Management Paradox

A business colleague of mine and I started on a discussion about management delegation the other day. We discussed a class of manager that exits who successfully delegates all possible personal accountability away to their subordinates. We then discussed the varying methods that some will use to ensure that if anything goes wrong the delegated party(s) will take the fall for it.  We had a few laughs about how some of managers we have met, many senior executives, who would go about putting themselves into this position, and the poor people who were held accountable. We then went on to discuss how these types of managers appear to know very little about their area of responsibility. I thought a portion of that discussion would make a good topic.

Playing off my first post, management paradox, I thought it was worth a minute or two to discuss the main issue in managerial delegation as we see it today. As managers we are trained to delegate in order to get more done. We are supposed to use delegation as a tool to become more productive, more efficient. While this is the case for most delegations there is an apparent fatal flaw in the system that we witness among managers. Delegation is a management tool that needs to be managed, not a management methodology in itself.

Now this is an important statement that in my experience isn’t pondered enough by managers. Delegating a task, responsibility, or accountability is an essential part of a manager’s role, but that role does not end at the point of delegation. It ends at the delegated items completion.

As a subordinate working for various organizations I cannot count the number of times I have had a manager delegate a task to me and only show up to find out the tasks status. In the case of delegated accountability they only showed their head to point the finger or reemphasis things were not going as they should. Early in my management career I have been guilty of doing this myself. Then, at some point, I realized that as a manager I am responsible for the success and failures of those who work for me. It appeared to me that the more I share in the accountability as a manager the more of a leader I become.

The point that I’m trying to cover here is that as a manager we are responsible for managing the delegation process and all that it includes. It is our responsibility. We as managers need to be held accountable for whether or not the delegate has the proper time, resources, and abilities to complete the delegated assignment(s). Our subordinates and their success is our success, their failure, our failure. We are responsible to ensure that the right people are in the right positions, with the right resources, and are allocated the proper amount of time.

Now, I know there are a million variables that could potentially impact a manager’s situation such as inadequate resources, staff, and time. Those are our issues to face. We as managers are to guide the business’s outcomes to successful completion. Not spend the time finding ways to delegate away our accountability.

Business managers today have so many things to contend with while at work that the very act of managing itself has become distorted. It is most people’s own personal experience that many company decisions made by managers are made with their own self interests in mind. This trend is running ramped everywhere we look. Today, it appears, less managers are actually managing the businesses and are spending more time managing being a manager.

The tasks facing a manager may be immensely complex, but the principles of being a manager still remain simple. We all understand that a manager, regardless of their level, is responsible for holding the company’s virtues, stability, and objectives above their own. We are to achieve the directions set forth by those that we work for, even if we are that person. We are to make sure things get done on time and with minimal impact or net increase to the company’s bottom line. We are overhead that is employed to make the organization a better organization with bigger or sustained profits.

Take a good look at the business climate that we find ourselves in today. How many times as a manager, or potential manager, do we act with the best interest of the organization in mind? How many times do we see other managers doing this? How many times have we witnessed the organization and other managers actually listen or respond to these actions? How many of those responses are personally or organizationally focused? If the answer is constantly, your business is not struggling. If the answer is few and far between, then there are serious issues.

Many times identified as organizational politics, there is an underlying identifiable problem with today’s organizational culture. Managers are learning and forced into managing their position, and potential position, in their organization instead of their area of accountability.

Enter the  management paradox: “A manager will weave their personal objectives into an organization, crafting an environment that suits their needs”.  Examples are by the hundreds in any business reporting agency today. When a company like AIG pays million dollars bonuses to executives while the company is failing it is evident that the managers have dictated their needs above those of the company’s.

A not too well documented subject about being a manager is that we are not just overhead, we are extreme overhead. We typically get paid the most, have the biggest incentive packages, do less income deriving work, and spend the company’s money. As a manager, at some point, we will spend countless hours playing organizational politics, promoting our own ideas, looking for self advancement, building self recognition, and delegating accountability. All while dotting our I’s and crossing our T’s to make sure nothing comes back at us.

The reality is that today this is known as getting ahead in the organization. In my opinion it is the single largest culprit leading to organizational mismanagement and inefficiencies. Self promotion over tending to the welfare of the organization will always lead to diminishing returns.

The meltdown that is occurring in today’s governments, institutions, businesses, and failing banks have exposed the self centered manager practices that have run ramped throughout the world. As the covers are ripped off and the failing naked organizations we see firsthand the management paradox in play.