Tuesday, December 1, 2009
According to CEO Advisor, Linda Hanson, CMC, small businesses inadvertently foster dysfunction in their organizations as a result of a gap between rhetoric and reality.
Companies don't start out dysfunctional it happens when plans are heavy on talk but don't get executed, when communication is poor and hampers performance, and when managers and employees aren't aligned in their thinking and actions.
"Once identified, the effects of such problems can be corrected," says, CEO Advisor and Dallas Management Consultant, Linda Hanson. "But it is not easy and it isn't immediate especially because it usually starts at the top of the company."
There are many indications that a company is dysfunctional but there are also ways to get the company healthy again. Hanson says, "You can feel the negative atmosphere as soon as you walk into a company. The worst I've seen is when a company's people were snarly and mean and refused to follow processes. There was lots of yelling and infighting. It is pretty bad when you hear a subordinate speak back to his boss when being corrected on a performance issue."
Hanson believes that many companies have dysfunction in their firm that is impeding growth. "Smaller businesses are both more susceptible and harder hit by the ripple effects of dysfunction. With a close-knit staff, it's easy to make allowances for people's tempers or bad moods or refusal to take responsibility. But, sooner or later, that kind of thinking catches up with them and the business."
In over twenty years as a Dallas Management Consultant, Hanson has never seen situations that cannot be corrected as long as the CEO was willing to change and will be decisive when hard choices need to be made. Most of the companies I work with value and take the time to develop their people. These are healthy companies striving to be the best and when they have a small issue that needs correcting, they call in Hanson.
For more information contact:
Linda Hanson, CMC
LLH Enterprises
Dallas, TX
972-971-6870
www.llhenterprises.com