Archive for April 23rd, 2009
Managing Changing Expectations: Part 2
It was clear to me when at the height of the fuel prices I drove by two automotive dealers in my small town. The GM dealer’s lot was full of large SUVs, Pick-up Trucks and Cadillacs while the Toyota Dealer’s lot was full of the Yaris, Corolla, Prius, Matrix and very few Pick-up Trucks and SUVs.
While consumer’s expectations had changed, Toyota had the products available that met their expectations. In fact, I myself only buy American and called the GM dealer asking about the new Malibu Hybrid that was advertised and the sales person told me that they have not even seen one and do not know when they will receive one.
I believe that it is the attitude of management and the lack of visioning that resulted in this type of crisis. This scenario is not limited to only larger corporations and in fact, it is more critical in small business management systems that do not receive financial assistance when they fail.
Attitude is something that starts at the top of an organization and flows down to the very bottom. The following are two examples of how attitude can make such a huge difference:
- 1. Every quality/management system includes an element for corrective action. How often do managers resent or even become aggravated and angry when a corrective action is issued to them? Their attitude often suggests that receiving a corrective action reflects negatively on their performance within the organization. However, this is not the case! In fact, it is quite the opposite. When a problem occurs, management establishes key personnel who they feel have the skill sets, experience and management focus to address the problem, determine the root cause and implement an effective long-term solution. This speaks to itself. Therefore, rather than having a negative attitude when receiving a corrective action, managers should understand that the reason they were selected to receive a corrective action is that the executive management has the confidence that they can resolve the issue. That is a compliment and not a negative benchmark on their performance.