Are You A 'Bad' Manager?
This column first appear in 2002, but its lessons still apply today.
I've interviewed a lot of in-plant managers over the years. Occasionally, some of them have revealed that, before they started their jobs, their in-plants were in bad shape. The stories are similar: The previous manager was obstinate, disorganized and afraid of new technology. He almost ruined the in-plant.
I've often thought about these "bad" previous managers who did so much harm to their in-plants. Did they know they were doing a bad job? Could they have improved if someone pointed out the results of their actions?
With this in mind, I thought it might be helpful to take a look at the attributes of these "bad" managers. (After all, what if you are doing some of the things they did?) So I contacted a number of managers and got about a dozen responses. I boiled them down into a list. Taken together, the following would be a great description of the worst in-plant manager of all time:
- Unapproachable by both staff and customers.
- Inflexible and controlling.
- Trusted no one and kept all details to himself.
- Refused to listen to employee suggestions.
- Treated employees poorly; enjoyed pointing out their faults.
- Kept tight reigns on everyone; treated them like workers, not team members.
- No motivation to change or improve anything.
- Retained old equipment; had no plan for upgrading.
- No desire to move forward with technology—even a little afraid of it.
- Stayed with black-and-white printing when the market was switching to color because it was easier.
- Did not train anyone to handle electronic media. Jobs came in as hard copy or were sent out.
- Did not allow the department to promote its capabilities.
- Happy when a customer's mistake forced a job to be reprinted because the in-plant would make more money.
- Told customers when to expect delivery, despite their requests—then bragged that 98 percent of his jobs were delivered on time.
- No fixed pricing schedule; prices varied for the same job at different times.
- No scheduling or tracking system; many missed delivery dates.
Did you recognize anyone who has these attributes?
Managers with these traits end up scaring customers away from the in-plant, leading to its demise. Even a pleasant manager who does nothing to upgrade technology will soon lose customers. And any manager who does not respect employees certainly will not get the best performance out of them.
So as we head into a new year, consider this question: Are you the "bad" manager your successor will talk about?
Bob has served as editor of In-plant Impressions since October of 1994. Prior to that he served for three years as managing editor of Printing Impressions, a commercial printing publication. Mr. Neubauer is very active in the U.S. in-plant industry. He attends all the major in-plant conferences and has visited more than 170 in-plant operations around the world. He has given presentations to numerous in-plant groups in the U.S., Canada and Australia, including the Association of College and University Printers and the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association. He also coordinates the annual In-Print contest, co-sponsored by IPMA and In-plant Impressions.
