LEADERSHIP STRATEGY: STANDARDIZED SUPERVISORY PROTOCOLS FOR ALL LEVELS OF MANAGEMENT
supervisory discipline at all levels of management
A common shortcoming of management is the inability or unwillingness to hold direct reports accountable. A fiercely competitive world and other shift-age challenges demand that CEOs and executives not only know how to balance inspiration and discipline, but that they do it consistently.
by LSI managing partner Art McNeil
Typically, senior teams expect a higher degree of supervisory competence from junior managers than they deliver themselves. Many organizations are unknowingly trying to compete and survive using profit inhibiting attitudes and behaviors more suited to the industrial-age.
Shift-age adapted organizations:
1. inspire with cultural values that help employees live the company’s master brand.
2. discipline with an ethics platform that establishes non negotiable behavioral boundaries.
For example, a company with the cultural value of Integrity might express a related ethics plank as, “we never fail to keep appointments or tell the whole truth”.
3. Standardize supervisory protocols that apply to everybody (including the CEO)
For example: Supervisory protocols for everybody with direct reports might include:
- How meetings will be run
- How to conduct performance correction sessions when ethics or process disciplines are violated
- How and when to coach
- How to induct a new direct report
- How and when to analyze and measure performance
A frequent mistake by well intentioned CEOs and HR directors is to have managers attend internal or external classroom training. As the founder and former CEO of Achieve (now part of Achieve Global), I can attest that “just in case” training is a waste of time and money. A system (such as the above) must be established. A peak performance culture demands that senior managers set a supervisory example and start to inspect rather than expect performance from direct reports.
A shift-age management system designed to balance inspiration and discipline must reach critical mass with employees from all levels. Studies suggest that new “collective habits” will have to be rigorously enforced by the CEO and senior management for 18 months before becoming a culture norm.
LSI encourages you to read the revised and updated version of the #1 bestseller, The “I” of the Hurricane: how to generate and focus Corporate Energy. Download for PC and Mac. This and other books by Art McNeil ill be available in E bookstores soon