The current harsh financial climate will force managers not only to implement decisions that are deeply unpopular with staff and service users but to take actions which they have advised against. May be you argued that freezing all staffing vacancies was counterproductive and would result in greater use of expensive agency staff or increased overtime. Perhaps you made the point that deleting all vacant management posts would lead to hugely different size teams bearing no relation to workload or responsibility. You pointed out that reducing HR staff and transferring responsibility for the recruitment process to managers would mean managers would be involved in more paper work and would not be the best use of their time. You challenged the assumptions behind increasing charges or closing facilities. Your concerns were acknowledged but your arguments rejected.
A managers leadership qualities come to the fore front when facing the challenge of implementing restructurings that will result in redundancies, changing working practises that will lead to longer hours and increased workloads or saving money by reducing services, increasing waiting list and a programme of closures. In such circumstances it is easier not to take responsibility but refer up and then be able to disown the outcome. Don’t blame me I didn’t make the decision. Don’t ask me to explain it, you know as much as me. At best your staff will think you have no influence and are kept in the dark at worst they will think you are lying and knew in what was being discussed and may even have suggested some of the changes. Either way you will have lost their respect and you will find it a lot harder to get their cooperation. If as a result you can’t bring about these changes without dragging in your manager to every difficult meeting with staff what confidence will they have in you? Your manager is not stupid when they talk to your staff they will soon discover how well the plans have been “sold” and whether they have been” set up” to take the blame.
I am not saying that you have to like or even agree with the decisions you are expected to implement. You are your entitled to have your say, to suggest alternatives even to point out the implications. Your staff would expect you to and for your own self respect you would have wanted to make your views known to your manager. But management is not just about implementing decisions you agree with. What good does it do your staff to know you don’t support these changes? How does it help them come to terms with what’s going to happen? Good mangers show leadership and inspire their staff to find ways to make it work. What’s the alternative?
Blair McPherson author of Equipping managers for an uncertain future and People management in a harsh financial climate both published by www.russellhouse.co.uk