We have all experienced being asked a question instinctively knowing you’re not supposed to give an honest answer. I knew it when my boss asked if I thought he was a bully!
A common theme in audit reports is that senior managers did not recognise the extent of the problem. I read a particularly damning report which was strikingly titled,” I’m surprised your surprised”. The title neatly captured the reports message that senior managers expressed surprise at the extent of the problem the audit uncovered, to which the lead auditor/report writer responded that well I’m surprised you didn’t know what was going on as the evidence was not hidden and in any case it’s your job to know what’s going on.
Unlike that auditor I am not surprised because in my experience some senior managers whether deliberately or subconsciously give out the message that they don’t want to hear the bad news. I leant my lesson when the Director challenged a hall full of managers to tell him of any policy that was being ignored , and I told him! He didn’t ask why the policy was’t being followed for which I had a detailed response prepared in my head. Instead he demanded that I name names.
The most effective managers know the right questions to ask, the ones that reveal the reality behind any smoke screen. Then there are those that ask the question but don’t want an honest answer. They want to believe it’s a few bad apples that can be rooted out through the disciplinary process not an endemic culture throughout the organisation. At the same time they dismiss the feedback from the staff survey with ,” well you would expect morale to be low what with the budget cuts and reorganisation”. They question the value of feedback from the focus groups by claiming the people who attend these things often have a personal axe to grind and they are the ones who shout the loudest. They point out that the number of grievances concerning bullying and harassment are very small in comparison with the size of the workforce and say we should be reassured by the evidence that, “bad apples” are deal with it.
Despite the use of employee satisfaction surveys, focus groups, exit interviews and an analysis of grievances senior managers find it hard to hear that employees are demoralised, that confidence and trust in senior management is low and that part of the reason for that is the continued presence of misogyny, bullying and racism within the organisation. Being a senior manager means being open to the bad news, not seeking people to blame but demonstrating a commitment to challenge and bring about change.
Blair Mcpherson former Director author and blogger www.blairmcpherson.co.uk
