6 Most Overrated Management Concepts:
Making a company successful
requires, above all, clear thinking.
Unfortunately, there are
dozens of management concepts that, far from making success easier, tend to
encourage fuzzy ideas and bad decisions.
Here are a few of my
favorites. Make sure you're not falling into any of these traps:
1. Consensus
Managers often strive to
reach consensus among groups and individuals before any important decision is
made. That sounds reasonable (hey, it's the "wisdom of crowds"), but
in practice consensus drives weak decisions.
Strong decisions--the ones
that create powerful futures--entail cutting away other options, and that
generally means disappointing somebody. Consensus favors what's bland over
what's innovative, what's safe over what's risky, and the status quo over carpe
diem.
2. Customer Focus
If you focus on the
customer, you'll be better able to satisfy the customer's needs, right?
Well, not really. "Focusing" on the customer is viewing the situation
from your own perspective as a vendor. What's really required is the ability to
listen to and absorb what the customer is saying and project yourself into the
customer's shoes.
Understanding a customer is
not so much a visual act (like using a microscope) as a passive act: It
involves rapport, empathy, and imagination.
3. Brainstorming
Getting people together to
bounce ideas off one another (in a supportive environment) sounds like a great
idea. Until you actually try making it work, that is. Creativity is not a group
process, and great ideas do not emerge out of dumb, half-baked ones.
What's more, no matter how
supportive the environment, people know they'll be judged on the quality of
their contributions. That's why brainstorming usually creates nothing more than
a dull drizzle.
4. Rightsizing
Rightsizing is a weasel word intended to make mass firings seem as if they're
strategic. The real truth is that big layoffs are always the result of lousy
management. Though it's sometimes necessary to make staffing changes, well-run
companies with farsighted management never require such drastic surgery. So
let's stop using jargon that hides the fact that management failed.
5. Human Resources
The problem with calling
humans "resources" is that you just dehumanized them into objects.
The term puts human beings conceptually in the same bucket as raw materials on
the factory floor or the network wires inside the wall. It ignores the fact
that people are complicated and multifaceted, and that getting them to work
together requires treating them as individuals rather than as plug-and-play
commodities.
6. Leadership
Before he died the
management visionary Peter Drucker
pinned the excesses of corporate America on the bloated concept of leadership. He believed businesses have more than enough leaders; what they
really need are competent managers who can do the hard work of decision making,
planning, and coaching.
In my experience, the
typical business leader is like the leader of a marching band--he waves a stick
while other people do the work.
Needless to say, feel free
to leave a comment if you disagree.
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