The Cranky Middle Manager Show #316 The Final Cranky Show and the Future of Work with John Blackwell
The Cranky Middle Manager Show #171 Managing in Rough Times Wally Bock
Posted on 13. Dec, 2008 by Wayne in Podcast
Today Wayne Turmel discusses the role of middle managers when times get rocky. His guest is Wally Bock of Threestar Leadership. OH, and we talk about mutiny, gay captains and Roman survivors. The usual madness that is our show.
Wally Bock, Dinosaur Egg Stomper
Show Notes
0:00 Welcome to the show folks.. Tough times call for tough managers and that’s why we’re here. Yes, it’s layoff season…first they came for the hourly folks..then the sales weasels….then there was no one left to help us…such is the lot of middle management. This episode is dedicated to Henry Hudson, maybe the worst captain to ever also be a famous explorer. Oh, and for pure schadenfreude, try A Brief History of Mutiny. I guarantee you’ll feel better about yourself.
3:12 The quote of the week is from Horace... dying of natural causes was unique among famous Romans- the man new from survival.
Don’t forget to support the show by stopping by the CMM Store or supporting the TPN Pledge drive and help keep us on the air!
4:20 Welcome Wally Bock back to the show (hear his first visit with us here….) Wally knows his stuff, as evidenced by his blog where you can get his report on Managing in a Downturn which you can download here. Why is this downturn different than most? Because when you lay people off you’re getting rid of the people who know stuff. People are not interchangeable anymore, if they ever were. And it’s all about cash.
10:33 The idea of people as costs is outdated. We’re not an assembly line world any more. And we usually misjudge how many people we should have let go in the first place. So now you have fewer people AND they’re not working at top form because of survivor guilt, fear and stress.
14:26 Wally has no sympathy for leaders who aren’t willing to take the same hit as the workers, as he put in this blog post. He talks about the Automakers who came to Congress to beg for money as leading examples.
17:26 Wally looked at companies that have never laid people off and talks about some of the possibilities- things like reassigning, work sharing and (gasp) starting the sacrifice at the top.
20:20 As managers, how do you manage the news and process of layoffs and other bad news. This is why they call us MIDDLE managers, kids. Don’t keep secrets if possible. Let them know what you know.Rumor will kill you.
26:48 Now it’s Monday morning and it’s time to get back to work with whoever’s left. Survivor guilt is normal and completely unproductive. You need to examine the work that needs to be done and find ways to reassign the work. Get your team involved. Morale and productivity are linked.
31:37 You probably have your own survivor guilt but your job, long as you have it, is to be the manager. That’s why we make the moderate bucks. Suck it up, gang.
33:27 Don’t forget to request his report on Managing in a Downturn and a bunch of our guests have contributed.
Wayne, the link to the “report” gets me into an OOPS! on the target site.
Rob, you’re right. For some reason things got weird in the code. If it’s still not working the link is http://www.threestarleadership.com/downturn.htm seriously. It works.
A really good show about really awful issues. Whyisthat? And luckily, not something I have to apply, I hope.
I do find the Detroit papers’ reducing their publishing schedule a refreshing change along the lines that Wally was talking about. ‘Lets not cut our core competency’ was what the publishers said. Smart.
Thanks Wally and Wayne.