- Not much incentive-wise to attract or retain talent.
- Honest criticism does not appear to be received well by upper management.
- Unrealistic and even inconsistent standards / expectations.
- Frequently finds themselves in hot water with customers by telling them one thing and either under-delivering or delivering another (perhaps not intentionally, but it doesn't look good no matter how one slices it) the pattern is the problem.
- Noticeable ego(s), that often get in the way of meaningful dialogue or thorough scrutiny on critical projects. The result is incomplete feature concepts & translates to arguably poor business management or planning.
- Lack of internal knowledge / resources to truly empower employees to succeed. (For small business, these things take time - but it shouldn't be overlooked either)
- Customers often seem to feel frustrated by lack of support / training resources available.
- For a small business, there is a lot of communication that seems to be intentionally filtered or censored.
- Accountability has some gaping holes, a bit of partiality seems to be the culprit. I've seen Project Managers get fired at a couple of Fortune 500 companies for the way some things have been done during my time there.
