Bosses should be mindful of how they treat their employees

This post came out from The Straits Times (17 Sep 2015)
Title - Are you driving your staff away?

Some pointers that I've got are:
1. Rewarding poor performers and punishing good performers
2. Giving too much pressure and insisting on outdated instructions
3. Using wrong strategies or tactics
4. Protecting their own turf
5. Not improving their management and supervision skills

On Rewarding poor performers and punishing good performers

• For some reason, many companies give difficult assignments to staff who do well, and assign easy jobs to those who do not (or cannot) perform. Often, top performers are even asked to clean up the mess left by troublemakers, and do some form of service recovery. 
• This de-motivates good performers, as such systems go against the simple principle of motivation - which entails giving rewards to reinforce positive behaviour and doling out some form of punishment for negative behaviour.

On Giving too much pressure and insisting on outdated instructions

• Many bosses often insist that staff follow company's policies, many of which are based on what happened in the past. When a new situation occurs, staff are unsure if they should still follow the old instructions, or do something in a new way. 
• Torn between doing what they should be doing and doing what they were told, employees will soon feel inertia, and do not want to do anything. This will result in an organisation that is stuck and cannot move on. 

On Using wrong strategies or tactics

• Bosses who have a wrong strategy and push their employees hard to pursue it are actually the ones who are causing poor performances.

On Protecting their own turf

• We know that it is not easy for bosses to rise to their current positions and as such they will do whatever it takes to protect their own interests. In doing so, they may be causing harm to the organisation. This is especially if bosses who make it a point to punish staff who do not toe the line.
• In addition, if a boss, in protecting his or her own turf downplays the importance of achieving the organisation's goals, he or she will be played out by shareholders or higher management in time to come.  

On Not improving their management and supervision skills

• A lack of management and supervision skills will make the manager unable to focus on his or her management role, and instead choose to focus on technical aspects of the work.

Yours,
Something Small Thinking Big