Many of the marks a successful CEO are possessing a talent to inspire employees. That individual must also make a connection with their people through proven "business practices, such as formal target setting, monitoring, evaluation, and feedback systems that provide managers with information about whether the organization's strategies and structure are working efficiently and effectively" (Jones & George 2004). In utilizing these tools managers are able to guide the organization through the challenges and obstacles of everyday business.

First, there must be strategic alignment. "Strategic alignment is getting all the people in an organization rowing in the same direction," (Yones, 2007). When people work against one another, nothing is accomplished. Of course, the CEO must see how critical issues have become and want to

make the change starting with him. A meeting built on honesty between the CEO and managers is the best place to start to mend the fences. After the initial meeting, a meeting to identify the problems and a brainstorming session to start resolving these issues is in order.

"The control process has several steps to establish, measure, and evaluate company performance" (Jones & George, 2004). They are as follows:

1. "Establish the standards of performance, goals, or targets against which performance is to be evaluated" (Jones & George, 2004).

HEY, THAT IS MY JOB!

Planning is the first because this is how the company establishes its goals. Deciding what is acceptable performance and how to reach those levels is one of the most important items you will have. Planning requires a place from which to start; it is as if you are saying I am here and in five years I want to be there. So there must be a target or goal you must reach for. The team must evaluate the cost of doing business by looking at operating costs, cost of goods, and labor costs.

2. "Measure actual performance" (Jones & George, 2004).

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