Guy Kawasaki pointed to this unbelievably good post from a woman named Pamela Slim who delivers a harsh but important message to senior management in organizations. I love her clarity, her honesty, and the content of the points she makes. We need to say this stuff more often.

Please read the whole post. But here are some of my favorite quotes:

• Corporate culture is a natural thing that cannot be manufactured.  No amount of posters, incentive programs, PowerPoint presentations or slogans on websites will affect the hearts and minds of your employees.  If you want to see things change immediately, stop acting like an asshole.  If you see one of your senior managers acting like an asshole, ask him to stop.  If he doesn’t stop, fire him.  You will be amazed at how fast the culture shifts.

• Don’t ask for your employees’ input if you are not going to listen to it.

• Take the time to analyze what is causing the problems in your business such as high turnover, plunging sales or a huge increase in employee complaints.  Usually it is something that will not be resolved by training everyone.  Most often it involves firing a person or two who are causing havoc in a department.

• If you provide flexible work options and don’t make people sit unnecessarily at their desk, you will keep some great employees who would otherwise leave.  A manager who is afraid to offer telecommuting to her employees because she thinks they will slack off is just showing her own weakness. Great managers build accountability into flexible work plans and manage performance aggressively.