Golden Rule Takes Flight

When recently reading an article in Business Week entitled, "The Ten Management Practices to Axe," I was struck by the soundness of most of author Liz Ryan's top ten management practices companies should be rid of:

1) Forced employee ranking - when you evaluate your employees against one another, to see who's most critical on the team and who's most expendable
2) Front-loaded recruiting systems - when you are forced to undergo background checks, assessments, perhaps even giving your over your first born before you are considered for the position
3) Overdone policy manuals - the ones that are 500 pages too long:)
4) Social media thought police - not allowing employees to engage in sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn during office hours
5) Rules that force employees to lie - such as withholding medical information for fear of not being covered
6) Theft of airline miles
7) Jack-booted layoffs - when firing someone they are given an immediate boot out the door
8)360-degree feedback programs - teaching good management practices instead
9) Mandatory performance-review bell curves - scale rating of employees, instead of setting high standards for employee reviews and raising them annually
10) Timekeeping - obsession around arrival and departure times, "using fractions of sick and personal days to attend to pressing life situations"


It's true, there are so many management and leadership books on the market, some ill conceived "best practices" have taken root and booted some good solid behaviors. What's missing from this list is the most critical element, people come first - period, end of sentence. In all of our creating of systems and processes we've forgotten the basic tenant, the "golden rule." Remember that one...the one that states every person has a right to fair and just treatment, and each of us have a responsibility to ensure this justice for each other.

Where did the golden rule go in the mix? Organizations can't be run like street side lemonade stands, however as long as organizations take the eye off the golden rule, the rest is just a shifting of the chairs. In fact, working at a lemonade stand may sound really great if your organization is scoring you like cattle and throwing you out the door after 15 years of service.

Let me save you some time from reading the countless numbers of leadership books...live by the golden rule or the old "love thy neighbor as thyself." Unless we learn how to care for the people side of the business, our businesses won't function very well for very long. You won't hear experts talk of it in these terms. Schmanzy language such as "third quarter earnings were down" is how they will cite it. If you took a microscope to the people side of the business, how would the organization fare in the long run?

This suggestion is to you my dear leader...when deciding what new business book to read, remember the golden rule, the rest is just commentary.