Management by Yelling - Intimidation Doesn't Work as well as Empowerment

Management by Yelling - Intimidation Doesn't Work as well as Empowerment
An informal survey of whether empowerment works better than
intimidation showed 79% of the respondents favored
empowerment. This is no surprise; professionals respond
best to cordial and controlled interpersonal relationships
in the workplace. It makes for an agreeable work
environment. Remarkably, empowerment even in the face of
failure can be a powerful positive motivator. Attrition can
be cut in half as a minimum, and you keep your talent in
place instead of losing it to the competition.

There is a need sometimes for firm and frank discussion
especially when personal safety is the issue. There should
be no question about conforming to safety rules around the
plant. But, in general intimidation produces numerous
counterproductive outcomes:

- It breeds resentment and sabotage; yelling can be taken
as a personal affront to character and persona, and
resentment can build to destructive motivations.

- It is an out-of-control reaction to something that can be
dismissed with grace and corrective encouragement for
future improved actions.

- It affects productivity and shuts down enthusiasm. A
period of time will be taken up with licking of wounds and
negative talk among co-workers.

- It may precipitate charges of harassment, union
organizing, stress, sick days, etc.

In addition, it can be a powerful demotivator, destroying
personal ambitions of promotion in the organization. There
is not much to recommend in the way of intimidation.

Planning and Deadlines - Empowerment works best in a
planned, controlled environment. One method that has proven
well over time is by using Microsoft Project. There are
several options, but the Gantt Chart, which was originally
used effectively during times of military conflict, makes
sense in the industrial and commercial setting, too. Tasks
are listed in a tabular form, and there is an associated
timeline with optional name tags. Daily or weekly follow up
makes the chart jump off the screen, and other related
parties will be privy to it in an office computer network
environment. Your team will see it, and your boss will see
how it goes as often as he/she wants to view it. It could
be a simple sequential chart or an interactive chart
showing important time sensitive and sequence interactions.
As often as you update it, the timeline will progress with
accomplished tasks being highlighted.

Planning generally flows from the top down, and the
employee can run his own project schedule from the cues
received from the boss's master plan. Or the employee can
add or expand on the master plan.

Wally Adamchik, the author of No Yelling, claims that
treating people with respect and developing relationships
based on trust goes a long way towards effective
management. One marine senior officer even claims that "You
have to love your people to a fault."

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