What’s The Only Thing Worse Than an Incompetent Subordinate?
What’s The Only Thing Worse Than an Incompetent Subordinate?
The only thing worse than an incompetent subordinate is a hard working, incompetent subordinate.
Why is this so true? Here are two more axioms to help explain it.
The First Rule of Holes: When you’re in one, stop digging.
The hard working incompetent doesn’t know when to stop digging. He/she gets deeper and deeper into trouble and the damage takes longer for you to un-do if it can be repaired at all.
The Puritan Ethic: Work hard and become successful.
All too often our admiration for raw effort blinds us to the fact that little is being achieved. In organizations where measurable accountability wanes, one of the few criteria we have for evaluating performance is effort. Bob works so hard, how can we criticize him? The Puritan Ethic can lead us to confuse activity with achievement.
Ask yourself…
* Do you have any hard working incompetents that are hindering your potential for achievement?
* Is anyone taking too long to do their otherwise routine tasks or putting in too many hours after everyone else has gone home?
* Is the situation being fostered by a lack of accountability?
* Are your people working hard or working smart?
A Three Step Remedy
1. Establish Measurable SMART Goals for every position and monitor and discuss their progress.
2. If your people cannot display the competency to achieve, they are likely in the wrong job. As long as you foster or ignore this, who is really being served?
3. Establish competency models for your positions and assess new candidates for the proper fit.
Whats The Only Thing Worse Than an Incompetent Subordinate - To learn more about this author, visit Tom Lemanski's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
For a manager, what's the one thing worse than an incompetent subordinate? The answer to this old corporate axiom and riddle surprised and amused me so much that it inspired this briefing. The answer…
The only thing worse than an incompetent subordinate is a hard working, incompetent subordinate.
Why is this so true? Here are two more axioms to help explain it.
The First Rule of Holes: When you’re in one, stop digging.
The hard working incompetent doesn’t know when to stop digging. He/she gets deeper and deeper into trouble and the damage takes longer for you to un-do if it can be repaired at all.
The Puritan Ethic: Work hard and become successful.
All too often our admiration for raw effort blinds us to the fact that little is being achieved. In organizations where measurable accountability wanes, one of the few criteria we have for evaluating performance is effort. Bob works so hard, how can we criticize him? The Puritan Ethic can lead us to confuse activity with achievement.
Ask yourself…
* Do you have any hard working incompetents that are hindering your potential for achievement?
* Is anyone taking too long to do their otherwise routine tasks or putting in too many hours after everyone else has gone home?
* Is the situation being fostered by a lack of accountability?
* Are your people working hard or working smart?
A Three Step Remedy
1. Establish Measurable SMART Goals for every position and monitor and discuss their progress.
2. If your people cannot display the competency to achieve, they are likely in the wrong job. As long as you foster or ignore this, who is really being served?
3. Establish competency models for your positions and assess new candidates for the proper fit.
Whats The Only Thing Worse Than an Incompetent Subordinate - To learn more about this author, visit Tom Lemanski's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
 | |
 |
No article feedback found. |
| |
Leave Your Feedback |
 | |
| |||
|
To learn more about the Evan Elite Author Program please contact us. |
 | |
|  |
Subscribe to Tom's articles
 | |
|
|  |
 | |
|
| |
 | |||||||
|
 | ||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
|
| ||
 |
| Have you written articles that would be of value to entrepreneurs? Become an expert on our site by publishing them! Expose yourself to a wide audience, drive more traffic to your website and get more sales! Click Here for details. |
|
|
 |
| Modeling the Masters: Learn the true secrets behind Walt Disney's business success factors & grow your company! Video produced by Phanta Media |
|
|
 |
"Learn straight from Evan how you can Make a Full Time Income (And More) from a Website"
Click Here To Learn More |
|
|
|
|
Get advice & tips from famous business owners, new articles by entrepreneur experts, my latest website updates, & special sneak peaks at what's to come!
|
|
|
 Is your branding on the nose? Emotional Intelligence Meditation Guide Google Adwords Guide Network More Effectively |
|
 | ||
 |
Top 50 Raising Capital Blogs
Top Blogs To Watch In 2008 | |
 |
Top 50 Productivity Blogs
Top Blogs To Watch In 2008 | |
| ||
 | ||||
| ||||
|
| ||||
| ||||
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||
|
Email us your ideas on how to make our website more valuable! Thank you Sharon from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for your suggestions to make the newsletter look like the website and profile younger entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez and Sean Combs!
|
|
|
