How To Be A Decent Manager
Humble. Decent. Accessible. Are these words you would use to describe your boss?
Steve Harrison doubts many employees would use such adjectives. Instead, workers today are more likely to reach for terms such as pompous, presumptuous and excessive to describe their managers - and Harrison couldn't agree more.
"I absolutely abhor executive pomposity, the overdoing of privilege, the flaunting of a title and position," Harrison says. "Managers should be driven to avoid it like the plague."
Harrison is an executive himself and has seen the best - and the worst - that the management ranks have to offer. As the chairman of Lee Hecht Harrison, an international management services company owned by Adecco, Harrison was given the task several years ago of making sure the company complied with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, which was passed after the corporate scandals involving such companies as Enron and Tyco.
Still, Harrison notes that "you cannot legislate integrity," so he was "driven to give voice" to what ethical behavior means. He began researching what certain leaders did well, along with the practices that were put in place to make sure employees could comply with the legislation and avoid future problems.
"What I found," he says, "is that it's not really that hard to create a culture of decencies." (To join a discussion of whether your workplace is a decent place to work, go to the blog at www.anitabruzzese.com and share your comments.)
Specifically, he says he learned that it's the small things we do at work that often have the largest impact in creating an ethical business. For example, Harrison says that while it's important to recognize employee contributions and ideas at all levels, it's also just as vital that leaders learn to "pick up their own phone, share the credit and not hog the limelight - and to take the time to be accessible."
In his new book, "The Manager's Book of Decencies: How Small Gestures Build Great Companies," (McGraw Hill, $24.95), Harrison makes a number of suggestions to company leaders that he believes are important in order to run a company with integrity, such as:
- Making meetings matter. Bosses should be the first ones to arrive and the last ones to leave a meeting since they should act as a "host," making everyone feel welcome and valued. Other departments should be invited in to streamline processes, improve communications and reduce gossip. Starbucks CEO and President Jim Donald keeps one-hour meetings to 45 minutes - and tells employees to use the remaining 15 minutes to call someone they don't usually contact every day.
- Being courageous. One of the toughest things a work force can go through is layoffs. Harrison urges leaders to keep the process as decent as possible. That means notice should be given midweek, in private, with as much advance notice as possible and never rushed. For the remaining employees, leaders should be honest about whether more layoffs could be imminent. "And don't take vacation right after layoffs - the remaining employees will need you more than ever," he says. "You'd be surprised how many managers leave at the very time they need to stay."
- Walking around. Get to know all the staff by name. Greet them each time, and give them a chance to talk to you or offer suggestions. To get employees to talk freely, ask questions and don't state your opinion until the last.
- Saying thanks. By putting a personal thanks into a paycheck envelope, inviting employees to lunch or letting a subordinate represent you in a meeting, you show that workers at every level are important and appreciated.
- Being accessible. At Genentech, bosses are in their offices for one hour at least once a month so any employee who wants to talk can do so. Harrison suggests turning off your phone, pager and computer and devoting yourself to listening to whoever shows up.
- Understanding no decency is too small. Provide a map for those interviewing with your company, as they do at W. L. Gore & Associates. Give a surprise hour off once a week to a deserving employee like Crate and Barrel. Provide a quiet room for employees to relax as they do at Levi Strauss & Co. All are practices that are effective in establishing better employee/employer relations and a culture of caring and commitment.
Anita Bruzzese is author of "45 Things You Do That Drive Your Boss Crazy...and How to Avoid Them"
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