The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Project Management

 

It might be that while channel-surfing over the weekend, I came across Clint Eastwood's The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly and ended up watching the final 30 minutes—however when I recently stumbled across an article from CIO Zone referring to Tom Rath and Jim Harter's new book, Wellbeing: The Five Essential Elements and reading the article teaser, Bad Managers Can Be Deadly, I couldn't help but start whistling the movies theme song in my head.

Rath and Harper suggest that poor managers can negatively impact team member wellbeing.  They argue that only 20% of employees like what they do, and managers aren't helping improve this figure.  According to their findings:

1. The person we least enjoy being around (of all the people in our lives, not just at work) is our boss.
2. A study of more than 3,000 Swedish workers found that those who thought their managers the least competent had a 24% higher risk of developing a serious heart problem.  If they had worked for the manager for more than four years, the risk rose to 30%.

"If you lead or manage people, your actions have a direct impact on the wellbeing of others," write Rath and Harter.  "When managers and leaders invest in employees' wellbeing, they are likely to influence organizational growth in the process." 

We often talk about the importance of good leadership and how it has a positive effect on project team performance, but it appears that the negative effects of poor leadership impact a lot more than workplace productivity.

According to the authors, it seems the type of manager that harms employees the most does it by ignoring them.  With that in mind, consider that:

1. People who feel their manager ignores them have a 40% chance that they will be actively disengaged or be filled with hostility toward their job.
2. People whose manager ignores them are identified by Gallup as the most disengaged group they have ever studied.

I have to admit, when I read these statistics I was shocked.  Everyone has experienced bad managers at one time in their career or another, but I had no idea that it was potentially life-threatening.  The authors suggest that disengaged employees have higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol on Monday mornings than during weekends when their moods were better.  The difference in mood between weekends and workdays is so extreme that it could explain why so many heart attacks seem to happen on Mondays.

High levels of cortisol over a long period of time raises blood pressure, weakens the immune system, suppresses thyroid function, causes an imbalance in blood sugar, and even weakens bone density. 

Over the last several weeks we've talked about the role project management software and other project management tools have to play in encouraging team members to participate in the project management process.  It would appear that project managers also need to be engaged in the process, and not just give interactions with team members lip service.  "Leaders can't just tell employees that they care about their wellbeing," argue Rath and Harter.  "They have to take action if they want to see results.  And this requires continual measurement and follow-up to help workers manage their wellbeing over time."

How engaged are you with your project teams?  Or, do you tend to ignore them unless there's a problem?  Feel free to share you successes in this regard.