Q: A senior manager had to fill a middle management position quickly – and he did it badly. The appointee is clearly underqualified and incapable, but the successful candidate believes he is doing well. They reject anything we suggest or question, and generally make life difficult for us. My colleagues and I all agree on this, but we don’t know what to do.
Should we defer to the senior manager, even if it is clearly their mistake?
A: This question is at the heart of your business culture. The biggest influence on the success of the business is your people. The loyalty and talent of colleagues can make a crucial difference between one company and another. So, to be great, an organization has to recruit great people, give top-notch training, and help every colleague enjoy coming to work so that they can become the best they can be.
To be happy, an employee must do a job they love alongside a set of helpful coworkers. They also need to have a good boss and be part of a company with a positive culture. It sounds simple enough, but it’s much easier said than done.
Your business has a problem. The senior manager promoted the wrong person and probably knows it was a big mistake, but is showing no signs of redress. You have several choices: take the risk and raise the issue with senior management; look for a new job that promises to bring you happiness elsewhere; or do nothing and see how things go. It’s your decision, but if you continue to work for a fifth-year manager, don’t be surprised if your professional life goes from bad to worse.
By openly criticizing your new boss and having the courage to challenge the wisdom of the senior manager, you could be doing your business a great service. But it can be difficult to get someone to take note of your advice. Your business is probably following the conventional culture of “command and control” which empowers senior management to make all of the important decisions. They rarely recognize that people on the front lines know more about day-to-day business than executives sitting in a large office (or, these days, working from home). Most managers find it hard to admit they made a mistake.
You’re about to find out if you work for a broad-minded company that cares about its employees, or a company that views people as payroll numbers that are supposed to come in on time and keep up with the times. company policy. If, despite your current experience, you feel like you are part of an organization that cares about colleagues with confidence, kindness and a sense of responsibility, stay in your job, but be honest and become a whistleblower. Complain about your new boss in plain language and don’t get off the hook. If you are being ignored or, worse, permanently put on the wrong track, it’s time to look for a better employer in the job market.
Too many companies do not recognize the influence of their colleagues on the success of the company. I was thinking about it a fortnight ago when I hosted the Timpson Long Service Awards. This was the 45th year that I presented the awards to those who had finished 25 and 45 years old. They all had great stories to tell and made a major contribution to the development of our business. It would have been tragic that a reckless leadership appointment ended one of their careers prematurely (when a coworker leaves, it’s usually because he doesn’t get along with his boss rather than hating it. ‘business).
We learned a big lesson a few years ago when we appointed a highly regarded manager from outside of Timpson who we believed had the potential to accelerate the growth of our watch repair business. Everything seemed logical: she recruited a team of talented watchmakers who took our expertise to a new level. We have invested over £ 1million in cutting edge technology and strengthened our ties with quality watch brands that were previously reluctant to speak to a shoemaker.
But it was a costly failure. The new team knew a lot about repairing watches, but did not understand our culture. They didn’t trust our frontline colleagues, who were told to send each watch directly to the workshop team who made all the decisions. Our colleagues in the branch felt undermined and after six months our watch repair sales fell by more than 5pc.
This is what can happen when you lose the locker room.
Sir John Timpson is chairman of the consumer service provider, Timpson.
Send him a question at askjohn@telegraph.co.uk and read more answers from his Ask John column here
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Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
This notice was published: 2021-12-05 13:00:00
