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.

I recently wrote a blog for BizSanDiego (my favorite local mag, by the way) where I proposed that downsizing could be the BIGGEST mistake  a company could make. How so? If there isn’t some careful planning and forethought given to it.

Every time the economy goes into an adjustment period, individuals and organizations have to adjust, too. We all have to tighten our belts, cut costs and rethink the way we do things. Too often in companies, though, in trying to reach a desirable bottom line number, we cut costs in the wrong areas and end up crippling the business. Here’s a true story:

A local company made sweeping personnel cuts across the organization. They treated the furloughed employees with dignity and care and the exit was as graceful as possible, however they made one significant error. They had not fully reviewed the assigned tasks of these employees to ensure there was backup support once they were gone.  About 60 days later, it came to light that critical quarterly sales reports were not being generated and the remote salesforce was without meaningful, relevant data. You guessed it – the database engineer in charge of that data process had been let go along with the sales assistant that compiled and produced the reports. Two seemingly unrelated individuals whose absence sent the company into a mad scramble to figure out how to fill the gap. They ended up offering both former employees a contract to come back and train others on how to do their job – and only one of them was willing to do so.

I recommend a process called OPSthat utilizes Optimization, Performance and Strategy to help organizations achieve their desired result -  to streamline costs without impeding business continuity. In these difficult times, considering the big picture will be your best bet.