"Don't hide behind policy in dealing with their problems."
Mary Kay had a set of guidelines in place for those in the organization that had any type of supervisory responsibilities.
One of those that strikes me is when she admonishes her people not to hide behind policy when they're dealing with issues that are raised or need to be addressed.
Other than being either a cowardly thing to do, or the result of not wanting to take the time or make the effort to deal with it, it also has the potential to lose great ideas that can emerge from dealing with problems.
Using policy as a weapon to deal with problems or hide behind them, is one of the actions that can do more to discourage workers than any other. Essentially you're telling them you're not interested in what they have to say or nothing will change how things are done. Either way you'll destroy a company with this type of practice.
Business leaders using policy as a weapon may do more harm than any other single thing to stop the flow of ideas and information across an organization. Do that and you're cutting off the future of the business. A business can't survive without this river of ideas that should be continually tapped for improvement in a company.
Policy has to be looked upon as being in a fluid state. It's there in a temporary sense to give temporary guidelines to existing circumstances (I'm not talking about legal requirements here). If policy is looked upon as the deciding factor in handling all problems, you will have a lot of problems with change in your company.
I know there is a fine line here that our people need to understand the difference between. But from managements' viewpoint, policy should never be considered something like the 10 commandments of business where it can never be broken or changed. Policy is made based upon existing knowledge and data. When new information or knowledge becomes known, policy can easily be in need of an overhaul.
Use policy as a guideline, not a rigid rule that can be used to pummel your people into submission. Everyone loses if that's our practice.
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