Management malpractice occurs when organizations hire, retain, and support supervisors and managers who do not have the interpersonal and people management skills required to improve organizational performance through their people.

Actions to avoid at all cost

• -> Selecting new managers based on arbitrary systems such as seniority, technical competence, and personal bias
• -> Hiring new managers without regard for their people skills
• -> Retaining managers who are unskilled at getting results through people
• -> Allowing managers to behave unprofessionally despite countless complaints made by their employees and their peers.

So how do we overcome management malpractice and install competent, professional management? The answer lies in our hiring practice and in the implementation of quality people management skills training and education that is practical, experiential, where skills are practiced and transferable, and which deals with the realities of the organization.

First, Leaders need to be technically sound. Those who lack technical competence run the risk of loosing credibility and respect. Selecting managers who are not technically knowledgeable is simply unwise, as it sets them up for failure even before they begin. Secondly, managers must be selected for their people skills. They must understand that people will work best when they are encouraged to provide input and suggestions for improvement, are recognized for their contribution, are given the tools and resources to get the job done, and treated with respect and professionalism. Treating others the way we want to be treated is very much alive here.

Managers need to demonstrate the ability to develop strong and positive relationships with their direct reports and their peers. I may be a little biased here, but from my extensive management training experience, I can assert with certainty that developing interpersonal competence is considerably more challenging than acquiring technical know-how.

Consequences of management malpractice

When an organization allows management malpractice to take root and grow, the results are widespread, affecting all areas and aspects of the organization. The first impact is felt by the entire corporate population. When management malpractice makes up part of the culture, or the way the organization functions, employees are sent resounding messages, and not necessarily spoken;

• -> Difficulty retaining talent – talented folks leave dysfunctional corporate cultures. Inconsistencies, favoritism, lack of growth opportunities, and an absence of recognition to name a few, are key reasons I personally heard talented employees give when leaving their jobs.
  
  
• -> Difficulty attracting talent – well it rather makes sense; if talent leaves, talent is not attracted. Remember that bad news travels much faster than good news. As such, the organization has, over the course of time, developed a solid reputation in the industry, as well as within the local business community, for not being the greatest place to work.
  
  
• -> Trust issues – management malpractice automatically creates a lack of trust between managers and their direct reports, as well as between managers themselves. Many of the issues that should be dealt with are simply not, as ineffectual managers tend to procrastinate by pushing these types of issues to the side, or attack the issues without much regard for those involved.
  
  
• -> Conflicts – many conflicts are unnecessarily created and could have been avoided in the first place. These conflicts are mainly caused by an overall lack of attention in dealing with and resolving people issues in an effective and professional manner.
  
  
• -> Organizational performance – there is no doubt that management malpractice affects the overall performance of the organization, not to mention its bottom line.
  
  
• -> Accountability – accountability for successes is generally ignored while accountability for failures is augmented. It’s important to “catch” employees “doing it right”, rather than focus only on “catching” them “doing it wrong”.