The buzz - Kobe's Beef

Automotive Industries,  Nov, 2002  by Gerry Kobe

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Shhhh, Listen. Do you hear it? I hear it.

In fact, I've heard it many times but I always wonder if anybody else does. And if they do hear it I question whether or not they realize how serious it is?

I'm talking about the "buzz," the barely perceptible undercurrent of people speaking their minds when the boss isn't there to hear them. The people who speak with conviction and logic and who can make so much sense when they don't have to be afraid that telling the truth will mean the end of their career. The people that get labeled as "grousers," when in fact they are talented employees that are crying for leadership that understands as much about the business as they do.

Oh, rest assured, the auto industry has plenty of "buzz" because it has plenty of talented people who know more than their bosses. Does that mean they are bad employees? No it doesn't Does it mean they are non-team players? I don't think so. What it means is they probably have a supervisor that's holding them back, but if they tell anyone other than their fellow frustrated employees they'll end up taking a bullet for the team.

To be sure, the "buzz" isn't anything new. Over 2000 years ago, Chinese warrior/philosopher Sun Tzu wrote:

"When there are murmurings, lapses in duties and extended conversations, the loyalty of the group has been lost."

Sounds familiar doesn't it? Clearly we understood this to be a problem 2,000 years ago, but then, as now, poor leadership was the root cause that enabled it And similarly, it usually wasn't the top leaders that were the problem; it was a failure by mid-level officers who had risen to their level of incompetence.

What got me started on this rant was some research work I've been doing on a new platform that's being developed. Once I broke the ice with some of the engineers on that program, they shared some off-the-record but scathing comments about a particular manager who was screwing up the development process. Now I have to entertain the possibility that they were biased and/or wrong, but every single one of them? That's not likely. It's more likely that they have a legitimate gripe and no way to get it to someone that can do something about it.

When they further explained to me that this person was "protected" by friends in high places and untouchable in spite of their poor performance, I could only empathize. I've been there myself and I know all about the "buzz" it creates and how destructive that is to morale.

And for the record, the solution is not to punish the people that are doing the "buzzing" or to tell them that it's none of their business. It IS their business and they're trying to help, so cut them some slack. Rather than kill the messenger, senior management needs to heed the message that some companies are Petri dishes that breed people who can kiss backsides better than they can perform their duties. And based on the feedback I get there are plenty of them out there.

The only way to quiet the "buzz" is through good management and that means having that skill set Having the right last name is not a legitimate qualification for being a manager. Neither is being rich, or being somebody's neighbor or being an ingratiating phony. Those things will bring on the "buzz" loud and clear.

A good team manager lives by the credo that when something goes wrong, "he did it." When something goes as planned, "we did it" And when something goes better than planned, "they did it." That kind of a manager doesn't have to worry about what his team thinks of him and he'll never have to hear the "buzz."

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