Generic management has got to go – for your sake, for the sake of your employees, and for the sake of your credibility in the market.

What is generic management? It’s managing by those meaningless and sometimes ridiculous management phrases.  We’ve all heard them:

• Let’s all think outside the box on this one
• I need a 110% percent from each of you
• We’ve got to address the elephant in the room
• It’s not rocket science
• Ready, Fire, Aim

And they go on: Dilbert in action in our corporate world.

So what’s the problem you may wonder? Everyone does this; it really is just shorthand for defining what we need. And if this is truly what it is and you truly follow-up and implement – then fine. But is it?

Think about this:

• When you ask your employees to think outside the box, do you know what that means and if they come up with a radical, and interesting idea, will it fly if you “ran it up the flagpole” to senior management?
• How in heavens name can anyone give 110%? We’re not really sure what this means other than please work hard – and we guess assuming they won’t. And besides, how can you do this on multiple projects or worse how can you do this in response to the “flavor of the month”?
• When we say “we’ve got to address the elephant in the room” does everyone agree on whether there really is an “elephant” in the room and agree on what it represents? In our experience one person’s elephant is another’s giraffe. Doesn’t make sense does it? – Our point.
• It’s not rocket science. Well if it’s not rocket science, why are so many organizations struggling with implementing strategy – or coming up with a viable strategy in a changing market. It’s actually harder than rocket science.
• Ready, fire, aim. What is this? Is this supposed to mean – try a lot of ideas and hope one of them works? Does it mean – take action and do something – anything? Does any company really have the time, talent and resources to “Bonnie and Clyde” their way through implementation?

Our point is that these are serious times for businesses. Trite, generic statements somehow just give employees the feeling that you’re making it up as you go. That’s not an effective way to manage.

In our Quick Tips this week, we will look at ways to turn these trite, generic, phrases into focused action statements.

Copyright 2011 Kubica LaForest Consulting

This entry was posted on Monday, June 27th, 2011 at 11:20 am and is filed under Management & Management Transitions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.