When Good Managers Fail: The Law of Problem Evolution - ' Negative Feedback '
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My associate Paul runs a region for a big international company. The core demographic for the company's main product is becoming less important every year, although the company aims to continue to grow. The logical way to do this is by selling the product to new demographic groups, thereby forcing them to promote and sell it in different ways, using different channels and tactics.
Caroline, the marketing director, has mastered the company's marketing model. She's a wizard at the direct-mail programs that have always been the foundation of its success. In her own people management, she knows how to give positive feedback and encouragement. What she doesn't ever do, and apparently can't, is give negative feedback.
When a contributor is not contributing what the organization needs, she doesn't give actionable instructions that would help direct a failing employee in a better direction.
The organization needs to completely remake its marketing approaches and execution over the next few years. The marketing staff deserve a chance to continue to work for the company, but they don't even know they are failing to properly implement the new models because Caroline is not capable of telling them. Her department is heading down a cul-de-sac, because by never correcting wasteful or erroneous behavior, staff members don't even realize they are falling short of what's needed.
Caroline is a really good manager in a dozen areas, but her limitation is becoming a bigger and bigger problem.
The solution for Caroline and Herbert—and you and me and everyone else—is to be a chronic learner, to understand what's missing in our toolkits and try, even if it's unpleasant, to become adequate despite our limiting factors.
Hiring a replacement is among the most common approaches. The odds are slim that the next manager will have the exact weaknesses that the predecessor had. It's an expensive method, though, especially in purging an otherwise-successful manager.
And there are multiple ways to do it besides making a manager become good at what he or she isn't good at.
Paul hired a consultant who is a specialist in the new methods Caroline's department needs to master. The specialist shadows marketing staff and critiques them each for a few consecutive days, making the corrections Caroline doesn't want to make.
The company will get to the other side of this project with Caroline and staff intact and with its goals met, although it's a temporary solution.
The solution for Herbert's company, I believe, was to offer him a "guru without reports" job, where he could continue to do the wonderful things he did well and that added value to the company.
Then, they could bring in someone with more ability to manage a lifelong learning approach in a discipline that requires ongoing skills reinforcement.
If the manager is observant enough to realize her weak spot is a weak spot, I frequently recommend she asks other managers how they handle it.
A way to finesse loss of face is to ask staff members what they would do, and if the answer sounds feasible, help them implement it and share the glory if it works.
Almost all managers, even the best, have areas of relative weakness. And problems evolve to elude that manager's consistent strengths. The ideal is to keep growing as a manager using whatever tools and techniques you can to evolve more quickly than your challenges do.
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