Did you know that in England advice columns are referred to as agony columns? Which seems a pretty accurate description when dealing with the often painful issues of management and leadership (which aren’t always connected—more’s the pity). I frequently get emails looking for some guidance or a quick fix to a small problem and I enjoy answering them and I thought I’d share them with you occasionally. BTW, feel free to write me directly if you have a question.

From January, 2005

Miki, I just took over as head of a 15 person engineering group. I joined this company because I liked the President and felt that our approaches to business and people were compatible. The problem is that the former VP created a negative subculture of fear and distrust that’s wreaking havoc on our productivity. How do I change it? Jim T, San Jose, CA

Dear Jim, The good news is that you don’t have to fight your boss to change it. The bad news is that there’s no quick fix. No proclamations saying, “It’s going to be different.” will make it different. The foremost thing for you to do is always is walk your talk. If you say something is changing or being done differently or going to happen, then it must happen. Try to avoid it, but you may have to clean house, too. It’s possible that some of your people really do think like your predecessor, but if you move too quickly you’ll lose good talent who adopted his ways for survival and will gladly change back. So get to know your people before judging them, gain their trust by open, honest, complete communication, walk your talk, and keep it public. Fear and distrust flourish in the dark, but lose their power when forced into the light.

Have a terrific weekend!

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 25th, 2006 at 3:18 am and is filed under Business info, Culture, Retention. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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