The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of Managers and Leadership

Since I have well over 40 years of extensive business management experience in several different industries and markets, I have been thinking about the many memories that I have of really good managers and leadership, and the memories of really bad ones. 

I will share these business memories and experiences with you in this article as a valuable learning and training tool. 

Some are examples of Excellence in Good Business Management, yet others are terrible.

All the memories I am sharing with you here are true, and I personally experienced them.  

First, let’s review the ‘Real Good Management and Leadership’ experiences and memories. 

Good Management and Leadership Experiences

These will make you feel good and make you see the possible excellence in management and leadership.  

1. The Human Resources Manager walks through all departments and interacts with employees and staff daily, even politely and caringly asking how the family and children are doing. Showing care is powerful.  

2. The Human Resources Manager walks through all departments at 5:30 PM, looking at who is still at work. When people are found working late, the HR Manager encourages them to please go home and relax. The HR Manager needs to be the last one to leave, and he wants to go home after a long day of working.

The same happened with great managers, higher-level leadership, and even the company president. They also cared enough about employees and staff to encourage them to go home, leave work, relax, and ‘have a nice life’ outside of work. 

4. I remember when one of the staff employees in my customer service and sales department was in bad pain and aching from dental problems. When I asked why they were not going to a dentist to help fix the problem, they said they could not afford the dental insurance, and could not afford the dentist. Her face and jaw were swollen, and she was in pain. I immediately went to the HR Manager to ask for immediate help for this person. The HR Manager helped them that very same day, and the next day the employee was at the dentist. A few days later, the employee returned to work without any pain.  Thank you for Good Caring HR Managers.
5. A similar thing happened when I observed one of my newer staff showing they were in extreme stomach and abdominal pain. Again, I asked why they were not getting proper care from a doctor. She told me that the company’s healthcare had not started yet due to a couple of months’ waiting period, plus they could not afford the deductible and co-pay. I immediately went to the same HR Manager for their help and assistance in helping this employee. Again, this HR Manager helped immediately, and the very next day, the employee was seen by a medical doctor.  The employee was off work under medical care for 2 weeks with a serious condition and illness. When the person was finally well enough to return to work, they appreciated our HR Manager and me. They told all other company employees and their personal family and friends how the company cared about their employees.  
6. The manager would send flowers to employees when they or their wives were having a new baby or a sad death in the family. Again, this showed human caring.

6. The manager continually asked employees and staff for ideas and suggestions to improve the department and the company, and eliminate financial and time waste. These departments were always top performers in the company.

At monthly meetings, I thanked them publicly and found creative ways to reward employees for their good ideas and suggestions. Even if it’s just a free day off or a gift certificate to a local restaurant 

Like the famous  Dale Carnegie would say,  ‘Good Managers find a way to “Bask in the Glory of Others’ and publicly give big credit to others. 

7. Managers should ask staff employees what other training they need and then ensure they get it, whether internally or externally, with training firms.

8. Managers should ask staff employees if they are interested in different positions and departments. Then, they should arrange for them to get more information about them and help them gain some skills and experience in their field. This will help employees succeed and advance, which is fundamental to keeping good employees.

9. Managers should ask staff employees what additional education they wish for and desire. Then, they should ask the HR Human Resource Manager to help the employee get the education in the evenings and weekends. This will help them gain a loyal employee. 

10. Managers should ask employees and staff to ask customers and vendors they talk with for ideas, suggestions, and new product development ideas for the company to improve. Then, share with the manager to evaluate how to implement.

11. Managers hold monthly detailed department meetings, and the president/leadership holds a detailed monthly company meeting to review sales numbers, progress on anything, and issues and problems. Communicating is fundamental. Making employees feel part of the company team is key to gaining employee dedication and loyalty.

12. Leadership personally asked managers how they can support them more and what they need.

13. HR Human Resources Manager annually researches competitive pay, healthcare insurance benefits, and incentives for employees and staff in all positions and departments. Then make sure to pay for employees, healthcare insurance, and incentives significantly above this competitive level. Fundamental to keep good employees and staff. There are big cost savings compared to losing good employees and needing to hire new ones and retrain.

14. Leadership, managers, and the HR Human Resource Manager arrange for food (ham or turkey, bag of potatoes, vegetables, and fruit) for all employees on Christmas, Thanksgiving, and even Easter holidays to show appreciation to all employees and their families.

15. Leadership sponsors a big luncheon buffet banquet for all employees for any quarter where sales are good and improving, eliminating needless wastes, and thanking the employees and staff for all their efforts. The HR Human Resources Manager helps coordinate all of this. Help employees feel good about company successes and appreciate the employees and staff. Another simple fundamental.

16. Leadership, managers, and HR have a big company meeting. Ask employees and staff to give ideas and suggestions to improve productivity and eliminate stupid, needless wastes of time and money. Give ideas and tips to managers, AND log them into HR directly to track and follow up on. Savings and increased profits will support better health insurance, special bonuses, and pay raises. After this, many great ideas and suggestions were logged in and implemented, stimulating more profits and productivity and eliminating waste of all types. Several new products were started into development on a fast track for completion and release to the marketplace.  Individuals’ contributions were publicly recognized with nice financial and meaningful awards.  Bonuses followed for all, and better health insurance—a small price to pay for significant improvements, more sales, and more profits.

17. A supervisor came to a manager, worried about a fellow worker with serious health issues. The other worker had shortness of breath and couldn’t walk very far before needing to sit down to get his breath and rest some pressure in his chest. The supervisor was afraid and worried about the worker having heart issues and a heart attack. They asked the manager to send him to the hospital and not let him back to work until doctors had seen him in the hospital. The manager immediately recognized the seriousness of this situation. The manager sent the worker home, saying to go to the hospital immediately and that they cannot return to work without a doctor’s note. The manager proactively notified the HR manager of the situation and what he had done. HR Human Resources Manager fully supported the manager’s immediate fast action. The worker went to the hospital directly immediately.  Doctors at the hospital diagnosed the person with a serious blocked artery, who was having a serious heart attack. The person got hospital medical care and a special stent inserted into the heart artery to open it up to prevent another heart attack. The person was back to work in 4 weeks and feeling much healthier. The concerned supervisor and the manager saved that person’s life.

18. When I was a marketing manager, senior leadership asked me to develop programs to increase sales and help our field sales staff sell more.

I told senior leadership I had some ideas but wanted more formal training to develop the ideas into effective programs. Senior leadership agreed. Over the next several months, I found several training programs to travel to and attend. I came back with great ideas and the know-how to implement. Some were very effective marketing and communications programs. Some were extensive new training for sales staff.  By the end of the year, the sales had increased substantially, salespeople had increased their sales, and they were happy, making more commissions, and the company’s stock price quadrupled. I then asked senior leadership to let me attend more monthly formal training sessions.  Leadership gladly jumped at the opportunity to send me to special training every month. More good marketing programs were developed, and professional external training firms utilized more field sales training.  Sales and profits continued to increase, salespeople made more commissions with more sales, and the company’s stock price continued to rise. Senior leadership was very happy. 

19. When I was the director of customer service and a sales division with a company, the senior VP asked me for a private lunch.  He told me that he feared that the company’s products and services, and various contracts used, were not compliant with laws and regulations. Even sales contracts and personnel contracts were not compliant with the laws. This was a significant liability for him and the company.  He asked me to research and investigate all. I told him I would need to go to several intensive special external trainings on this and purchase several reference books and manuals on various related subjects to study. Of course, he agreed to all. 6 to 8 months later, I had a detailed good report explaining how the company’s products and services and various contracts were not compliant with laws and regulations, the liabilities for such, and the penalties.  Numerous things were significantly out of legal compliance.  He immediately had meetings with product and department managers, bringing these things to their attention, which they were embarrassed about since they did not have adequate knowledge and competency. Next, he hired a full-time corporate attorney to be in an office next to his, paying attention to all such matters. The vice president got many vital things corrected over the following 6 to 12 months, and many viewed him as brilliant and knowledgeable about such things.  No one ever knew I was the brains behind it all, and he.

20. In every management position I have held and when responsible for departments, I always coordinated ‘Cross Training’ where everyone learned to do all department jobs for skill development and understand total of department and if anyone wanted to try another job position in the department they were already trained and if needed due to absences anyone could assist to keep department functioning fully. The departments I was responsible for were always fully functional regardless of the situation and absences.  High productivity always showed.  Other departments had productivity issues and often asked me how my department kept productivity high and employee morale so high. Good, competent managers know how to manage this.

21. In my management position in a company years ago, I observed how an old, worn-out copy machine in my department kept breaking down weekly, hindering work and causing wasteful frustrations. Several times a day, there was a paper jam, and each time it took 5-15 minutes to unjam it and clear it, pulling out much jammed paper. Each time the machine broke down weekly, a service technician was called to repair it at a high cost and with lost productivity. I researched the cost of emergency repairs and work hours wasted with unjamming and clearing paper jams in a worn-out old copy machine. Then I researched the cost of leasing a new machine with higher production volume capabilities without breaking down with an extensive service contract. I showed a significant cost savings by renting a better machine under a comprehensive service contract. I brought this formal written information with actual detailed numbers and costs to the attention of the corporate facilities director, asking him to order a new leased machine. He immediately saw the cost savings and the time wasted. That very day, he ordered a new machine. He commented, “This is a no-brainer; I wish all department managers would bring their requests to me with such detailed information, making it easy for me to make good decisions”. The following week, the new machine was delivered and set up.  All the other departments could not figure out how my department got the new needed equipment, and they could not get any: competence and knowledge. Managers need competence and expertise.

There are also experiences and memories of good management, leadership, and HR.  

The Memories of ‘Bad and Ugly’ Managers and Leaderhip

Now, for the memories and experiences of the ‘Bad and Ugly’ Managers and Leadership. 

These are very real, factual experiences and memories. 

1. Management and leadership have secret meetings about how to get employees to work harder, do more things, and take on more responsibilities for the same pay. Such meetings usually end up saying, “Let’s give people a big promise of more pay in the future, but never give it to them, or give them fancy-sounding new position-level titles but not more pay.”

2. Management and leadership want hourly staff to work more hours without paying them extra or overtime pay. They give staff fancy position titles and put them on a low salary, then make them work a lot more hours without paying them extra. This is to save money. Staff and employees get wise to this fairly quickly and quit.

3. Management and leadership do not want to give competitive pay raises or better healthcare insurance, so they tell employees that better insurance and pay are in review, taking longer, so they will be delayed. Pay raises and better insurance are actually not coming soon. If they ever come in the future, they will be inadequate, and the same game will be played again. Of course, the better employees and staff quit.

4. Management and Leadership drive in very nice, fancy new vehicles that are company-paid and have nice company-paid luncheons and trips that all low-paid employees see. This demoralizes all employees and staff. Don’t flaunt your money and higher income on employees and staff.

5. Management and leadership are having secret meetings about cheating their sales staff out of their earned commissions to give more bonus money to upper management and leadership. Find excuses and ways to cheat the salespeople out of commissions earned and change the commission program to pay out less, but deliberately lie, deceive, and mislead with promises of more money to earn. Eventually, your better salespeople quit.

6. Managers put a lot of stress on employees and often blame them for company issues and problems.

7. Managers and leadership communicate with vendors and customers in ways that cause much harm and hard feelings. Then, the staff is stuck with the problem of the customers’ and vendors’ bad feelings. This situation is often referred to as ‘The Ugly Eagle Syndrome’. Higher-level managers and leadership swoop in to crap on things, causing problems, and then flying away, leaving a mess for others to clean up.

8. Management does not have a special, adequate education fund for employees who want more education and training to better themselves and maybe be better employees for the company.

9. Management and leadership take nice, long vacations, while employees and staff get very little vacation time or days off. This is another demoralizing thing. Employees and staff see this.

10. Management asks employees and staff for ideas and suggestions, then steals all of the credit, awards, and recognition for it. Employees and staff get nothing. Don’t expect employees and staff to help the company or business improve and grow anymore.

11. Managers reprimand and scold employees and staff in public in front of others.  This makes employees and staff dislike managers and become counterproductive.

12. Good employees ask for a pay raise. Managers and leadership say no and tell employees that if they don’t like it here, they can leave anytime and find another job somewhere else. Yes, I have actually seen and heard this several times.

13. Managers and leadership are conducting misleading, harsh, and wrong annual reviews of employees, not appreciating the hard work and good things employees and staff have done. Demoralized employees will leave and quit soon after. 

14. Managers and leadership promote staff and employees due to favoritism, passing over the better, more skilled, competent employees.  The good staff and employees who passed over will quit soon after, to move to another company.

15. Managers who are uncaring and rude to staff employees and managers under a big employment contract, to secure their high-paying employment.  Big employment contracts for high salaries and bonuses are often called ‘Golden Parachutes’. To remove these people, large amounts of money are paid to such people to move them out.  Sometimes upper leadership sends them to ‘Charm School” and manager therapy sessions to learn to improve.  If this doesn’t help, they get promoted into other higher positions with higher pay, where they do not have much contact with others.  Often, they are incompetent in these higher positions. Usually called “The Peter Principle.  Advancing to higher levels to earn more money was very incompetent and frequently caused problems.

16. Staff and employees speak up about improvements needed and why.  Managers and leadership view this as negative and don’t like it, so they find reasons to fire these people. 

17. Leadership wanted all managers to arrive at work early, half hour to hour, well before 8 AM and stay later past 5 PM to 5:30 to 6 PM  Later 6 PM to 7 PM preferred asked for.  To accomplish this, they put in time clocks that every salaried staff member or manager had to push in and out of. Everyone, even salaried managers, needed to punch in and out of the time clock for anyone leaving the company area to go for lunch.  Extreme micromanaging that demoralized many.  Nuts!  Crazy!

Many of the good Manager and Leadership stories of experiences and memories are important to learn from. You should be able to apply many of these experiences and memories to your job and position.    

Conclusion

With many of the memories and experiences, you can notice that I am very supportive of continual formal training and utilizing both internal and outside training firms. I see value in this. I am a firm believer in it, and my 40-plus years of business experience have proven this to be true and accurate. 

Also, I am a firm believer in utilizing your HR Human Resource Manager to help employees and managers motivate and reward good employees and staff.  

This article contains good information for those who wish to learn from it. This will help you advance your management skills and competence, achieve greater success, and advance your career. 

For those who see several of the’ Bad Ugly Things’ as OK and just fine, shame on you.  You need to find a different career and position.  You are harming others and harming the company and business.