In many organizations the maintenance department is not a revenue center - it is a cost center.  As such it spends money and that spend must be minimized for the business to remain healthy.  Today, in the tough economic times of late 2008 and early 2009 companies are spending as little as possible.  Maintenance is being deferred, capital spending is on hold, "excess" capacity is being trimmed, "excess" staff is being laid off.  Companies are trying to "cut their way to prosperity" - and that is impossible to do.  One does not become an athlete by cutting off ones legs and arms.  On the contrary - one becomes prosperous through investment.  The athlete becomes stronger through an investment in exercise and training. Maintenance managers are being asked to perform better with less, cut off the arms and become stronger!  It's insane because of course they cannot succeed.  They know that, and they discount those doing the asking (usually their bosses) and turn to those who appreciate them and their efforts (usually their workforce).  Some might turn inside, to themselves, the only person who has consistently appreciated them and their efforts.

If we turn to our workers for that appreciation we may become a champion of their desires, a protector of sorts.  We are seen as one who really knows what's needed and there's a great deal of empathy with our frustration at not being able to deliver.  But those managers are not delivering - not performing.  The managers who turn inwards become disconnected with their workforce and their managers and they too stop performing.  Like the criminal who is seeking appreciation, they find it where they can and in doing so, they become outcasts, poor performers, someone who must be corrected / fixed.

Maintenance improvement efforts, always in demand in the "good times" are often delayed or slowed down because of a "lack of resources".  That usually means lack of people.  Of course now that times are tough, that "lack" is an "excess".  Perhaps it's just a perception based on circumstances.  Can't it just be "the resources we have now"?  By constantly seeking to minimize the costs spent in maintenance and asset management, those outside the department who hold the purse strings are creating the circumstances for the maintenance / asset manager to under deliver and under perform.  Just like society's lack of appreciation for all those within it creates criminal behaviour and criminals. 

The criminal finds appreciation in the company of other outcasts.  The maintenance / asset managers does the same.  Eventually performance is so far from expectations that it is punished.  Can we truly expect stellar performance from a manager who is constantly being asked to cut, cut, cut?  Likewise with the criminal, can we expect socially acceptable performance from one who is constantly being rejected by society, family, schools, etc.? 

Appreciation of individuals and what they contribute is needed to turn this around.  Appreciation means more than just saying the word too.  If a manager is to be truly appreciated for what he contributes to his company he will be given the necessary "resources" - people, money, time, etc. to do what he has to do in order to deliver the results that are being asked.  This must happen before he becomes an under-performer, while there is still a chance at his recovery.  Likewise, the criminal must be appreciated and given a chance before there is no turning back.  Before the only source of appreciation becomes other criminals.

If we truly appreciate we see people for who they are, for their accomplishments (regardless of how we might judge them) and for their potential.  We all have potential to do more, to do better.  And we all have a drive to do it.  Managers don't become managers because they were bad at what they did in the past - they have proven a level of performance that met or exceeded expectations and they were rewarded.  Likewise, criminals strive to be better at what they do.  If we encourage the behaviour we want rather than the behaviour we don't want, then we will get more of the behaviour we want from our managers and yes, even from criminals.  Encouragement comes from appreciation.  Learn to truly appreciate - don't judge good or bad.  See it for what it is without the judgement, appreciate what led to its creation and then you can see what must be done to redirect and change it.