How Not To Lead

You should take a look today at the City's Employee Morale survey undertaken by Dr. Alfie Morgan before it is removed from the City website after the Council meeting tonight.

In general, after reading through the Report, you'd have to agree that most employees are pretty happy campers. But then again, the City has not gone through a purging of the staff that will obviously come after the next election. Already one can see that benefits after age 65 for union staff will come under attack just as the non-union benefits may be cut now.

I tried to find the numbers from the earlier morale Report that was undertaken in 2004 but could not find them on the website. It would be interesting to see how morale changed in the time period. Also, I wonder if the numbers could have been broken down by salary groups as well ie how did those in more senior positions feel compared with those in other jobs.

The one area that fascinated me was the relationship between the permanent employees and Council. In that relationship, Council did not fare well at all! (The numbers for the CAO and general managers in their categories were not too good either).

• 53% rarely or never know Council's direction for the City
• 46% rarely or never feel that Council appreciates them
• 40% rarely or never feel that Council supports Administration
  
  

If most of the employees who work with Council every day have no idea what they are doing, then I don't feel so bad now that I don't either.

In reading the Globe on Monday, I came across the following article dealing with Management. I wondered if there was a correlation between the poor numbers in Dr. Morgan's Report and the style of Government that we seem to have in Windsor. You decide that one for yourself.

Monday morning manager
HARVEY SCHACHTER

First Item: Harper's hub-and-spoke not the best model for management

If you read about Stephen Harper's hub-and-spoke management style and were thinking of applying it to your office -- don't. Management experts say the Prime Minister is committing a classic mistake of new managers by trying to make all of the decisions revolve around him.

Over-control means out of control

"If you try to control everything, you control nothing," says Jim Fisher, associate dean at the Rotman School of Management. Instead, focus on one or two priorities, controlling those, and leave subordinates discretion on the many other matters your team faces.

Paralysis inevitable

When one person tries to make all the decisions, very little gets done, and the world does not stand still waiting, so opportunities are lost and problems simmer until they explode.

Sabotage and rebellion encouraged

"The message the leader is sending the staff is 'you are stupid and I am smart' -- and after a while, people hold back and watch you make mistakes," Prof. Fisher says. "They'll be prepared to see their leader make a mistake even though it comes back to bite them. In the end, there's more satisfaction in that than in winning."

Leaders must lead, which means setting forth the strategy and organizational purpose, communicating to people, and letting them discover the best ways to implement based on their expertise. "Everyone in the organization must be leaders and followers, depending on the situation," says organizational behaviour expert Gerard Seijts of Richard Ivey School of Business. The exception, he says, is in a crisis when for a time -- but only a short time -- a leader must be highly directive, the hub for decisions. Beyond that, don't try the Prime Minister's approach.