The Vargas Group

I recently read a great article on bnet.com called “The Five Ways Managers Breed Incompetence” <a href=”http://blogs.bnet.com/bnet1/?p=1604&tag=nl.e713

I have long contended that many employee problems are really management problems. Now, before all you managers and executives get your knickers in a bunch, I am one of you – and I still believe this. And I said many, not all.

One of the ways cited in the article was “Rewarding Mediocrity.” Hear, hear. An organization I once worked for had this process down pat. As I was leaving a meeting where one of the senior product managers had tap-danced his way through a late schedule, incomplete deliverables and cost over-runs, I cynically thought to myself, “He’s in line for a VP position.” Even though I was half joking (gallows humor, you know) my premonition came true within the week.

And just as cited in the article, the impact his promotion had on me and other employees was surely not the behavior senior management hoped to foster. I read the announcement in my morning email, among all the customer issues, employee questions, SPAM, industry requirements, and last, but not least, new requirements from HR for performance measurements. I carefully read the new Employee Review form but couldn’t seem to find the one I had just witnessed: How to reward my charming bottom feeders.

Do you want to encourage Excellence? Set expectations and then manage to them. REWARD BASED ON PERFORMANCE, period. Whatever your organization’s Performance Measurement process may be, don’t allow your managers to skate through it, or worse, ignore it. Set the expectation for them, too. What gets measured, gets attention.

Welcome to my blog. I know, I know, why in the world would anyone want to read yet another blog …. well, here’s why. I’m a gud riter. No seriously, I’ll not inundate you with a daily update of my comings and goings. At best, I’ll write once a month – maybe every few weeks. And my topics are usually centered around the workplace – what’s working, what isn’t, and what we can reasonably do about it.

Here’s what’s on my mind today. I heard an essay on NPR last week during the “This I Believe” segment. It was titled “Work is a Blessing” and the writer was talking about the lessons he learned from his father and grandfather about the virtues of hard work and self-support. I found it very inspiring and so in line with my own thinking.

As I continue to pour though the stimulus package (http://appropriations.house.gov/pdf/PressSummary01-15-09.pdf) I find myself becoming more concerned. You see, I truly believe that people are better than we give them credit for. I don’t think most Americans need a bailout plan. I don’t believe the government needs to take care of me. I believe that, left to our own devices, we are brilliant – talented, hard-working, able to address serious issues and hardships. Somewhere along the way, the government has become too interested in MY business.

What does this have to do with business? If you can’t run your business like you would if the money was coming directly out of your pocket – then step aside and let those more responsible than you have a hand at it. You simply cannot spend more than you make. (Hmmm… that goes for the government, too.) Didn’t we learn this as kids? Or, at least, that first hard lesson as young adults when you realized credit had to be paid back????

We are better than this. But with a “stimulus” bailout like this, we’ll not find out anytime soon.

Today’s rant has come to an end. The next one will be more focused, I promise.