Running an Organisation: Bad Behaviours: Habit 1
I was reading in an old Forbes online issue, a blog by Martin Zwilling on the nine bad behaviours of struggling start founders. He reviewed the points made by Denny F Strigl, former CEO of Verizon Wireless, on the bad habits of managers who struggle.
Whilst reading the blog, I realised that these bad habits are true of everyone: whether mangers or not; whether in start-ups or established organisations. They are particularly true of those of us in the charity sector. So what can we do to avoid them?
Well, I don’t think I’m guru of any kind but I do have over 25 years experience of management so have learnt a few things in my time. (I have also fallen into some of these bad habits myself). So in case it helps, here my thoughts…
Bad Habit Number 1: Failure to build trust and integrity
This is the biggie. The true number one awful thing to do. No matter who you are, in what role, whether and individual or an organisation - if people don’t trust you then you might us well pack up your bags and go.
From an employer’s point of view, once you have lost trust in an employee - it is very hard to get back. I always start on the assumption that my employees will be hard working and trustworthy. I wouldn’t take them on otherwise. In the decades I have spent as a manager, I have been fortunate that most of my employees have been that. This isn’t just luck though. Good recruitment systems coupled with treating staff as adults has been the main reasons for this.
However, there have been a couple of members of staff who have let me down and always it was not a big shocking issue that eroded trust. It was their daily interactions and the way they worked with me and with others. For example, I had one member of staff who would never take responsibility for their mistakes. If asked why he hadn’t done what was asked, he would always find an excuse - even if it meant blaming another member of staff - despite the fact that I have always operated a ‘no blame’ culture i.e. viewing mistakes as ways of learning rather than something that deserves punishment.
After several incidents of this kind, I began to lose trust in him as did his colleagues. Nobody wanted him on their team because they didn’t trust him to be truthful if he made a mistake.
Although he was pleasant and hard working, when it came to renewing his contract, I realised that I had to let him go. He was having a negative impact on the rest of the organisation.
From an employee’s point of view, it is equally important that they can trust you as a manager. It is absolutely imperative that your staff trust you or else you will have little cooperation or worse - people will spend more time focussing on protecting their positions than on doing the work.
I’ve had bosses I didn’t trust and it wasn’t a pleasant working environment. I’ve also gone into workplaces where there is no trust and have had to build it up.
No - I don’t have a one fits all answer to this one but there are some clear and sensible things that you as a boss should do to build and maintain trust:
1) Don’t lie to your staff. If you can’t tell them something because it is confidential or strategically inappropriate then tell them - “I can’t tell you right now but I will do when I can”.
2) Don’t hide bad news. You are not employing children - you are employing adults. Your staff would rather have the bad news than not be told anything. It doesn’t make life very easy for you as you have to deal with the emotional response to bad news but who said being a manager was easy?
3) As the Americans say ‘walk, the walk - don’t just talk, the talk’ ie show that you mean what you say. Don’t make idle threats or promises.
Leonor Stjepic
Chief Executive
RAFT
