Three Signs of a Dysfunctional Company

1. You've got leaders who fake it.

Recently, management consultant Linda Hanson was called in to help turn around a Houston construction company.

Hanson says. "There was in-fighting and lots of yelling. They had lost respect for one another and weren't working as a team." A prime example was the information technology (IT) manager. Although every department depended on him, the other managers complained that he "didn't care about their problems, didn't have time, didn't listen and didn't support them," Hanson says.

The real problem stayed at the top. The CEO and his friend of 10 years, the president, "were both volatile people and they weren't changing," Hanson says. Even though they were asking senior managers to evaluate their work habits and improve peer relationships, the chief executives themselves were unwilling to do the assignments or to work at transformation.

Lesson: The discrepancy between what leaders say they want and what they really want often causes company dysfunction. You can't ask employees to do anything you're not willing to do yourself.

2. You've got bosses who like to point fingers.

No company can flourish in an environment that penalizes experimentation or trust.

"When you see a pattern of blaming and people trying to protect themselves and their particular turf, something is wrong," says Ross Moserowitz of Franchise Insights.

Lesson: The remedy is to put your trust in the people you hire and give every employee sincere responsibility. Hands-on, my-way-or-the-highway entrepreneurs won't find this easy. But that's how the business gets better.

3. You've got a CEO who doesn't set priorities.

Fast-growing companies are often so intensely focused on moving to the next level that no one is actually in charge. That's how dysfunction creeps in and takes hold.

Paul Glen, an IT management consultant in Marina del Rey, Calif., tells about a 20-year-old software company that hired him to create a new product management department. When Glen asked each executive what the new department would do, he got 13 different answers. It turned out that the company didn't need a new division at all. What it needed was someone to coordinate the company agenda and get the managers to share information.

"Each department flew off on its own, trying to do what was right. The CEO assumed the executives had the authority to make product decisions and it wasn't her job to tell them what to do," Glen says. While everyone had the very best of intentions, chaos reigned.

Lesson: Company leaders must set the mission and the agenda. A hands-off policy can only go so far.

Epilogue: Time for a checkup

Smaller businesses are both more susceptible and harder hit by the ripple effects of dysfunction. With a close-knit staff, it's easy to make allowances for people's tempers or bad moods or refusal to take responsibility. But, sooner or later, that kind of thinking catches up with you and the business.

Lesson: Take the time now to check the health of your workplace. And make the course corrections you need. Start now.

Another from the pre-blogging days which I use as a discussion point on managerial style. From Marketing Intelligence / Joanna L. Krotz. [Maybe MSN].