Six Sure-Fire Strategies To Make Certain Your People Can’t Succeed
“So much of what we call management consists of making it difficult for people to work.”
— Peter Drucker
If you’re tired of not knowing whether your people will be successful, why not make certain? Here are six strategies guaranteed to ensure they will fail…and fail spectacularly
- Set Fuzzy Expectations
You can’t help but set expectations—whether you mean to or not—so make sure they are as obscure and convoluted as possible. Be vague, be obtuse, be confusing, and by all means, be inconsistent in your expectations.
Tip: Expectations should be like health care costs—always going up!
2. Blur Their Roles
When it comes to ensuring failure, Confusion is King, and never more so than when it comes to roles and responsibilities. There are two main tactics:
a. Give everyone the same role, but make each person think they are the only one.
b. Give an important role to nobody but hold everyone accountable when your fuzzy expectations aren’t met.
Tip: Use both tactics at once for maximum effect!
- Form Teams, Burn Individuals
There’s nothing like a pseudo-team to ensure individual failure. Creating a false sense of “We” almost always guarantees that no “I” will take responsibility. And when everything falls apart, it’s not the Team that gets whacked.
Tip: Be careful not to create a real team! That can lead to unwanted individual success!
- Move Those Targets
Never keep a goal or desired outcome for more than a few days. Not only does this ensure that people won’t do what they are “supposed” to do, but the resulting anxiety and apprehension will stop everyone in their tracks…and that’s a perfect recipe for complete and utter failure.
Tip: Give everyone a different goal, then you can berate them for not being team players!
- Be Consistently Inconsistent
Nothing breeds failure like an environment that is ever-changing…especially if there is no apparent rhyme or reason to it. Tactics can include running hot and cold toward people, turning 180° on critical activities, and start and stop initiatives and projects.
Tip: If challenged on your inconsistency, deny everything and suggest that they work on their listening skills.
- Walk Away from the Talk
Say one thing, do another. What could be simpler? And more effective?
Tip: Always sound completely certain when talking. And appear decisive in your behaviors. Just remember to make the two as far apart as possible!
Failing to do these things will only lead to success, fulfillment, innovation, and profitability. And who wants that?
If, on the other hand, you want to know the right way to lead your people, contact Success Authorities.