Phil Jones — I encourage you to read the advice that’s contained in the other comments. Yes, some of these things are apothegms that could be taken as platitudes (not that that makes them untrue or unusable), but plenty of suggestions here can be turned into action items immediately by senior managers who want to operate better.

MinnesotaWorkingGrl said: Learn to trust the professionals you have hired and listen to those who disagree with you.

I second that.

I’d add:

Set up a revolving “advisory” team from inside the company, heavily weighted toward “regular” employees more than managers and with few (or no) “senior director” types. Let your employees tell you the state of the company from their point of view.

Implement a suggestion box – and read the suggestions. Make them public (possibly anonymous) and allow everyone to vote and comment on them

Put the “annual employee survey” on line and let people submit it at any time and as often as they like. Gather and review the data constantly.

Communicate openly and honestly with staff (as much as the SEC allows)

Provide excellent internal support. Treat employees as you would treat paying customers. (After all, if an employee can’t do his job, the bottom line suffers.)

Do away with the Annual Performance Review and work on Now instead.

Stop treating employees like interchangeable parts.Your employees are your most valuable asset.

Prioritize the real issues. Instead of blocking employees from using IM, for example, spend your energy on real questions, such as “Are they getting their projects done? Is Quality high? If so, it doesn’t matter if they occasionally chat with a friend. A happy employee is a productive employee.

Follow many of the above recommendations – advisory board, suggestion box, satisfaction survey, communication – with your Customers as well as your employees!

Communicate. Trust. Listen. Form partnerships.

Unfortunately that advice doesn’t generalize well. In fact, it’s hard to see how advice which is general enough to be applicable to anyone is likely to be more than mere platitudes.

1) Better management starts at the top and trickles down. If you’re not running your company well, well, then y0ur company is running away from you. And so will your freelancers and eventually, your clients.

2)Clear direction saves time and money. Get your act together before you get other people involved in your process.

3) Don’t be afraid to say “no.” Your clients value good counseling, which is why they hire you. If you kow tow to their every wish, even when you know it’s a bad decision, you will end up bent over so far that…

(sorry about number 3 Tim; needless to say, I am in the thick of it.)

1. Tips-’n’-tricks = easy:
I’ve seen way too many instances of “Consultant-itis”, meaning that a bunch of smart people get thrown at a problem without having much context or background on the problem, and the company that hired them expects a quick fix. The result is an enormous PowerPoint slide deck that cost million$.

2. Actually doing things better = hard:
Short term thinking from public companies, all trying to meet quarterly expectations without focusing and taking ACTION on longer term items that would drive deep VALUE inside/outside the company.

I could conjure up many words of advice, but I think a important one is this: seize every opportunity to be unique, and that includes being unique in your people-systems. Businesses may get lulled into thinking only short-term survival mode or that today its an employer’s buyer market for employee talent. But these are just excuses for doing things the same old way, thinking of employees merely as resources, ignoring opportunities to attract the kind of talent needed for future success. Organizations need to remember that they are – at the core – a humanistic social enterprise. Without that, there is little hope for sustained, long-term growth in today’s world.

The challenge is…which company wants to run with that?

Micro-managing every single project and believing that those that disagree with you are disloyal creates a culture of fear and kills the very initiative and creativity you claim to seek among employees. GET A CLUE!

So don’t override your staff when they write a long e-mail message explaining why their action is a remarkably stupid idea. Don’t go into a meeting to “sell” an idea to the staff when it is apparent that the idea will kill the company — and then get upset when you, as manager, can’t make the staff happy with the policy.

We want to make our division and our company a success, and not just so that we can keep our jobs. All of us are motivated by pride in our work, and we want to believe we are making a difference in the industry and in the world. But by refusing to listen to the people who have the actual hands on expertise, you tell us that our opinions and wisdom don’t matter. Let’s see… and how will that motivate us to give you our best effort?

But nope. You want quick fixes. You’ll take short term solutions even if everyone knows they will backfire.

And I am out looking for another job, so I don’t have to work for you anymore.