Alex Fialka
Published Mar 2, 2015
Perhaps the most unrecognized factor which leads to failed projects, initiatives, low employee morale and dissent among employees, the form of utterly ineffective delegation is often overlooked. A while back, I was having a discussion with a close friend, an experienced Project Manager and I asked him on the progress of his project he was working on and somewhat cynical, he replied “Well everyone is working as hard as possible to get things done, but the delays caused by the project are well…… caused by ineffective management.” When I pressed on, he answered “Well the problem here is we have responsibility without authority. It is the worst management strategy I ever came across, it drives me crazy!”. In fact it was not the first time I heard this and for me reason to look into this more closely and pored through some readings on blogs and articles online and came across an interesting phenomenon called the No Authority Gauntlet (NAG) Syndrome.
This is still very actual and a potential threat to any business.
Responsibility Without Authority: How to Drive Employees Crazy
Specifically matrix organizations are vulnerable to this phenomenon, where individuals are managed through more than one reporting line.
How you achieve the NAG Syndrome is very simple.
- You delegate someone a management job but one without the necessary management authorities. In other words, make this person accountable for the work of others but with no accompanying clout.
- There will be other employees reporting to this person but they either have other real managers as well with authority or recognizes that there is someone else making the final decisions.
- These employees may sincerely make commitments, however when it’s time for prioritizing work, the work that has authority from either the real managers or the decision maker will be first in line.
- Lacking in authority, the person which was given the accountable job will resort to the only authority the person has; NAGGING or being a pain in the ass just to get things done. At the end of the day, this person is accountable.
In fact you are a "pseudo-manager".
The Three Stages of the NAG Syndrome
The pseudo-manager will experience the NAG syndrome in three stages:
- Jubilant.
- In this initial state, the pseudo-manager is proud to be tackling a task that darn near everyone agrees is terribly important. He or she is confident that any organizational challenge can be met. Huzzah!
- Doubt.
- Lip service and elbow grease seem to be going in different directions. People keep endorsing the pseudo-manager’s task, but follow-through is sporadic. The pseudo-manager can’t understand what’s going on, and neither can anyone else.
- Not enough leadership? Not enough communication?
- Bitterness.
- This is the final, crazy, phase. In the face of flaccid cooperation, or even rebellion, the pseudo-manager becomes indignant.
- - Don’t these people understand how important this is?
- - Don’t they care about the organization?
- - Weren't there promises made?
Cleaving to the importance of his or her task, like a believer in a land of apostates, the pseudo-manager uses the only authority she has: nag authority. The manager becomes a total pain in the rear – if he/she continues to take his/her mission seriously. That’s the unfairness of it: only pseudo-managers who take their tasks seriously are most affected by the NAG syndrome. Others find a way to bail out.
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Slower, Riskier, Costlier
In some organizations, NAG is practically synonymous with project management. A few years ago a research was conducted on over 500 project managers and found that a huge contributor to project failure was the NAG syndrome (second only to unclear project goals). The problem is so endemic, that courses are offered to project managers in how to manage without authority. That strikes us as similar to teaching people how to live with malaria, instead of giving them mosquito nets.
“Process management,” likewise, has its share of failures because the “process owner” had no authority. Once the frothy-mouthed corporate enthusiasm dies down and the suit-clad consultants go away, nagging process owners find they cannot enforce the new ERP (or whatever) that cuts across the organization.
Organizations waste millions of dollars this way. Research has shown that initiatives undertaken by nagging, pseudo-managers takes way longer than initiatives undertaken by managers who have ordinary managerial authority.
Consider: We’re talking about one of the major risks to success, and yet it costs absolutely nothing to mitigate.
Curing the NAG The solution to the problem of unempowered managers is really quite simple:
- downsize their accountability to match their minuscule authority, or
- up-size their authorities to match their accountability.
Anything else leaves nagging doubts.
A reliable management system and responsibility structure can avoid the vulnerability and frustration which might lurk within your organization.
“Thanks to the nice folks at Executive Leadership Group, Inc. for permission to reprint this article. More of their good stuff is here.”
If you have any questions or need assistance, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Alex Fialka
QARP Quality Management
