What NOT to do...

Let's not entirely blame China, the economy, policy, competition, unions, or what not for the demise of manufacturing in the US.

There is truth to W. Edwards Deming's words:
"Plants don't close from poor workmanship, but from poor management."
... and I would add that poor management results from poor leadership.

The following is a REAL email, from a REAL company.

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From: [undisclosed office manager]
Sent: Friday, February 06, 2009 4:13 PM
To: [Managers & Directors]
Cc: [VPs]
Subject: MEMO: New Time Clock Policy


MEMO

TO: All Salaried Managers/Employees
SUBJECT: Time Clock Policy


Due to the increasing difficulty HR has maintaining Salaried Managers/Employees schedules, we feel it is pertinent to implement a Time Clock Policy for all Salaried Managers/Employees. This policy is effective Monday, February 9, 2009.

Swiping the Time Clock:
· All Salaried Managers/Employees will be required to swipe in and out in the morning and at the end of the day
· All Salaried Managers/Employees will also be required to swipe in and out for their lunch hour
· If a Salaried Manager/Employee works on Saturday or Sunday, then they need to swipe in and out as well for those days

Hours of Operation:
· Office Hours for Salaried Employees are 8:00am – 5:00pm, Monday thru Friday
· Salaried Factory Managers will need to swipe in prior to their departments scheduled shift

Time Away from the Office/Factory:
· For any time Salaried Managers/Employees are out of the office/factory during normal business hours due to business meetings and/or travel, you will need to communicate this to HR to account for the missed swipes
· For any time Salaried Managers/Employees are out of the office/factory during normal business hours due to vacation or personal time, they need to submit the required forms according to the Time Off Policy

This new Time Clock Policy is mandatory and is to be followed by all Salaried Managers/Employees.

[undisclosed]
President


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[begin sarcasm]
So let's hold the whole team accountable, instead of dealing directly with the folks that don't pull their weight. Let's just have a display of distrust towards everybody. That should take care of it and boost morale, right?

Since we're not rewarding individual (or even team) performance anyways, we shouldn't single out the non-performers either.

The fact that we even have to HOLD people accountable couldn't be a lack in sense of ownership of what their duties are, could it?

And since when is it HR's job to maintain employees schedules anyways?? Shouldn't that be the job of the managers that people report to?? Oh, never mind, we just needed a lame excuse to use as justification.
[end sarcasm]


The meeting that followed (on Saturday!) explaining the memo to managers and directors contained this statement:

"Call me an SOB, as long as you put the word 'fair' in front of it."

Well, I don't agree. 'Fair' in my dictionary is not about 'treating everyone the same regardless of circumstance, situation, or behavior'. 'Fair' is dealing with the match or mismatch of expectations and actual results of each individual.

Unfortunately, any tiny environment of trust was wiped out with this memo, so obviously nobody dared to speak their mind about it.

In my mind, this example of pre-historic management style and other unhealthy practices at the particalur company will limit its growth. The company will not be able to attract and retain the right talent to be competitive.

Best practice leaders do not focus on the bottom performers. They continually set higher (achievable) expectations for their top performers (~20%), which mobilizes the decently performing 'followers' (~60%) to perform at new levels. The (non-)performance of the bottom 20% becomes more and more obvious. Which either leads to their dismissal, their voluntary separation, or they may step up and improve.