The Deterioration of Management

 

 

It is all over the news, all around the world, companies that boost from the ground and in a short period of time become billion dollar corporations only to realize that market value, image, people and reputation should be properly managed at all levels or it can blow right in your face.

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Let’s take a quick look at how small and large companies are actually being managed, Uber for example, in only a few years it imposed into the market a business model that did not exist, it became global, it became public, it became a 68 billion dollar corporation only to get exposed recently as a poorly managed organization. All the way from the top it is estimated that about two thirds of Uber’s managers are first timers in this role.

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But that is not the only example, take Wells Fargo where for years it showed the face of a role model in business generation and growth, their numbers looked great, their reputation in the industry was impeccable until it was exposed that they were cheating not only on their customers and on the market but also on their employees, again an issue known by many that got diluted in the managerial ranks again all the way to the top.

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We can go around the world and find similar examples of companies that have created important conglomerates that when reached a certain size become the victims of poor management from a holistic perspective. In a world where instantaneous is the norm some tend to assume that people management abilities are acquired by going on line and looking at posts or blogs, reading a book, attending an informative session or having taken a class as part of the curriculum in College, nothing further from the true Management abilities are acquired with time, experience at failing and correcting, interaction with people that report to you and those you report to, by paying attention to details and being aware of your surroundings and how these surroundings are similar and different to those of the people you interact with, but most importantly by placing arrogance aside, now, being able to place arrogance aside is the single most valuable asset of any individual at a management position and the one that does not get discussed as often as it should, how many times have you seen that topic being measured and quantified in an individual’s performance review? Never in my experience seeing large and small companies up close in four continents over the past three decades, and when the subject is brought up has it hardly landed in a place where it gets tracked closely and diligently as revenue or EBITDA do nonetheless it can bring a company to its knees.

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People Management abilities as a set of personal tools, experience, sensitivity, awareness and why not a little bit of wisdom that are now undervalued and they need to be brought back up to the front line of how businesses are managed, until that happens we will continue to see the collapse of corporations that grow crippled by teams with more and more deteriorated management abilities.

I recall a quote from one of my clients –  CEO to a billion dollar natural resources Corporation – saying “I had been led to believe and honestly thought I had an issue with technical and operational capabilities in my company when what I really had was a huge Management Issue”.

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By: Cristopher Del Angel, CEO at To The Top Management Consulting