Meridian Group - Company Culture Consultants

Meridian Group arranged a brainstorming session with two highly successful senior plant managers. Toward the end of three hours of intense dialogue, one of them came to a powerful thought, "All we need to do is learn to step aside and let our people do their jobs." That's apparently hard to do!

Trying to get his new production plant up and running on time, John ran into an unexpected problem. In addition to regular construction issues, the labor market was complex and city politics and environmental issues were potential show-stoppers. John's well-intentioned boss, far away at corporate headquarters, offered daily suggestions--that soon became directives--pushing the project further and further behind schedule.

Dave, logistics manager for a large retail outlet, had his hands full achieving his assigned goal-improving overall system performance. But his boss, impatient for results, launched a series of company-wide, cost-reduction and productivity improvement initiatives. These forced Dave to divert more than half his time to reports and meetings in areas not central to his goals

John and Dave, hard-driving, forthright managers, found that their repeated requests for relief from the shower of "help" from above were denied. As can-do managers, their personal ethic to get their own job done overcame the unwelcome interference. They delivered on their goals but at extreme personal costs. John suffered severe emotional stress, took medical leave, and then resigned. Dave, for the first time in his career, felt depressed and considered accepting calls from search firms. He talked of finding a company where he could do the job he was hired for.

One Over-Controlling Manager vs. Total Employee Involvement: Who's Going to be More Productive?

Managers with a high need for control tend to rise to the top because those with a lower need step aside and allow it. This control-centered culture is uncomfortable when presented with data that shows how involvement compliments productivity. Involvement means participation. Managers with a high need for control often misinterpret participation to mean that their employees are in control--not them. This can be threatening but it doesn't have to be

After working with Meridian Group for three years and building involvement and watching his plant's productivity double, a unit manager commented, "I have more control now when I'm away from the plant than I had before when I was on-site." Before it was just himself. Now, he had hundreds of people taking on responsibility and control. No wonder plant performance was outstanding.

Too often, control and power are confused. When we say, "The manager has power," we usually mean "the authority to command others to obey." Power has another definition: "the ability to do work."

An open, engaged culture, where members bring more energy, creativity, responsibility and self-control, always outperforms a top-down culture. An engaged culture is a powerful culture. People naturally want to experience the personal sense of power that comes from being creative and productive. As leaders, we just need to get out of the way and allow it to happen.