Death By Micromanagement

Micromanagement is one of the most destructive forces that can emerge in an organization. So, what happens when a government is run by a micromanager like Stephen Harper?

Sooner or later the business of governance will grind to a halt. When everything has to be vetted through the PMO before it gets out, that means there's a lot of blind spots coming up. If it's not on Harper's personal radar, he's not going to deal with it effectively - and running one of the most prosperous economies in the G8 is a big job, with a lot of facets.

Harper's renowned distaste for the media in general doesn't help - here's a man with not only a chip on his should where the media is concerned, but also a man whose attitude in general is very similar to other micromanager types - ideas that aren't "his vision", will get ignored.

Ultimately, the inflexible, distant attitude of Harper will work against him - I think he is hoping to be able to hold "the message" together long enough to get to the next election without too many loose lips escaping his grasp. Only when Harper has his goal of a majority government will there be any chance of Canadians finding out what HarperCrit's real agenda is. (Frankly, I'm not at all sure I want to find out)

Rigid, inflexible approaches to leadership mean that the leadership feels it cannot changes its decisions for fear of being accused of weakness. Harper is demonstrating not only a rigid approach to things, but it is becoming increasingly apparent that Harper isn't interested at all in Canadians finding out just what exactly his government is up to. Most things are being announced "after the fact" (e.g. the NORAD agreement), and Harper isn't asking for a debate, so much as he is defying people to challenge his authority.

Go read any decent book on management strategies, and you will quickly learn that Harper's approaches to things are guaranteed to fail.