Is Management Like Ice Cream?


By Mark Harbeke


Every day a new management or self-help book arrives at bookstores across the country promoting the benefits of the latest fad or buzzword in organization management. Newspapers and magazines feature consultants who have helped themselves and others succeed using an emerging business technique. And, of course, at any given moment on any given golf course, leaders are sharing their methods for improving the bottom line.

With publishers and media outlets ready to push these fads, buzzwords and other ideas onto the leadership populace at the drop of a hat, an outsider or a new leader might very well come to the conclusion that fads are as common and essential to good management as cones are to ice cream. Yet, being a good manager does not mean succumbing to each and every “flavor of the month.” The tried-and-true leadership characteristics of submerging egos, fostering open communication and making people feel important outlast fads and lead to more successful and profitable workplaces.

In a recent Wall Street Journal article titled “Executives Must Stop Jumping Fad to Fad and Learn to Manage,” columnist Carol Hymowitz says the barrage of management guides that have penetrated the market have resulted in “copycat managers trying to find to find a one-stop, fix-it-all answer to their various problems.” She points to a firm whose leadership, upon the advice of a consultant and without conducting further research, instituted a company newsletter after employees responded to a survey saying they wanted more communication. In truth, they sought a stronger voice in how the organization operates.

Besides media attention and the advice of hired consultants, peer pressure among leaders and managers contributes to the proliferation of business fads. “People don’t want to be seen as standing in the way of progress, so they jump on the bandwagon,” Joel Best, author of the book Flavor of the Month: Why Smart People Fall for Fads, recently told the University of Delaware’s online news service. The author also indicated that the United States’ long-held beliefs in progress and perfectibility have made leaders vulnerable to ideas that promise to deliver a shortcut to reaching these ends.

Like Hymowitz, Best advocates that leaders and managers be skeptical of astonishing claims, which can come from the newest, largely undocumented and untested ideas. Unproven fads can be so dangerous to organizational success that some business schools have openly declared to prospective students that they avoid them altogether. On the MBA overview section of its website, the New Jersey Institute of Technology’s School of Management states flatly, “We do not build courses … on the basis of ‘hot’ topics, current events, or the advice of the latest management guru.”

And there have been many hot topics over the years – so many that the prevalent buzzwords have become acronyms so leaders can keep them straight. There’s MBO, MRP, MRPII, ERP and TQM, just to name a few. After a while these acronym-identifying approaches to management start to sound like that old song from the musical Hair. With both peer and competitor organizations adding the latest acronym to their lexicons, what can a leader do to remain viable?

One work approach they can use to circumvent fads while retaining the values of open communication and empowering people is the “golden rule” of management. This works just like the golden rule from religion and philosophy: treat others as you would like to be treated. Thomas E. Ambler, a course leader with the Center for Simplified Strategic Planning, says that putting the golden rule into practice boils down to integrating it as an organization’s core value. “Cutting others the kind of slack we would like goes a long way toward making a team effective,” Ambler says.

Ambler’s advice speaks to several of the values, or building blocks, that are central to Winning Workplaces’ mission – namely, Teamwork & Involvement, Open Communications and Trust, Respect & Fairness. That last value is especially important when it comes to effective leadership and the prospect of embracing the latest fad. Leaders must not only trust their employees with the vision and objectives they have set forth; they must also trust themselves.

Therefore, leaders should consider any trendy or faddish steps that would alter their vision for management carefully. While it’s important to be educated about emerging business ideas and trends, even fads and buzzwords, it is not necessary to act on them. After all, Baskin-Robbins may have 31 flavors, but their regular customers have one or two that they treasure above the rest – flavors they wouldn’t give up or trade for anything in the world.

Winning Workplaces' goal is to provide small and midsize employers with proven, practical, and affordable people practices. Too often, the information and resources needed to create a high-performance workplace are out of reach for all but the largest organizations. Winning Workplaces is changing that by offering employers affordable consulting, training and information. We help employers assess needs and develop strategies to improve their workplace practices.

For more information, please contact us at: http://www.winningworkplaces.org


More Resources

Unable to open RSS Feed $XMLfilename with error HTTP ERROR: 404, exiting

More Management Information:

Related Articles


Prepare A Winning CV
There is every chance that elements of this article may not be appropriate for everyone in every situation - and that's precisely the point! Every situation is different. No two projects are the same.
Delegation for Business Leaders - How Letting Go Works
A leader's role is to focus on those areas of operation where he or she can deliver the greatest value and this requires huge shifts in perspective of the role. Leaders differ from managers in terms of accountability.
Provisioning/User Management System Upgrades: Part I -- Ten Reasons Why Not To Do An Upgrade
Tommy Sherman daily monitors a helpdesk-provisioning queue for a large company. The current provisioning/user management system was written with homegrown software.
Make It Easy to Reply - Voice Mail That Works
If you are like most business people, voice mail has both simplified and complicated your life. On the good side, it helps you exchange information.
How to Fire an Employee
One of the most difficult tasks you will face as a business owner will be firing employees. Employees who consistently break the rules, do not perform the functions of their job, or cause difficulties for your business can be a strain on the work environment, your cash flow, and even disrupt your business from thriving and performing as expected.
Business Innovation - Value versus Quality
Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation.There are other useful definitions in this field, for example, creativity can be defined as consisting of a number of ideas, a number of diverse ideas and a number of novel ideas.
Hows Your HUB?
Marketing gurus are always coming up with new lingo but oftentimes they are restating the old tried and true concepts in new terms. Marketing students from the 70's and 80's will be familiar with the acronym USP.
Dont Let Your Measurements Mislead You
Don't Let Your Measurements Mislead YouThere aren't too many words that can strike as much fear and loathing into the hearts of your internal customers, and sometimes your own employees as the words "Operational Measurements". Operational Measurements often get a bad rap because of their misuse by well intended, but misinformed management.
Business Fails When We Do Not Talk
You may remember being told as a child, "Keep quiet!""Children should be seen, not heard," and "You talktoo much." You were a "good" kid if you kept quiet.
Doing More With Less
This is a bottom-line environment.Decreasing the downtime of revenue producing employees is a major concern.
5 Interviewing Mistakes That Can Lead To Hiring The Wrong Person
Mistake #1: Going with the flowInexperienced interviewers sometimes fall into the trap of letting the interview become "free form", spending different amounts of time on different questions, basing follow-up questions on on how the candidates answer. This can result in a candidate taking control of the interview and leading you where he or she wants to go, rather than where you can get the information you need.
The Death Spiral
Sometimes things just happen. Maybe we lose focus and take our eyes off the ball.
Problem-Solving Success Tip: Dont Leave Your Key Stakeholders Guessing
Communicate! Don't leave you key stakeholders guessing.We are generally not very good about keeping others informed about the progress we're making, especially if there isn't much.
4 Steps to Success In Life, Business, The Universe And Everything
Everyone wants to succeed in life. And no one starts a business of any sort, on-line or off-line, wanting to fail.
Five Steps to Successful Business Succession
The great majority of family businesses in North America are still owned and operated by descendants of the founder. The business acumen that these first, second, third, and sometimes fourth generation managers possess largely determines how much longer the business will remain under family control.
Summertime Blues
It's hard to believe the year will be half over in just a few weeks. All the planning you did is either turning out great, coming along slowly but surely or hasn't really gotten off the ground because other issues keep getting in the way.
CEO: The Key To Fix ingThe Marketing/Sales Collaboration Problem
We all know that achieving better alignment, synergy and cooperation between company marketing and sales departments is vital, but oh so elusive. Despite all the talk and more talk in the media and at national business gatherings, nothing significant ever seems to happen.
Is Your Employee Newsletter Management Propaganda?
It should not be. If it is an effective newsletter, it will serve the needs of readers (employees) as much as it serves the needs of the publisher (management).
Management Training: Are You Satisfied With The Results?
If you're not satfied with the results of your management training programs, maybe it's because you handle training as a 'one shot' event rather than a process of developing your people to be better managers.One of the common misconceptions is that a manager can take a course and voila he is now skilled in communicating with others, or managing his time or delegating work.
Critical Success Factors - Next
The Critical Success Factors Focusing on the things that make the biggest difference to your future prosperity. (Note, although this article was written in early 2002, it is totally relevant.