Most managers do this by using some form of the traditional top-down command and control approach to managing people. Top-down concentrates on producing goals, targets, visions, orders and other directives in order to control the workforce and thereby achieve organizational success. Focusing on giving direction prevents these managers from doing much of anything else.

Thus top-down treats employees like robots in the “shut up and listen, I know better than you” mode, and rarely if ever listens to them. By so doing this approach ignores every employee’s basic need to be heard and to be respected. In addition, not listening to employees makes top management ignorant of what is really going on in the workplace thus making their directives misguided at best and damaging at worst.

In top-down, nobody listens to employee ideas, nobody values their opinions, and nobody gives them any recognition. The only way that the workforce can deal with managers who treat them in this way is to disengage and ignore their behavior. In the workplace this is seen as being sullen, uncommunicative, having a poor attitude, low morale and/or apathy.

(During the first 12 years of a 30+ year career of managing people, I used top-down and was never aware of how bad my leadership was. It was not until I started really listening to employees that I began to understand.)

In this way and others, top-down demeans and disrespects employees sending them very negative value standard messages. The standards reflected in this treatment “lead” employees to treat their work, their customers, each other and their bosses with the same level of disrespect they received. No one can become committed to company goals while being treated so poorly.

The alternative to top-down achieves truly magnificent results characterized by employees who love to come to work and are so creative, innovative and productive that they literally blow away competitors. I proved this in achieving success in four different turnarounds of management disasters. I was quite stunned by the results my people achieved.

To learn about the tools I used, please read these Leadership Articles starting with the article “Leadership, Good or Bad”.

Best regards, Ben

Mental Perception

Tim Ramsey

The crux of the message is to frequently and consistently drive your message home to your targeted audience.

Even on a budget, this objective is very doable – unless you’re at a Blackjack table.