Frustrations

Pretty bad day today.

It's hard to stay motivated when the people around you are content with, well, being content. No ambition to push others to be their best, no distinct goals, and most of all, no accountability for results. You'd think that Stephen Harper's "Accountability Act" would stress accountability for taxpayers' money spent in government agencies.

How about this - a direct calculation for return on investment:

We gave "Agency X" $Y million taxpayer dollars for the fiscal year.
Agency X has mandates A, B, C, and D for the Canadian Government.
How much of that money directly fulfilled these mandates?
What milestones did the agency achieve?
What are the short and long term socio-economic benefits for Canadians, in real dollars?

Random days off and endless laser colour printouts probably wouldn't meet the bill. Diddo for printing out every single one of your emails to keep "hard copies."

Management must be accountable for leading small teams and the organization as a whole. All activities should be directly related to fulfilling mandates A, B, C, and D. If they don't, they are a waste of money. Pure and simple. I guess this philosophy holds true for all organizations.

In this case, the shareholders are the Canadian people. The board of directors are the elected MPs. The CEO is the president of the agency in question.

Leader inspires, company responds, benefits for employees and for shareholders.

Leader sucks, company tanks, shareholders see their money disappear.

Paging Stephen Harper.