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give out conflicting directions. Who is the person with the dual reporting relationship supposed to listen to? 3. People with titles who have been “promoted” to “senior- somethings” but who have no change in functional role or responsibilities. What’s the point, really, if their job isn’t going to change whatsoever? I have always thought this was a bad practice. Just pay the person more versus giving them what I consider to be a fake promotion! 4. People with titles that are misrepresentative of their real function and responsibilities. One of the most typical that I frequently see is when “operations” people are dealing with non-operations issues. “Operations” to me should be all about the line functions – i.e., what the firm actually does to make money (architecture, engineering, etc.) – as opposed to support functions. 5. Confusion over the titles of “principal” and “associate” and all variants of those, and what the functional responsibilities of those roles are. My answer to the questions about what these people are supposed to do is that typically these are not functional roles at all, but instead imply status and/or position in the hierarchy of ownership. Many people don’t understand that. 6. People who use the term “partner” as synonymous with “principal.” They are not the same thing. While both may be owners, partners are owners in a partnership, and that is quite a bit different from being a stockholder
or shareholder in a corporation or member of an LLC. “Partner” may imply rights to some people that principals, shareholders, or members may not have. 7. Marketing directors who are charged with managing business development when none of those who actually do the business development report to them. It makes the marketing director’s responsibility for selling a joke. Everyone knows they have zero control over the principals who are typically the ones responsible for BD. They (the marketing director) or whomever is the top marketing person in the firm is usually at a lower level in the status/clout hierarchy than a principal is in the same firm. Therefore, how can the marketing manager manage them? 8. Boards of directors (BOD) whose members are all insiders who also work full-time in the functional organization. If the BOD is supposed to supervise the CEO but all of the BOD members report to the CEO in the functional organization, how in the world is that supposed to work? It doesn’t. I could probably list 10 more of these organization issues if pressed. These are not academic problems. They are real issues that need to be discussed and dealt with! Mark Zweig is Zweig Group’s chairman and founder. Contact him at mzweig@zweiggroup.com.
THE ZWEIG LETTER MAY 26, 2025, ISSUE 1587
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