It is best not to use jargon. You may think otherwise, but it makes your writing harder to understand.

After writing about the virtues of snappy, easy-to-read writing, I re-read earlier stories on this site and found shocking examples of mangement-speak jargon.

For example, in Managing change: keeping a lid on panic I wrote about 'participative management'.

Are these jargon terms avoidable?

They should be. 'Participative management' is a horrid term.

Ambiguous language is bad languge

It is ambiguous – it could mean a number of things. And the five syllable word 'participative' is troublesome on a number of fronts.

The phrase is typical of the highfalutin jargon-laden nonsense empty-headed bosses puff themselves up with.

Yes, I confess it is bad. Yet I don't think it would be possible to write about the subject without using the term.

I thought of going back and changing the term to 'open management'. The term is still a tad wanky and ambiguous, but 'open' is miles better than 'participative'.

Let me be understood

The problem is, nobody understands what the term 'open management' means. You could almost say the same about 'participative management'. But the term is understood by management experts and academics.

Google lists 170,000 entries for 'participative management'. They mainly refer to the same thing.

There are 73,000 Google entries for 'open management'. One look at the first page of entries shows the term is used in a variety of different ways – in some cases for complicated information technology things.

So, it looks as if we are stuck with 'participative management' and hundreds of other management terms. In my next post we'll look at how to use them and not lose our readers.

Bob Sutton reports worker dissatisfaction is at an all time high in America. Less than half of all workers are satisfied with their jobs.

He says many workers are laying in wait and will dash for the exits when the job market improves.

Sutton points to research which shows people quit bosses, not jobs or companies.

The exodus has already started in New Zealand. Recently, in Companies lose as staff look elsewhere, the New Zealand Herald reported "Fifty-three per cent of New Zealand workers are leaving their jobs within the first two years of being employed".

It all comes down to bosses not being in touch with how employees really feel.

If you're a boss and you saw the recent recession as an opportunity to pressure staff, you are a stupid arsehole and you deserve to lose all your good people. And you will lose them. It's too late to fix the problem now.

Sutton, who wrote The No Asshole Rule warns power often goes to the head of bosses who are blind to their shortcomings.

He says even good bosses who behaved well during the recession should take stock and start treating workers even better. The day of reckoning is near.

Dear Bosses: Is It Your Last Chance To Reverse Your Vile Ways? Or Is It Too Late? – Bob Sutton.

HR specialist John Sullivan makes a powerful point in How candidate abuse Is costing your firm millions of dollars in revenue.

He says companies have raised monitoring customer satisfaction to a science. They know the exact cost of getting a customer, upsetting a customer and losing a customer.

But when it comes to hiring workers, they deliver a poor candidate experience and this ends up costing them dearly.

Sullivan says;

I estimate that the average professional candidate voluntarily spends more than $1,000 worth of their own time and money in preparing for and participating in an organization’s hiring process. Given that level of investment, they deserve to be treated like good customers.

It’s a long piece with plenty of detail, and he provides a list of 20 negatives from poor hiring practices. In my book two stand out.

First, abused candidates turn into enemies. Not only will they not buy the company’s products, but they actively lobby against others buying those products. This is especially harmful to companies operating in business-to-business markets where individual orders are large.

Second, the best candidates – which also means the best employees – don’t need to put up with being jerked around by dumb processes. They’ll walk away from stupidity. So over time a company with poor hiring practices will only get second-rate people.

It’s only short, but  Managing projects through email sucks by Chance Bliss is a timely remind that email is not a miracle cure for all your communications needs.

It doesn’t even come close.

Bliss writes:

There are many ways to sabotage a project, but the one I find the most effective is email. Every email sent to a developer, designer or copywriter is a invitation for distraction which in turn increases mistakes and decreases productivity.

She is right. If you’ve got a message a phone call, or a personal visit are so much better than email. Both modes of communications more efficient and less open to misinterpretation.

I’m indebted to Jack Vinson who pointed to this at Managing via email fails on his excellent Knowledge Jolt with Jack site.

Jack says:

The struggle for many people and organizations is that they see no other way to work than via email because it has become so deeply ingrained in the way of doing things.

Which is a good reason to try communicating through a more nuanced medium.

On one level the email staff memo republished by Bob Sutton on his excellent web site is funny. It sounds as if Fawlty Towers was run by someone with Lenny Bruce's vocabulary.

On the other level, it is disturbing just how bad some managers can behave. And it must harm the business.

Bob Sutton: Asshole Boss of the Year?. (Warning, the language may cause offence).

Marshall Goldsmith says you need to take five steps to become an effective leader.

Goldsmith drew on a study of 86,000 people working in major corporations before devising his list – so this might be better titled "increase your corporate leadership effectiveness".

Goldsmith says the jury is out on whether great leaders are born that way (in fact he asks his readers for their opinions on this). He says the essential skills are not hard to learn.

One tip I particularly like is:

Periodically ask co-workers for suggestions on how you can do an even better job in your selected behaviors for change.

I may not always like what I hear when I get feedback, but good or bad it is always welcome.

An interesting piece at Computerworld about the father of modern management and the first person to use the phrase "knowledge worker".

I'm not sure about describing Drucker as a life coach – it is a term I've learnt to mistrust.

Peter Drucker as Life Coach: Book Shares His Wisdom.

Sub-titled "15 successful strategies for becoming a good manager", Nick McCormick's book Lead Well and Prosper is a straightforward, common sense leadership guide for new managers. It is for people who are moving from working as part of a team to leading a team.

I mentioned the book in March. A few weeks later a review copy of the book arrived. As I was working on a major project, it promptly went below all the urgent reading only to surface in the last few days.

The book caught my eye because McCormick encapsulated its 15 key points in a simple list. At the time I said it squares with everything I've written on the art of management here on this site.

That holds just as true for the book as for the potted version.

McCormick's writing is sort, sharp and to the point. There are 93 pages split into 15 chapters. Each starts with a realistic anecdote, a few pages explaining the point being considered and a useful summary.

It'll only take a couple of hours to read. If you commute or are a frequent flyer it would be a sound investment of otherwise wasted time.

I like the brevity and the light-hearted nature of the book. It's easy to read. Simple to understand and designed in a way that makes it helpful as a reference when you need a quick refresher on the points.

it's not patronising nor does it preach. You'll  find common sense advice on the things good managers do better than average or poor managers.

None of the individual ideas McCormick expresses are radical or eye-popping. Some may seem obvious, yet clearly they aren't, as millions of managers fail to get these things right every day.

They are 15 rules to help you become a good leader. That's right. A good leader, not a great leader. This goes with the common sense practicality on display throughout the pages. As McCormick says, many people find being a good manager is difficult.

My only personal criticism of the book is the cartoons don't add much value – but your mileage may vary on that issue.

The book cost $US14.95 and is available from booksellers and online. For details of where to get it contact Be Good Ventures LLC.