Is this an unsubstantiated grumble or a justified complaint?
We certainly hear it often enough. For instance, we do a lot of work in healthcare, and this is a common cry from clinicians complaining about professional managers in the NHS.
The issue that clinical and care staff often highlight is that the pure managers do not have medical expertise, and therefore shouldn’t have such influence over the process, technology and financial aspects of medical care.
Now, I’m not going to get going with this specific argument in the healthcare context!
But I’ve just had a parallel in the world of business.
The other day one of the big bosses at a client company wanted material for an important conference.
So they talked to their Head of Comms.
The Head of Comms nodded and smiled and no doubt spouted some vague generalist (meaningless) nonsense and said they would get some material together.
What happened next – yes, you guessed it – the Head of Comms spoke with one of their managers at HQ and teflonned the task onto them. “Go and get this material for Boss-lady, and make sure we can respond to her quickly! I don’t want here thinking we don’t have this kind of stuff at our fingertips.”
The manager couldn’t supply the required knowledge and content themselves, but they knew a couple of people in the organisation who might help. So he contacted them, in a slight panic.
One was a global manager for one division (business unit) of the company’s activities. She said that that she couldn’t personally help with what the Boss-lady needed, but that one of the company’s global agencies (us!) might be able to help, because we had a lot of market knowledge and access to content and reference points.
They offered to contact us.
So eventually, the request reached us. And the time pressure by this point was enormous. The Boss was pressurising the HoC, the HoC was pressurising their manager, that manager was nagging the divisional global manager, who in turn was chasing us.
We got the material together. It then passed up the line, eventually reaching the Boss-lady.
She was happy to have it, told the Head of Comms that it was a relief that such spot-on knowledge was a hallmark of the organisation (& indeed the Head of Comms ‘team’… hahaha), but noted with the him that perhaps things could happen a little quicker in future!
The Head of Comms took the compliment and promised snappier feedback in future.
And thus we return to the original question…
… what were all those managers for?
Remember the request originated at HQ – where over-employment (in a range of semi-jobs, sucking up to the bosses) is often the norm. Incompetence and lack of real understanding of the business is widespread but, if they’re lucky enough to have knowledgeable suppliers, can be skilfully covered up.
What a waste of resources! What a con!
The positive news is that in a few organisations we work with, all that is disintermediated. Managers are competent and – frankly – overworked, if anything. They have no time for posturing, pretending and covering up. So the Head of Comms in those companies would simply have said – “Sure, I’ll get ThoughtSpark on the case.”
No fooling around. Transparent. Confident. Straight to the source.
So keep asking the question, all you bosses out there. What are all these managers for?
And make sure you keep the quality people.
Look for the people who get things done, not the smooth operators who talk the talk, but don’t walk the walk.
I hope you find these bulletins entertaining. I’m happy to discuss all relevant engagements – from customer community creation, to directorial mentoring, to strategy development, to thought-leadership content development, to full campaign structuring and management, and more.
Do get in touch!
