Executive Eye

Adrian Furnham on mediocre management

To be mediocre means to be average: neither good nor bad. Yet it usually implies being not good enough. There certainly are mediocre workers. But mostly, workers are made mediocre by mediocre management. What are the signs of mediocrity in a firm? The clearest indication is a lack of alignment: individuals, teams or sections don’t pull together. This is partly because they don’t know which direction to pull in. There is no clear strategy. Either the top management do not know what business they are in. Or they have not communicated it to their staff.

This can result in individual departments becoming more dedicated to their own goals than to pulling their weight for the organization. They may even see other departments as competitors for resources. Even worse is the urge for teams to sabotage each other’s efforts.

Another sign of mediocrity is that staff are neither well selected, nor properly trained, nor motivated. This is often because mediocre managers are threatened by competent employees. So a culture of mediocrity begins. The best change strategy for a mediocre organization is shock therapy. Here are ten key steps:

1. Set goals and tasks for the whole organization. Avoid empty-sounding mission statements.

2. Do the same for teams and groups, and make sure they understand how their effort contributes to the whole. 3. See to it that the productivity of individuals and groups is properly assessed and rewarded.

4. Management must walk the talk; they must set a good example of openness, cooperativeness and hard work.

5. Celebrate success and reward effort.

6. Understand the difference between the spirit of the law and the letter of the law. Remember: form-filling and cover-yourback processes are the signs of mediocrity.

7. Let those involved in the change give their views on how it is introduced. Beware of cynics and snipers, but use them to expose the weakness of the old system.

8. Don’t waste money on meaningless, feel-good things like new furnishings, conferences or attitude surveys. Productive, above-average organizations generate staff engagement. 9. Make a big thing of those who embrace the new culture and bypass those who are sentimental about the past.

10. Change now! Mediocrity leads to organizational death.