Efficiencies

[Lemur]

Lemur: Larger corporations sometimes have feedback loops evaluating areas of improvement for managers. If something like this happens at yours, do you ever see any actual changes implemented after? Do processes get better? Management try to fix some of these items that cause frustration?

Hmm, my company is more medium-sized than big. The next step up from me is the Account Managers, of whom there are three, two of whom are also founders and Presidents. So ... when I kick upstairs, there's only one layer above me. Maybe this is my particular problem because I'm fairly high-up within my organization?

Thinking back to when I was in a much larger corporation, there was still a very strict sort of hierarchy past which it was very hard to get heard. Part of why I kept accepting promotions was that I wanted to protect my teammates, and the best way to do it was to step up and take charge. I'm not sure that was a great example either, since the ultimate head of our department was slightly insane. Okay, very insane. We finally got rid of him when he was promoted to work with senior management, and they said, "Oh, this man is insane."

-edit-

Do processes get better? Management try to fix some of these items that cause frustration?

Yeah, the problem—as I saw it in a large corporation—was that the senior managers usually had a very specific reason for having someone in a post, so if your problem was with that someone, you were out of luck. We could improve processes, and we did, but that did not address the madness of King George. Again, it took him being promoted to get him fired.