Blogs I Like: Jeff Angus: Management by Baseball

Jeff Angus is a management consultant specializing in work for entrepreneurial organizations in business, professional practice, government and non-profit sectors. He is currently a contributing editor at InfoWorld, a leading weekly publication that covers technical and business analysis of key solutions and technologies that benefit large organizations. He writes a management column for CIO Insight, and a baseball column for the Seattle Times that covers the new statistics, and is the author of Management by Baseball: The Official Rules for Winning Management in Any Field.

http://cmdr-scott.blogspot.com/

Quotes

I used to think that running an organization was equivalent to conducting a symphony orchestra. But I don't think that's quite it, it's more like jazz. There is more improvisation.
Warren Bennis

Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.
Dwight D. Eisenhower

Managers are born on the job. Leaders are born when they are seven.
Gert Van Mol

A leader is a deal in hope.
Napoleon Bonaparte

Blogs I like: Jennifer Rice: Mantra Brand

http://www.mantrabrand.com/
http://brand.blogs.com/mantra/

Rice says she is 'specialized in aligning business with unmet customer needs'. She doesn't post a lot, not even once a month, but what she writes about management and marketing is very clear and well formulated. The technique of blogging makes it possible for qualitative thinkers to switch between intellectual arguments and personal thoughts. So Rice writes beginning December 2006: "I haven’t written in a while, I know. I find that when I’m resisting something, it’s a sign that I need to do some thinking and reevaluation. So that’s exactly what I’ve been doing, and it’s time to start sharing my thoughts." She seems to be honest, (good looking), and looking for purity in the world of marketing products to the world.

Blogs I like: Ed Batista: Executive Coaching & Change Management

http://www.edbatista.com/

Ed Batista is a leadership coach at Stanford's Graduate School of Business. Doesn't post daily, not even weekly, but if he does it is a mix of intellectual reflections on management theories and personal posts. His comments are to the point, his summaries of other peoples books are very detailed. He has an interesting overview of management blogs in his sidebar. There are a lot of personal cultural references (too much for me, it counteracts with the management stuff). The look of the blog is fresh, some icons to navigate are kind of cheap.

Blogs I like: Gert Van Mol: Impactroom for managers, marketeers and mothers*

http://www.impactroom.blogspot.com

Gert Van Mol is a very interesting outsider in the management consulting world. Actually he is a Wall Street Journal manager, stationed in Europe somewhere (not clear to me where exactly), who is writing a blog after hours. The title attracted me, the content reflects his search in bringing together management knowledge typically sought after by young managers in the field. Therefore his blog doesn’t match the typical management blogs, it combines management theories, with management jobs (not US unfortunately), lessons, humorous quotes, several interesting 'best of' lists (MBA's, Management Books, Business Schools), 'striking' management cv's, etc. Now and then he gives away a glimpse of what he does for The Wall Street Journal in Europe, interesting!

Bad Bosses

Bad Bosses: Reflection of Bad Management, Bad Leaders, and BAD for Business Profits

No ifs, ands, buts about it, bad bosses are a reflection of bad management. These individuals are bad leaders and bad for business profits. The behaviors of inept managers cascade down the organization and continually negatively affect the bottom line.

A recent report by Florida State University revealed the impact of bad bosses. A survey of more than 700 employees at different job levels and situated in various industries suggested that:

- 39% of bad bosses failed to keep their word
- 27% of bad bosses insulted those they supervise behind their backs
- 23% of bad bosses blamed their mistakes on others
- 31% of bad bosses used the silent treatment to show their displeasure

By looking at each of these findings, the business management of any organization can begin to see specifically the drain on the bottom line when leadership ethics are not internalized by ALL employees.

Failure to keep your word is a values or ethics issue that affects performance. When employees receive promises or verbal contracts from their bosses and then these contracts are broken, morale suffers and so does the outcomes from the employees. No training is going to improve motivation when the employees know that nothing is going to change when the bad bosses are still in charge.

Insulting fellow employees again is a values or ethics issue. Gossiping about employees to other employees again builds a culture of distrust not of high performance. This type of behavior also affects overall productivity and potentially create a very fearful political culture where what looks good take precedence what really works.

Not accepting responsibility for mistakes is a personal accountability issue and must start with management. Blaming employees for management’s failure again creates a negative work environment. This is still an issue of values.

Silent treatment as punishment used by bad bosses to communicate their displeasures tells more about individual values and beliefs than that of the alleged peformance of employees. With communication being one of the greatest obstacles to a high performance culture, the silent treatment creates just the opposite effect.

When management allows bad bosses to be bad leaders (meaning not leading by positive example), then bad profits will be the only result. To reverse this trend of bad bosses requires revisiting the strategic plan. Next, all management must embrace personal accountability through the corporate values' statement. Finally, these values become the guide for daily actions between bosses and their employees.

Leanne Hoagland-Smith, M.S. is a business coach who multiplies results for her clients beginning with the creation of executable strategic plans. With offices near Chicago, IL and in Indianapolis, IN, she writes, speaks and coaches individuals and business to achieve greater results by focusing on those obstacles that prevent improved performance.