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Most people have worked for a weak manager. It's almost like a rite of passage in the workplace. The ramifications of poor management go well beyond the four walls of an office cubicle. The initial effect of poor management, however, is felt within an organization.

Poor managers react instead of plan. They don't have a vision and even when they have one, they are unable to communicate the vision to the team. Poor managers are unorganized and they fail to execute their plans for carrying out the vision. Leadership deficits such as low energy, indecisiveness, and lack of accountability define poor managers.

Poor management decreases employee morale. Morale is the base of motivation. Motivation is a key component of productivity. Regardless of whether poor management is the result of incompetence or leadership deficits, employees refuse to exert effort for someone who is unable to manage projects or people. Lower employee productivity increases labor costs.

Any organization that has low morale also has high turnover. The effects of turnover on the bottom line are well-documented: higher training costs and lower worker expertise. Recruitment becomes virtually impossible as word travels fast about a poorly run operation, especially in the Internet era. The quality of applicants is lower and the human resource nightmare becomes a vicious money draining cycle. Low morale begets high turnover which causes higher costs which leads to an employee exodus that further erodes morale. Running in circles is a poor manager's legacy.

If morale is the heart of efficient business operations, then customer service is the blood line that the heart sustains. Low morale has a direct impact on service, usually decreasing the quality of service to the point that customers flee from a poorly managed business into the competition's open arms. Instead of addressing the low morale ramifications of poor management, businesses generally add more resources to their team's training program. They might as well flush the cash down the drain because they aren't fixing the root cause of the problem: leadership skills deficit.

Customer flight decreases revenue. The money dries up and a company must cut costs in order to match the revenue decline. In most cases, the first place the cost cutters look is labor. People are furloughed or bought out with an early retirement package. The remaining employees sit nervously as their desks wondering if they're next. Morale (there's that word again) is at rock

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