We’ve all heard the phrase, “the squeaky wheel gets the grease”. What amazes me is the sheer ineptness of leaders and managers that actually apply that philosophy to their organizational culture. In fact, it’s the complete opposite of an advocate-based culture, which is the most productive and effective culture an organization can have or work towards. Squeaky Wheel Management focuses on the problem while Advocate-Based Management and Leadership focuses on the best customers and the best employees. In case you’re wondering, here are some of the more popular squeaks in an organization…
- Whiners and Complainers – This is probably the most common of the squeaky wheels. When weak managers and leaders hear a whiner, they tell her what she wants to hear or they do what she wants done and the squeak goes away. These same managers hear the complainers and don’t consider the source or worse give weight to unfounded complaints without bringing all parties into the same room to work it out. Typically the complainer will not want the person he complains about to know who he is and will not want to bring the complaint in front of the other person. This should tell you all you want to know about the complainer.
- Miscast – These are not bad people trying to cause problems, but they are in the wrong job which inherently does cause problems. Too often, managers spend the most time with the weakest employees when they should be spending the most time with the best employees. They assume the best employees are ok and they’ll just let them go about what they are doing. Here’s the problem. If an employee is in a job where he doesn’t have a talent for that job there’s nothing you can do to change that employee’s talent set. It’s called fixum management and it doesn’t work. You either need to place this employee in a different role or you need to move him along so he can begin a career that he has a talent for where he can be successful.
- Miscommunication – This may be some of the louder squeaks at times. The top complaint we hear from organizations is… “We need to do a better job of communicating”. This encompasses a lot of different areas. However, some of the loudest squeaks come from gossipers and chain breakers. We all know gossipers and by the way, if you listen to gossip then you’re a gossiper. When you hear it, either walk away or put a stop to it. Chain breakers are those who don’t abide by the chain of command. If you have an issue, go to your boss, not other coworkers or you boss’s boss. Gossips and Chain Breakers create squeaks that tend to be huge time wasters.
- Bad Attitudes – Our motto is… “If you’re too sick to be in a professional mood at work, then you’re too sick to be at work and you need to go home.” And we’re serious. It’s not worth the squeak to keep the employee on the job. If an employee is consistently in a bad mood or moody you probably have an employee that is miscast; lazy and averse to actually working; jealous of others success; or one who thinks he deserves a position or title (usually without actually earning it). Life’s too short to deal with negative attitudes and your best employees don’t deserve to be placed next to these people.
What’s guaranteed about squeaky wheels is that when you give it the grease it will get quiet. But after a brief period of time passes, you will start hearing the squeak again and the time between squeaks gets shorter and shorter and the squeaks get louder and louder. The squeaks now own you and what’s worse is… They know it! You don’t fix a squeak with oil. You fix it by removing the wheel and replacing it with a new wheel.
Bottom line… Stop greasing the squeaky wheel and start focusing on the advocate. The best employees hate squeaky noises and they will leave your organization because of them. Also, the best employees and managers will often hear the squeaks of your organization from a distance. Your squeaky reputation will define you. Many leaders and managers are under the misconception that if they pay more money they will attract the best employees. This is completely backwards. Great employees seek out great managers and great managers seek out great leaders. Like does attract like and the shift from a Squeaky Wheel Culture to an Advocate-Based Culture will transform your organization and the best managers and employees and best customers will seek you out.
