Tweet

Can a Manager Be Too Nice?

Guest post by: Carole Hodges

Article Overview: Managers can make or break motivation and productivity for employees. Having the right employee in a management position is crucial for any company.

Can a Manager Be Too Nice?

Having a great manager can boost productivity. But last week, I heard about a company in chaos due to a manager who wanted to be NICE. Here’s the scoop: A local company was acquired by a national company. The office staff grew, and the manager who used to have only a small staff now manages an office of more than 20 people. And after six months of this new management, things are in chaos. You see, this manager doesn’t like to confront issues. He has people who arrive late and leave early. Some call in sick excessively yet are seen around town when they’re “under the weather”. Other employees—the ones who do their jobs well—have brought these issues to the manager, who promises to speak to the offenders himself – but he doesn’t follow through. The top producers are ready to leave from frustration because they are overworked and have no support. Motivation is at an all-time low. What is going on? This is a predictable response from a personality that is a GREAT supporter but avoids even potential conflict. He doesn’t want to upset anyone. Unfortunately, he is upsetting his most productive people by, in their eyes, protecting the slackers. No one ever intends to create bad outcomes. If you are a manager, you may want to follow these simple rules to motivate your people.

1. Set clear expectations about job performance. Every position needs to have a job description which includes not only WHAT needs to be done but HOW it is to be done.
2. Have, and enforce, a written process regarding timeliness, appearance and personal responsibility.
3. Reward people who perform well. These are the folks to receive bonuses, compliments and support.
4. Promptly address undesirable behavior. It doesn’t matter whether it was deliberate or unintentional. Undesirable behavior that goes unchecked impacts the motivation of others.
5. Develop “Rules of the Game” for your company. These are the guidelines for establishing a healthy environment and creating win-win relationships. One example: “Avoid gossip. Bring issues directly to the person who can do something about it.”
6. Managers can benefit from understanding their own personality patterns as well as those of their teams.

Unfortunately, it is too late for the company in this article. Their top producers are already unmotivated and will stay only until they can find other jobs. Having just ONE poorly trained manager is likely to cost this company millions in lost revenue – something the upper echelons could have avoided with relatively inexpensive training and systems.

Related Articles
  It's The Way That You Say It That Makes The Difference
  Its Not What You Say - It's The Way That You Say It
  Why a Sales Manager MUST Evoke "The Law of Reciprocity"
  Do You Ever Wonder If You Are Cut Out to Be a Real Estate Agent?
  What Is Success?

Article Tags: chaos, compliments, frustration, job description, li li, local company, motivation, new management, office staff, personal responsibility, personality, predictable response, productivity, scoop, six months, slackers, timeliness, top producers, undesirable behavior, weather



Related Forum Posts
Outlook Business Contact Manager - I've just installed the new Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager and am testing it out to see how good of a CRM system it is. I like the concept because it works right within your Outlook and I already have all my contacts and emails here. Does anybody have any experience with Business Contact Manager for Outlook?
Re: what position to request? - Hi Michael, Great suggestion from David, or you could try something around a design consultancy, How about Website Design Consultant, Design and Development Manager, Website Support and Development Manager or maybe Internet Business Development Consultant. Ultimately whatever you are comfortable with and good luck for the future, Mal.
Level 4 - Manager - Looks like I'm the first to Level 4! I'm a Manager!
When Webhost providers go bad - I've had my websites on IPower for the last two years or so. I didn't really care much for their interface - geocities has one that's much better (but they angered me so I refuse to use them anymore) but I was used to it. For the last several months they've been "transitioning" to a new system, and now, finally, it's upon me, and I really, really hate their File Manager system. They've done [i:2kaa5kss]one [/i:2kaa5kss]good thing - you can now see the date that you last updated any particular file. Before that you never knew what date anything had been uploaded. But the rest of it is just clunky and bad and quite frankly, inept! I just shot off a pretty angry complaint letter to their "Help" desk, not that I think it will do any good. So I'm in the hunt for a new web service provider. Anybody here familiar with Geocities, but have some service provide [i:2kaa5kss]other [/i:2kaa5kss]than Geocities who has the same type of File Manager system as they do?
Re: what position to request? - Business Development Manager - is more or less ok... thank you. but I want something fancier... an executive position..


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Remind Me...

10 Steps to a Great Support Team

Suggestions

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.