It’s a sad commentary on the business world, but thousands of times a day, day after day, bosses in every industry, in companies large and small, issue “or else” ultimatums, whether intentionally or not, to their subordinates. These threats aren’t always direct (Do it or start looking.), more often, they are subtle (I expect employees who work here to be team players.), but the threat is there: Do X if you want to keep your job.

Obviously, this is atrocious management, since

• threats are tremendously debilitating to those receiving them, often costing them the confidence to do their job—each time a manager sells out he loses more of his effectiveness as a manager; but
• it is the manger who threatens who loses the most—the credibility to run the organization.

Beyond the direct effect of the threats, there is a ripple effect that is far worse—the seeding of a self-propagating culture of intimidation, i.e., I’ll do it to you because the person above does it to me [and I want to get even]. It kills creativity, innovation, motivation, caring, ownership, in fact, everything that it takes to compete in today’s economy.

The good news is that, as with most management practices, the choice of using or not using ultimatums, no matter the form, is yours, and yours alone.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 26th, 2006 at 10:24 am and is filed under Business info, Communication, Culture, Motivation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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