These are good points. However, as I scroll through the entire page I only see the word "communication" once. It appears in DavidColbourn's comment. Thank you David! There are leaders with the best intentions. However, "best intentions" is ruined when there is a failure to communicate. If you don't communicate about the big picture, the projects, developments behind the scenes, the updates to those projects and such it can create chaos. Precious time is lost spinning wheels trying to figure out what's going on. The boss may know what's going on but does his team of people know his latest developments? Weekly or monthly meetings are fine but sometimes a simple one minute discussion, email, phone call to the team can help put the communication back on track. Communication is a big link that is often missed.
Dave Ramsey has great insight with respect to this subject, reference his book: Entreleadership. Unfortunately few, if any, managers and senior execs ever practiced the concepts discussed in that book at Kennedy Space Center.
You know, I've been reading books and articles about "dysfunctional bosses" and "bad organizations" ever since I started working.
You know what? Here's why they call it work...because the companies that make money are predatory bastards who figured out a way to extract value from the free market. Much as all the pundits like to think of the world as "some guy invents a new product and everyone pays him a lot of money for it" -- that my friend, is the path to the poor house.
Organizational dysfunction has a good degree of overlap and there are some ways of addressing the top two points from an organizational perspective. Rule changes or management by cult of personality is an industry default. Focusing on the minutiae supports and allows it but organizations need more then tactical managers and this is the root cause of the first two short comings.
Having clear principles as a motivational driver does two things; first it establishes a base of consistency and second it forces us to look at the bigger picture. CMMI level 3 requires the consistency and that can only be achieved with a clear understanding of how the tactics roll up to a given strategy and how the strategy rolls up to a mission and the mission to a vision. Without good communication of the big picture policy will not have a chance. If policy is variable the only way you can motivate is to encourage increased effort, which costs, rather than encourage better targeting which is a key but missing management output. We need to work smarter not harder; we already lead much of the world in that.
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You know what? Here's why they call it work...because the companies that make money are predatory bastards who figured out a way to extract value from the free market. Much as all the pundits like to think of the world as "some guy invents a new product and everyone pays him a lot of money for it" -- that my friend, is the path to the poor house.
Having clear principles as a motivational driver does two things; first it establishes a base of consistency and second it forces us to look at the bigger picture. CMMI level 3 requires the consistency and that can only be achieved with a clear understanding of how the tactics roll up to a given strategy and how the strategy rolls up to a mission and the mission to a vision. Without good communication of the big picture policy will not have a chance. If policy is variable the only way you can motivate is to encourage increased effort, which costs, rather than encourage better targeting which is a key but missing management output. We need to work smarter not harder; we already lead much of the world in that.