> If a person is running late on a project, the best way to find out the reason is to have a one-on-one meeting with them. They are free to incriminate themselves, in ways that I find useful. For instance, they might put all the blame on someone else. After the meeting I will investigate their accusations and discover the truth. Is the other person to blame? If I conclude that the other person is not to blame, then I know I have a person on my team who both runs late and dishonestly blames other people for their problems.
This reads like micromanagement, wasting so much effort into finding someone to blame, and creating an atmosphere of fear and self-doubt.
What he should do instead with all this wasted energy:
Encourage people to discover self-management techniques. Create an atmosphere of trust and reliability by positive, affectionate reinforcement. Give them freedom to breathe, give them reasons to ask themselves every morning "What is one thing that I can improve in my workflow today?" intrinsically?
Intrinsic motivation is key. If you build pressure, they'll never develop their potential, because they never knew that it's possible.
Lead by example, becasue nothing motivates stronger than thinking "Wow, I want to be as cool and productive as my manager, he's awesome!".
This guy does everything wrong. He's wasting time and money, and people will leave until he learns.