Manage for Consistency

Most companies would prefer to grow steadily at a healthy rate rather than doubling in size one year and losing money the next. No one can manage this kind of schizophrenia effectively with any long-term success, and no one should try. Next to profitability, the most important goal a company should strive for is consistency.

If flexibility is the means, then consistency—of performance and growth—is the end. This sounds like something of a contradiction. If one is being flexible how can one be consistent? In fact, not only are they compatible, but a flexible, responsive management virtually guarantees consistency. It is inflexibility that causes erratic behavior. A company goes on for too long adhering to all the old rules and outdated modes of performance. Then one morning someone wakes up, panics, overreacts, and throws out all the rules. That can make people nuts.

To manage consistently you have to behave consistently. Even if people don’t like what you are saying, they still want to know where you are coming from.

Inconsistency in management breeds all sorts of unnecessary anxieties in the people being managed. There are enough legitimate anxieties in business without adding to them by not letting people know where you are coming from.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, Line of Sight