Frankenscorekeeper: one type of corporate Frankenstein found in growing numbers today is the scorekeeper who can think of nothing but numbers.

• Author: Wiesner, Pat
• Position: Commentary

WHAT'S WORSE TO A MANAGER TRYING to operate in a soft economy than someone pounding on him or her without end about reaching unreachable numbers?

A friend of mine once described to me his reason for quitting a high level job he had had for many years: "When I started 20 years ago I was a player, later I became a player-coach and then a coach. And finally, I became a Scorekeeper. Being a Scorekeeper really isn't any fun. I want to go back to being a coach or player coach."

Hard times make it easier for managers to become Scorekeepers (with a capital S, to differentiate from the scorekeeping that everyone must do to do their job right) without even realizing it. A Scorekeeper obsesses about numbers. Whether they are his numbers or were given to him by some higher-level Scorekeeper, they become the only thing that matters. There is so much pressure on making the numbers because not to do so implies cutting people, cutting jobs and finding expenses to eliminate--a Scorekeeper's worst nightmare.

If you or I become a Scorekeeper, wittingly or no, we need to understand that the effect on the people who depend on us for leadership will be a net negative. If we focus unreasonably on the numbers, if it's obviously all we can talk about, if we equate success with making numbers that are just out of reach, then we will get less out of people than they can give. It will be clear to them than we are attempting to put on them responsibility that we should at least share.

So what are some of the things we can do to keep from moving from scorekeeper to Scorekeeper?

Make 'em reachable. The numbers, that is. Nothing is as depressing as goals that everyone knows are impractical or unreachable. Whatever it takes to the...