Napoleon I Bonaparte once said: “There are no bad soldiers, only bad generals.” This formula is quite applicable to the sphere of organizational management. Why do staff listen to the opinions of one manager and completely ignore or sabotage the orders of another?
Western management has long been asking a similar question. Our domestic science of management in this area has not yet come up with anything fundamentally new and is guided, for the most part, by the experience accumulated by the USA and Europe, in particular, by the works of R. Parkinson, P. Drucker, M. Meskon, M. Albert, etc. What does this experience suggest?
Management is, first of all, the art of working through other people, and therefore the task of any leader is to be able to think and foresee, organize and plan, motivate and control. For this process to be effective, you must adhere to the following rules.
- Clearly define your goals.
You must know exactly what kind of result you want to get. Goals should be expressed in measurable units and not be abstract.
For example, instead of “expand the client base” it is better to say “attract 20 new clients this month”, and instead of “promote the project” - “ensure that the project pays off/brings a profit of at least 5% of the invested capital over the next three years” .
- Outline ways to solve them
You and your subordinates must fully understand the entire chain of actions that are necessary to achieve specific goals.
For example, based on previous experience in attracting additional clientele, in order to attract 20 new clients in a month, each specialist must call 50 potential buyers per day.
- Decide on the performers, deadlines and responsibility for non-fulfillment
After you determine for yourself the ways to achieve your goals, you must convey the order of work to each subordinate involved in the project. Remember: most errors are the result of poor instructions.
The timing of each stage of work must be strictly limited in time. It should be remembered that, according to one of Parkinson’s half-joking Laws, “work always fills all the time allotted for it.” This means that if you instruct an employee to complete a task in a month that requires a week to complete, it will take him the entire month to complete the assignment. Therefore, try to stick to realistic deadlines.
- Organize a feedback system.
According to Western experts, the most important communication channel in any organization is the one that goes from bottom to top. The manager must know what thoughts are in the minds of his workers, and his efforts must be constantly directed towards keeping this channel open.
And since communication is so important, according to Drucker, for example, reading poetry and prose is very useful for managers because it teaches them to appreciate the meaning of words.
- Be open to new ideas.
And remember, improvement proposals require a special approach and constant encouragement. If you act as if other people's good ideas are just a reflection of your own, then you won't get them in the future.
- Know how to get along with people
It should be noted right away that this in no way implies familiarity. A successful manager always knows how to encourage an employee kind words, but will never let you get too close to your own world.
Be sincerely interested in your subordinates, their successes in work, do not infringe on their pride. Remember that for your subordinate main man in the world - he himself.
- Don't break the rules.
No organization can function effectively unless its rules and regulations are fully followed. The art of management in this area implies the ability to timely identify those rules that have “outlived” their usefulness and hinder the progressive movement forward. All other instructions must be strictly followed, including by you.
Someone said: “Gentlemen don't break the rules. They just change them."
- Take into account the experience gained, monitor the results.
Many Western theorists of management science recommend keeping a work diary and recording in it both various ideas and accumulated experience. This will prevent you from stepping on the same rake twice.
Pay attention to quitters. Once you get decent work from them, you'll get good work from everyone else.
Remember: continuous monitoring of work performance is the key to effective management.
- Delegate authority, but not responsibility.
If the purpose of your existence is not a tombstone with words of gratitude from your employees for the fact that you killed yourself with work, completely freeing them from the workload, then learn to delegate authority correctly. And remember: the manager is responsible for the results of the work of his subordinates, but his job is to properly organize the production process, and not to do everything himself.
- Look after yourself.
Everything a leader does: his appearance and his manner of speech, his family and social circle, his punctuality and lifestyle - all this is under the close supervision of his subordinates. Rumors spread instantly. And it’s good if these rumors do not become a reason for sloppiness. You may not be loved, but you should always be respected.
But everything seems to be fine. The work process is organized to perfection; the company works smoothly, like a single clockwork mechanism. But through communication channels you will still find out that there are dissatisfied people. What to do?
Don't get angry or embarrassed by complaints, even if they are directed at you. People are never completely satisfied. Even if everything is good for them, they want it to be better. This is a property of human nature. Never mind. This is part of the price you have to pay for leadership.
For many, change is worse than hot iron, and the word crisis makes you grab your head. “But if nothing changes, then you are already dead,” says management guru Itzhak Adizes. We are publishing several excerpts from his new book, “Managing in an Age of Crisis: How to Save Key People and the Company.”
There have been and will always be changes. And the stronger you are, the more changes and problems there will be, and you shouldn’t be afraid of this. This book will help you meet life and professional challenges head on.
Crisis is an opportunity
Crises lead to progress. Crisis stimulates ingenuity, leads to discoveries and new strategies. The one who overcomes the crisis gains victory over himself without being subject to circumstances.
“If you have problems, don't worry. It means you are in good company, among the living.”
In reality, every problem is an opportunity. In Chinese, the concepts of “problem” and “opportunity” are represented by the same character. There is no difference between them. Agree that this is logical and indicative. What is your opportunity? This is your customer's or competitor's problem. Others' problems become your opportunities.
As the Steel Was Tempered
Surely your parents warned you as a child: “You can’t go out into the cold after a hot shower! You'll catch a cold!" But in Finland or Russia, people, having steamed in a bathhouse and sweated a lot, throw themselves into the snow. I have no doubt that, had I followed their example, I would most likely have contracted pneumonia and died. How are we different from each other?
It all depends on how strong your body is. If yes, then the changes will only strengthen you; if not, they can destroy you. This applies not only to people, but also to organizations: those that are ready for change grow stronger in difficult times, while those who are unprepared get sick and risk going bankrupt.
Late ball
One of the components of strength is the ability to quickly respond to change. You are not an aircraft carrier that takes five miles to turn around. You are a torpedo boat that can change course at lightning speed.
Imagine playing tennis and running towards the ball only after it has already hit the ground. Agree, you are unlikely to be able to successfully repel him. Problems that you did not notice in time are like missing a tennis ball.
The player must be able to predict where the ball will land and position himself accordingly in advance. The same applies to changes in your personal life and work. To stay in the game and win, you need to be able to anticipate and stay ahead of change.
Bad Generals
If the time has come to change, take the example of the Japanese. When a Japanese company finds itself in dire straits, the first person to take a pay cut is its president. If the situation becomes even more serious, he is the first to resign.
In Japan, they don’t start by dismissing ordinary employees - the Japanese believe that there are no bad soldiers, only bad generals.
Change starts with personal responsibility.
Scars on my knees
Mary Kay is a famous American entrepreneur who created a huge cosmetics empire. Starting from scratch, her company made millions.
People often asked her, "Mrs. Kay, what is the secret of your success?" And she answered: “Do you see the scars on my knees? This is the secret of my success!”
Success is achieved not by those who rarely fall, but by those who quickly rise to their feet.
How to outrun a lion
Two people are wandering barefoot through the African savannah and suddenly meet a lion. One begins to quickly pull on his sneakers. Another asks in surprise: “Why are you wearing sneakers? You still can’t outrun the lion!” And he replies: “I don’t even hope to overtake the lion, I want to overtake you!”
How long does it take you to “get back on your feet”? If you are strong, change allows you to move forward faster and ahead of competitors, and crisis becomes your ally.
Every problem is a lesson. The question is whether your studies will be in vain or whether you will be able to benefit from it. teaches you how to benefit from any crisis.
Any businessman should understand that soldiers will always be bad - they are a collective. It is impossible to educate everyone; everyone will be lazy in their own way. However, when a general is good, he has a good army. And bad soldiers are just the exception that proves the rule. They are necessary. After all, only in contrast to the 10% of obvious slackers can you see that the remaining 90% are really working.
Dmitry Zhitomirsky
If you like everyone, you have 100% slackers. This is a team in which everyone must perform their specific functions, because each of us is born exclusively for certain actions.
Everyone raised themselves exclusively for these actions, and therefore in any company a person must take HIS place in order to be useful and work as efficiently as possible. And these are, by definition, people with different abilities and characteristics. Just like the liver, heart, kidneys and brain are absolutely different, but nevertheless they are part of the same organism and only in such an algorithm can they ensure its full functioning. The brain can never be in the place of the rectum.
Do not forget that each individual employee is a separate system. Therefore, as in any system, it has both pros and cons, both negative and positive features, without which the system cannot exist. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. And therefore, you should not under any circumstances carry out what may seem extremely noble to you, without having objective opportunities and abilities for it. Everything must be done with dignity, measuredly and wisely and reap the positive results of your positive actions. It’s exactly like this: any employee should work only with positive motivation, and not at all under pressure or because of a threat. Employees should not be kept in fear. Fear has never benefited anyone.
The key to success does not lie in making it a habit to do something that makes you afraid, but solely in a competent and realistic analysis of the situation and a high degree of effort. Everything else may help you run away from the wolf, and fear, if you have it, will help you run faster in this case, but the task of any businessman is not to run, but to defeat this wolf.
Find a gun and shoot, and if there is no gun, grab the throat with your teeth! Then and only then will success and victory await you.
Recently, the phrase that a gift sent by the Lord is always packaged in a problem has become extremely popular. But this is nonsense! The amount of material goods produced by man on the planet is something limited, the amount of happiness produced by man on the planet is also something limited, and therefore if someone is richer, that means someone is poorer, and if someone laughs, that means who something is crying. We often laugh at jokes, but as soon as we get to the heart of them, it becomes clear that we are laughing at someone else's failure. And where is the justice? Others laugh at the fact that someone is feeling very bad. And this resonance will always be! It is he who balances and maintains the harmony of the world. One is crying - the other is laughing.
The Lord gives each person the opportunity to walk his own path and realize himself as a thinking and feeling being.
And be that as it may, we all make mistakes - both mental and sensory, based on this, sometimes we feel good, and sometimes we feel very bad. But to refer to “heavenly freebies” in this matter, excuse me, is sinful. After all, if the Lord gave you the opportunity to win a lottery ticket, remember how many people also wanted to win, but did not even go and buy it.
Some may find it surprising to see a ray of light in the midst of complete darkness, but the question is asked: how did you get complete darkness?
Would this ray of light really be so large in this period of life if before that you loved everyone and everyone loved you? I think we all remember Bonaparte very well, who was condemned by the whole world, but he still remained Bonaparte. After all, having lost the war, he did not suffer a single defeat in his entire life; Bonoparte’s military glory was not tarnished. As a general he was the best, but this does not mean that all his soldiers were good. But this is not just about generals and soldiers...
Whatever one may say, one person cannot conquer the whole world, one cannot become the owner of all the money and all the world’s happiness - and this is the justice of the Lord. He will never allow just one person to have everything. After all, it is possible to be happy only against the background of an upset person, and to be upset - only against the background of a happy one. The Lord never gives a person problems. I have never agreed with the slogan of one of the largest European companies: “Take everything from life.” Does a person need as much as he takes from life, and has he set his aspirations correctly?
Did he direct himself and his desires correctly to master all this?
Will the power he strives for: mental, material, bring happiness for him? Take from life what is necessary and sufficient, take even a little more, but remember that if you took a little more, you made someone poorer, and at the same time tomorrow you will receive revolutionaries at the gates of your castle. Moreover, the more you take, the more poor and evil there will be. Therefore, is it worth taking everything from life? Man’s problems do not come from the Lord, but precisely because a person does not value what he has and cannot control it, or because he does not even want to lift a finger in order to have at least something. Handsome and ugly, stupid and stupid, strong and weak - anyone in this world can adapt. For each of us there is a certain cell and niche. This is how the world works. And if we were born, we have already occupied it. And what we will do in this space is the task that everyone has to solve. The gift of the Lord always appears to a person only in its pure form, but problems begin from our inability to use this gift.
In addition, the more everything a person has, the more time and effort must be spent on managing it.
Requests are increasing. I understand that a person used to have regular pants, but now he wants pants exclusively from Calvin Klein, the price range of which varies five times. What can you offer such a person? Take these pants, boil them in a saucepan and put them on the table instead of the first course, and then take others and compare: do they smell the same or not and can they be eaten? Everything is absolutely true - expenses increase in accordance with income, the more you earn, the more pronounced the temptation to spend money and surround yourself with more and more material benefits becomes. But everything material requires care. So, if you have one car, you only need to take care of one, and if you have three, you already have three. Nevertheless, you can’t drive three cars alone, which means you need to hire drivers and car mechanics, and a crowd of security guards should also be hired. And for what? Why do you need all this? Each person has categories by which he chooses what is more important to him, and if he chooses everything, then, by and large, he does not need anything except the outside opinions of others. Therefore, you must always start with yourself - clearly understand for whom you are trying and for whom you are doing all this. After all, if you take from life only what you need, alas, you will not be able to find yourself in everything. Become well-mannered, cultured, educated, put in your work - and work until the end of your days. Know yourself, reach heights, so produce material wealth - grow carrots or help your children raise their grandchildren.
Seeing the meaning of your entire life grow is truly rewarding!
It is clear that over the past 50 years, during the times of megacities, the scale of values has undergone significant changes. Although in the outback, I am sure, even now they value decent relationships, friendship, honesty and work. Labor is highly valued, especially where there is still a subsistence economy, the attitude towards work is appropriate, but in megacities, where people often receive money that is not at all commensurate with the work they put in, the scale of values is lost. And therefore, people are increasingly wasting their lives aimlessly.
Reference
Dmitry Zhitomirsky, general and founder of Artkom SPb. Born August 30, 1972. Education: Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Faculty of Radio Engineering and Cybernetics. Work experience: 2001–2003 - General Director of Technocom LLC. 2003 - Head of Sales Department of Canoset LLC. 2004–2007 - Head of the network department of Larga LLC. In 2007, he founded his own company “Artkom SPb” as a group of companies “ARTKOM” - the official LG-Ericsson in Russia.
Is it possible to identify and begin to develop the leadership qualities of a manager? Can. First, it is necessary to identify and then develop leadership skills to manage employees and the company. How to do it? Is it possible to find and “grow” a leader in yourself?
You may have heard that there are no bad soldiers, only bad commanders. This philosophy is hammered into the heads of all military school students. There they learn leadership skills by giving commands and carrying them out. This is a normal way of life in a military environment. Anyone who does not know how to give orders and carry them out will not take root there. Discipline reigns in this environment, and no exceptions are made for anyone.
The same can be said about business: there are no bad subordinates, only bad bosses.
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Development of leadership qualities: what is needed for this
Think about all the companies you've worked for. If any of them experienced financial difficulties, poor morale, low productivity, falling sales, or rising overhead costs, these were usually attributed to poor management. must take responsibility not only for the success of the team, but also for possible mistakes. Too often, entrepreneurs explain their failures by the poor performance of their subordinates, the state of the economy, or the actions of competitors. However, the best businessmen, first of all, look at themselves in such cases and look for their own mistakes in order to learn from them.
Moreover, you are not at all required to quit your job, close your company and enter a military school in order to master leadership skills. There are many other opportunities in life to master this skill and learn how to build and inspire a team to accomplish a mission.
A good example would be sports. Become the captain of the local football team. Other opportunities include joining one of the church parish committees, the supervisory board of an organization, or taking charge of preparing a charity event. By taking one of these leadership positions, you will not only develop the necessary qualities in yourself, but also acquire the necessary contacts, which is never superfluous in business.
It is worth emphasizing that leadership presupposes the ability not only to give orders, but also to carry them out. To become a good leader, you must first learn to be a good follower. Only in this case will you be with those around you and will be able to convince them to follow you. Many small entrepreneurs fail in their attempts to move into big business because they do not have sufficient skills interpersonal communication. They are still able to manage a group of 10-20 people who are close to them in spirit, but they cannot cope with large teams consisting of people who are very different from each other in education and upbringing.
The management guru explains how to avoid losing your main competitive advantages during economic difficulties.
According to consulting firm Ernst & Young, companies are responding to the financial crisis in predictable ways: they are laying off people and cutting spending on advertising, training and consulting, and research and development. This is both a right and wrong decision.
In Mexico, I consulted for a very large company operating in the real estate market. This company's mistake was typical of times of crisis. Its leaders spent a lot of time trying to get the bank to issue new loans. After analyzing the situation, we found that raising capital was too expensive for the company. Most of the expenses were interest payments on loans taken out earlier. The worst thing you could do in such a situation is to rack up debt. The company did not have to spend money on loans and pay additional interest. She simply couldn't afford it.
I suggested taking a different route and selling part of the inventory. For what? To increase cash flow. Even when you have to sell assets at cost, even when you lose money covering variable costs, you partially offset overhead costs. This approach won't work in the long run, but it will buy you time.
The company's leaders almost made another mistake. They were already planning to fire employees!
Of course, you will have to survey your organization and identify those who are not working effectively and eating their bread in vain. Get rid of them. But this should have been done a long time ago. Why do you need ballast? Why keep people who are not useful? Why did it take a crisis to force you to clean up the mess? Maybe your problem is that you do not constantly keep your finger on the pulse of the organization? Does it really take a crisis to make you pay attention to the company's problems?
But don't fire good employees just to cut costs. Many traditional consultants recommend this. They see that you have too many expenses. They put you on the scale and say. "You know what? But you have 20 pounds excess weight! You need to reset them.” After that they cut off one of your legs. Now your weight is ideal, but you have no leg. I'm not talking about a situation where a company is facing bankruptcy. If gangrene occurs, the leg will have to be amputated. But you shouldn't cut off your healthy leg to make your weight ideal.
You should lose fat, but not muscle. By parting with good specialists - the muscle of the organization - in order to make the reporting figures look more optimistic, you are deceiving yourself. How much money will it take to hire and train new workers later, when the crisis is behind us and they are needed again?
I once asked Ferdinand Porsche, son of the founder of the Porsche company: “Ferdinand, if you had to make a choice between losing people or losing equipment, what would you give up first?” - “From the equipment!” Why? You buy the machines, spend some time programming them, and they are ready to go. But imagine having to re-hire people, train them, mend relationships, re-create culture..."
Note that the most difficult task of a company is creating an organizational culture. Sometimes it takes years to find worthwhile employees who know how to object without showing hostility. Out of a dozen applicants, there are unlikely to be three suitable ones, but first you will have to select them from the general mass of applicants, train them, engage in their development and upbringing, and create an atmosphere in which relations between people are constructive. And then you fire them?
Some managers have told me, “I understand, but not cutting staff will cost me too much.” It may be that labor costs during a crisis may indeed be unaffordable for you. But is dismissal the only way out?
It happens that a company operates in a labor-intensive, rather than capital-intensive, industry and workers' compensation is indeed the main source of its expenses, but at the same time the employees are talented and productive professionals, and the problem is a drop in demand for its products in the market. In such cases, I would recommend moving everyone to shorter working hours instead of layoffs. Let your company hibernate like bears in winter, and let the troubles due to a decrease in the volume of work and a decrease in earnings become a common misfortune for the entire organization, including senior management. If you divide the work among everyone, everyone will suffer, but to a lesser extent, which will allow you to save labor resources.
Take an example from the Japanese. When a Japanese company finds itself in dire straits, the first person to take a pay cut is its president. If the situation becomes even more serious, he is the first to resign. In Japan, they don’t start by dismissing ordinary employees - the Japanese believe that there are no bad soldiers, only bad generals.
What do you do with people after you've cut their hours to cut costs? It's time for creative thinking. Previously, when the demand for your products and services was high, the company did not have enough time to be creative - to think about what else it could do or how to do its job better. Now that economic growth has slowed and employees have free time, the time has come to entrust them with work that will ensure an influx of innovation.
This article is an excerpt from the book “Management in an Age of Crisis” by Itzhak Adizes, published by Mann, Ivanov and Ferber.
