Management

Management

Character is the Most Important Trait

Character is the Most Important Traitby Chris Banescu –

Life has taught me and continues to teach me that character is the most important trait we should look for in others. If a person does not have character, nothing else matters. This is true in our personal and professional lives. It’s true in our friendships and family relationships. It’s true in business, academia, politics, religion, and all other fields of human endeavor.

In virtually all of the business and leadership courses I have taught for over two decades, the subject of character inevitably comes up. Students ask me or I ask them about the most important characteristic or quality (they can only pick one) they should look for when working for anyone, partnering with someone in a venture, or hiring great employees. [Read more…]

Southwest Airlines Schools American Airlines on Treating Pilots Fairly and Decently

Southwest Airlines Schools American Airlines on Treating Pilots Fairly and Decentlyby Chris Banescu –
The Boeing 737 MAX disaster provides us with an opportunity to evaluate some leadership qualities of top executives at two major U.S. airlines, Southwest and American. The CEOs of these corporations have chosen fundamentally different responses to their pilots and employees who were negatively affected by the extended grounding of the 737 MAX planes.

One CEO shows himself to be a man of character and integrity. The other one not so much. Southwest Airlines’ top leader, Gary Kelly, is treating the company pilots fairly and decently. American Airlines’ CEO, Doug Parker, could care less about the concerns of their pilots. [Read more…]

Courage is the Virtue that Makes All Other Virtues Possible

Courage is the virtue that makes all other virtues possible. Courage helps us develop and sharpen our character. by Chris Banescu –
Courage is the virtue that makes all other virtues possible. Courage helps us develop and sharpen our character. Courage is what enables us to practice all the other virtues, especially when doing so exacts a significant cost in our personal life, professional career, or business.

It’s not enough to know and believe in the virtues. We must act on them. Belief in, intellectual affirmation of, or knowledge of the virtues alone is not enough to develop our character. We must practice them! And this is where courage comes in and helps us to take appropriate action.

All courageous speech and conduct must be grounded in reality, ethics, and integrity. Our words and actions must support and defend truth, goodness, justice, and righteousness. This is important, because unethical, corrupt, or wicked individuals can also use courage to support evil purposes and unrighteous goals.

Wisdom needs to accompany courage. [Read more…]

Manners, The Lubricating Oil of Organizational Relationships

Manners, The Lubricating Oil of Organizational Relationships“Manners are the lubricating oil of an organization. It is a law of nature that two moving bodies in contact with each other create friction. This is as true for human beings as it is for inanimate objects. Manners – simple things like saying “please” and “thank you” and knowing a person’s name or asking after her family – enable two people to work together whether they like each other or not.

Bright people, especially bright young people, often do not understand this. If analysis shows that someone’s brilliant work fails again and again as soon as cooperation from others is required, it probably indicates a lack of courtesy – that is, a lack of manners.” ~ Peter F. Drucker

How To Demotivate Employees and Undermine Morale and Productivity

Demotivate Employees and Undermine Morale and Productivityby Chris Banescu –
Here’s a list of dysfunctional, unethical, and destructive organizational practices that I have personally experienced or seen while working with or consulting for various companies, corporations, universities, and non-profit institutions. Each of these will demotivate employees, undermine their morale, and negatively affect their productivity. Each of them will corrode organizational cohesiveness, foment suspicion and resentment of management, and destroy employees’ trust in and respect of their leaders.

Once more than one of these dysfunctional situations become normalized and spread across a company, then employee dissatisfaction and disengagement will increase exponentially. Quality of work will be negatively impacted. Great employees will begin to leave. Then the good ones will quit. The remaining employees will stop caring, stop speaking out, stop trying to address problems or improve anything inside the company. They will “go to gray.” They will do the minimal work required of them and no more.

If this pathology continues over longer periods of time, a human resources crisis will envelop the entire company and disaster (financial, ethical, legal, criminal, etc.) will inevitably follow. [Read more…]

How to Reduce Organizational Bureaucratization and Keep Executive Egos in Check

How to Reduce Organizational Bureaucratization and Keep Executive Egos in Checkby Chris Banescu –
In his groundbreaking book, Up the Organization: How to Stop the Corporation from Stifling People and Strangling Profits, Robert Townsend, unconventional business executive and former CEO of Avis Rent-a-Car, provides us with witty and practical advice on how to tackle misguided organizational processes and attitudes that stifle people and undermine profitability.

Townsend despised the constant organizational push by management towards additional bureaucratic processes and cumbersome institutional procedures that increased in size and complexity as a company grew. He also offered smart suggestions on how to keep the executives’ egos in check.

His first proposal on dealing with the bureaucratic danger is to make the CEO the initial guinea pig for institutional experimentation. Before anyone else in the company is forced to follow any new process or procedure, or fill out a new form or questionnaire, the chief executive must complete it in full first. Townsend surmised this approach alone would “kill a lot of bad ideas early.” [Read more…]