Are You A Bad Manager?

IPG Editor Bob Neubauer has interviewed a lot of in-plant managers over the years, and from time to time they have remarked about the mess they walked into when they started their jobs. The previous manager, they often say, was disorganized and afraid of new technology. He almost ruined the in-plant.

As we begin a new year, this is a good time to look back at a story Neubauer wrote in January 2002, when he examined some of the traits of these bad managers. And though much has changed in the past 13 years, the tendency to point fingers (without realizing others may soon be pointing them at us) is still with us. So here's a portion of that column again:

I've often thought about these "bad" previous managers who did so much harm to their in-plants before abandoning them. Did they know they were doing a bad job? Could they have improved if someone pointed out the results of their actions?

With this in mind, I thought it might be helpful to take a look at some of the attributes of these "bad" managers. After all, what if you are doing some of the things they did?

So I contacted a number of managers and got about a dozen responses. I boiled them down into the following list. Taken together, the following would be a great description of the worst in-plant manager of all time:

• Unapproachable by both staff and customers.
• Inflexible and controlling.
• Trusted no one and kept all details to himself.
• Refused to listen to employee suggestions.
• Treated employees poorly; enjoyed pointing out their faults.
• Kept tight reigns on everyone; treated them like workers, not team members.
• No motivation to change or improve anything.
• Retained old equipment; had no plan for upgrading.
• No desire to move forward with technology—even a little afraid of it.
• Stayed with black-and-white printing when the market was switching to color because it was easier.
• Did not train anyone to handle electronic media. Jobs came in as hard copy or were sent out.
• Did not allow the department to promote itself.
• Happy when a customer's mistake forced a job to be reprinted because the in-plant would make more money.
• Told customers when to expect delivery, despite their requests—then bragged that 98 percent of his jobs were delivered on time.
• No fixed pricing schedule, so prices varied for the same job at different times.
• Fixed pressroom schedule: Red ink jobs on Mondays, blue on Tuesdays, etc.
• No scheduling or tracking system; many missed delivery dates.

Did you recognize anyone who has these attributes? Is it you?

Managers with these traits end up scaring customers away from the in-plant, leading to its demise. Even a nice manager who does nothing to upgrade technology will soon lose customers. And any manager who does not respect employees will certainly not get the best performance out of them, further soiling the in-plant's reputation.

So as you ponder this list, ask yourself one question: Are you the "bad" manager your successor will talk about?