“Within large organisations there is often a culture that encourages “managing upwards” and the creation of “good news managers”. In order to advance or gain preferment in such organisations, displays of competence and effectiveness count for little; visibility and networking are all. Ambitious people in lower tiers of management quickly identify what senior managers prefer – good news, because “the bringer of unwelcome news hath but a losing office”. The “good news” is not necessarily positive; if there is negative information concerning someone who is out of favour, that is good news to the receptive ear. Senior managers unwittingly become isolated, increasingly reliant upon the bringers of carefully filtered welcome news, and consequently have a distorted and narrow view of their organisation. It is a difficult syndrome to overcome because all the participants, senders and receivers, connive to maintain it.

Encouraging managers to manage “by walking about” and to ask probing questions, have been the most demanding tasks in my role as a consultant in management and organisational development. (Robert Richards, organisational development consultant.” London)

A good manager has his finger on the pulse, talks to customers (who pay the salaries), knows and talks to the staff, picks up complaints and dissatisfactions, handles complaints and has antennae that tell him if the enterprise is healthy or not. Yes?

Actually, no. All too often the reality is that a modern manager hides in his office, allows juniors to field questions and complaints from customers, and arranges for email “surveys”, with which every customer is burdened, however minor the purchase. Then he goes home dead on time, none the wiser. If you run your own small business you get the down-to-earth pretty quickly – do the job properly or look for another one. I know whereof I speak.