Bonus Pay for Fighting Fires

It is pretty sad when a corporate culture rewards dysfunctional behavior. In too many companies, managers build their careers around their ability to put out fires--to jump from one near disaster to another, applying superficial and temporary solutions and getting high praise (or a bonus) for saving a project or operation from going down in flames. By the time the quick-fix comes apart, enough time has passed to allow people to safely blame the recurent problem on another set of circumstances--or another manager.

Any growing organization may have some fire fighting--you can't always anticipate and prevent every possible hiccup in a plan. But when a corporate culture supports or even promotes a "patch it up, we'll fix it later" management style you're encouraging people to find value and a sense of importance in being busy, living under constant time pressure, and allowing the urgent to smother the important.

Insecure managers thrive on the need to be needed. Constant fire fighting in an organization ultimately points to a failure to adequately anticipate problems and implement measures to prevent problems before they occur. Frequent fire fighting can also point to a need to address the core issues behind problems--rather than only resolving the symptoms.

Living on the edge of a crisis keeps the adrenaline junkies happy--but it's a lousy way to manage corporate growth.