Making Rules May be a Sign You have a Trust Issue
sometimes company rules remind me of the dictionary
I saw a good article by Dr Bradberry on bad rules in companies which you can see here on LinkedIn Pulse. It made me smile and recall other companies that had similar silly/aggravating rules.
Many times I see that these rules come about as companies do not trust their workers. I call it a trust issue. 18 years ago, my wise Chinese Vice GM at the time told me, “Jim, If you don’t trust the worker, then do not hire them and do it yourself!” I took that to heart, and it has served me well wherever I have led since.
There are Two Causes For Having This Trust Issue
1. You are paranoid due to your background and afraid everyone is incapable or untrustworthy. I see this in some super busy leaders. They are all over everyone and people have little room for their own innovation as he is the genius of all through his hard work. This guy looks super valuable but he is lowering the value of everyone else. Underneath his behavior is often a lack of ability to trust
2. You have hired people and got burned as the people you have are not worthy of trust. They will take a mile with every inch you give them, They are not engaged with your work unless you are on top of them. They are hard to manage and wear you out. Others are masters of perception. They can always make themselves look good and their coworkers are demotivated by them and surf the web. You may also want to read, See No Evil Means No Problem in China?
If you are behaving like in point 1 or see your subordinate leaders doing this, then face the issue. Get counselling if open to it or else remove yourself or that guy from leadership. Good and trustworthy leaders exist.
If you have been burned, then probably you should connect with a group that specializes in finding trustworthy people, and we can help you with that.
I totally agree with Dr. Bradberry, but I think you need to make sure you have solved 1 and 2 to get there.