So you are considering making the leap from line employee to manager. Perhaps you are attracted by the higher pay, increased influence, or just a change from the day to day routine that now defines your job. Maybe you dislike your boss and think you could do a better job than him with one hand tied behind your back and a ravenous wolverine attached to your leg. Whatever your motivation, making the move to management is something that shouldn't be taken lightly.
A good friend of mine was dismissed from a job a couple of years ago. "I do the same thing at every company," he told me. "They offer me a management position and I take it for the money. Then I'm miserable and my performance suffers."
There are a few questions you should ask yourself before deciding to pursue a career in management. First, and most important, you should not become a manager if you are a jerk. All you will do is make people's lives miserable. There is a simple test to determine if you have a problem in this area:
TEST: Ask yourself, "Am I a jerk?" If the answer is yes, then management is not for you.
Second, ask yourself,"Do I enjoy pain?" Unless you plan to work for Santa Claus, you will find that the pressure of management can be intense. In most cases, you will spend more time at work as a manager than as a line employee. There are certainly perks, but when things go wrong (and they will), management can be one of the worst places to be.
Third, ask, "Does the work managers do interest me?" If you are a hot shot aardvark trainer and you love what you do, what enticements can management offer you in the way of day to day job content? Instead of contributing individually, you will now be largely contributing through others. Your work will be less hands-on and you may wonder if signing invoices and doing performance reviews is really all you thought it was cracked up to be. Administrative work can be overwhelming in some organizations, and while no one outside of the Communist Party really enjoys administrative work, it is a necessary part of a manager's job.
Fourth, ask, "Am I a people person?" Managers attend meetings, hire and fire, promote and demote. If you would rather be working at your desk than in a meeting, or if you would rather focus on your own assignments than be regularly interrupted by the crisis du jour, management may not be for you. If you are someone that enjoys working with people and can act with integrity, even when confronting a difficult situation with employee discipline requiring delicacy and directness, you may be headed down the right path.
Finally, ask, "Will management lead to greater career opportunities for me?" Entering management too soon can leave you without a solid background in your chosen field. If management doesn't work out for any reason, companies may see your lack of line experience as a detriment, even though you may have several years of management experience. For obvious reasons, there are fewer management than line level career opportunities, and focusing solely on management jobs may leave you unemployed longer than if you could also look at line level opportunities that might eventually lead back to management.
I knew someone who was a manager making a six figure salary. He was laid off and searched for work for 9 months, finally finding a job for half his previous wage. Within 3-4 years he had worked his way back up to a management position at close to his original salary, but his road was not an easy one. If you have hard skills to fall back on, at least you will have the option of making a living as something other than a manager should the need arise.
Conversely, entering management too late can cause people to wonder why you haven't managed before. It's a little like being a 47-year-old who never married. People think there must be something wrong with you, even if there isn't.
There's no easy formula to determine if you will be a successful manager and if now is the time in your career to make the move. Sometimes the decision is made for you, even if you would rather not manage. Perhaps the best way to know if management is for you is to try it. If you don't like it, don't be afraid to step back into a line position and do the best you can in that position. It is much better to be a satisfied saw sharpener than a miserable manager.
If you decide to take the plunge and join ranks of management, give it everything you've got. Learn as much as you can, build strong relationships and deliver on the projects you are asked to work on. Ask others for feedback and make corrections along the way.
No matter what career you choose, if you are driven by a desire to make a positive difference for your company, you'll be able to do great things.
Monday, April 14, 2008
From Graduation to Career Success
In the town where I grew up, there is a University with a bold slogan: "The World is Our Campus." Sarcastic students often change the phrase to: "The Campus is Our World." Does college really prepare you for real life? Is the world your campus or is the campus your world?
I worked full time while going to business school and had ample opportunities to compare and contrast academic learning with the real world. In every way, I am light years ahead of where I would be without a college education.
But school is not real life. Business schools cannot guarantee success in the workplace, just as English Literature degrees cannot guarantee publication. (It's the same question every business student asks professors of subjects like Investment Strategy: "If you're so good at this, why are you teaching instead of living in the Bahamas with a private dolphin zoo?") Schools can only provide tools, techniques and knowledge. It is up to each student to learn how to apply those tools to the problems they will face in the real world. The unbeatable combination of academic learning and real-world intuition will in most cases lead to greater success than academic learning or experience alone.
For the recent graduate embarking on a new career, here are some things you will encounter in the real world that your professors may not have fully prepared you for.
1) POLITICS. No, I'm not referring to Republicans vs. Democrats, although some organizations do have conflicts that run just as deep. I'm referring to the politics of getting things done in an organization. No matter how process-oriented your new company is, you will be ineffective at your job unless you take the time to establish relationships with everyone you work with. When politics are in your favor, life is sweet -- people will understand if you make a mistake and they will give you opportunities to grow. When things are against you (and sometimes all it takes is offending the wrong person), you may feel like calling your old professor in the Bahamas and taking that dolphin-poop scooping job. Sometimes, such as during a company merger, you have very little influence with decision-makers. But you can always treat supervisors, peers and subordinates with trust and respect. A little time spent working on a relationship today can result in big dividends tomorrow. But don't just limit your networking to your current company. Keep track of former co-workers and meet new people in a multitude of settings. You never know when one of them will be looking for a guitar playing manicurist when you are out of work.
2) JERKS. Sure, you went to school with some jerks and maybe had a professor or two who fell into this category. But now the company president's idiot son is your boss and you can't complain to anyone. It's even worse than a professor with tenure! Your only options may be to find another job, go back to graduate school or take up residence in a sanitarium. Surviving this type of situation is sometimes necessary to feed a family, but it can be frustrating. Which leads us to ...
3) ROADBLOCKS. So your whole life you've wanted to be a dog washer for the stars. At first you were making daily contacts and your reputation for quality work was unmatched. But then you accidentally left a mud splotch on Elizabeth Taylor's chihuahua Mr. Fluffykins, and now your name is mud. Every career lives at the intersection of ability and opportunity. If either part of the equation disappears, it may be time to pack up and move on. There was a time when the question "What do you want to be when you grow up?" could be answered with a simple response, such as "A Human Lightning Rod." In today's society, that question is probably better answered with a list. After all, you'll likely change careers several times during your working life. A more relevant question when faced with a career roadblock is, "What do you want to do next?"
4) MONEY. That's right, as a student you had to pay others for the opportunity to kill yourself in pursuit of an elusive goal called "graduation." But now it's your turn to get paid! Don't worry if your friends on welfare are making more than you at first. Just hang in there and when you have a few years of experience, you'll be able to tell people how much you need to make -- and sometimes they'll actually listen! Money can have a downside too, though. Never accept a job you'll hate just because it involves higher pay. A luxurious lifestyle may be worth working towards, but it's just not as fun to drive a Rolls Royce to work when you hate every minute of every hour spent there.
The real world of work can be a great place. It has its ups and downs, but you can find a job you love and a live a balanced life. And when you do, be sure to tell me. I'm looking for the same thing.
I worked full time while going to business school and had ample opportunities to compare and contrast academic learning with the real world. In every way, I am light years ahead of where I would be without a college education.
But school is not real life. Business schools cannot guarantee success in the workplace, just as English Literature degrees cannot guarantee publication. (It's the same question every business student asks professors of subjects like Investment Strategy: "If you're so good at this, why are you teaching instead of living in the Bahamas with a private dolphin zoo?") Schools can only provide tools, techniques and knowledge. It is up to each student to learn how to apply those tools to the problems they will face in the real world. The unbeatable combination of academic learning and real-world intuition will in most cases lead to greater success than academic learning or experience alone.
For the recent graduate embarking on a new career, here are some things you will encounter in the real world that your professors may not have fully prepared you for.
1) POLITICS. No, I'm not referring to Republicans vs. Democrats, although some organizations do have conflicts that run just as deep. I'm referring to the politics of getting things done in an organization. No matter how process-oriented your new company is, you will be ineffective at your job unless you take the time to establish relationships with everyone you work with. When politics are in your favor, life is sweet -- people will understand if you make a mistake and they will give you opportunities to grow. When things are against you (and sometimes all it takes is offending the wrong person), you may feel like calling your old professor in the Bahamas and taking that dolphin-poop scooping job. Sometimes, such as during a company merger, you have very little influence with decision-makers. But you can always treat supervisors, peers and subordinates with trust and respect. A little time spent working on a relationship today can result in big dividends tomorrow. But don't just limit your networking to your current company. Keep track of former co-workers and meet new people in a multitude of settings. You never know when one of them will be looking for a guitar playing manicurist when you are out of work.
2) JERKS. Sure, you went to school with some jerks and maybe had a professor or two who fell into this category. But now the company president's idiot son is your boss and you can't complain to anyone. It's even worse than a professor with tenure! Your only options may be to find another job, go back to graduate school or take up residence in a sanitarium. Surviving this type of situation is sometimes necessary to feed a family, but it can be frustrating. Which leads us to ...
3) ROADBLOCKS. So your whole life you've wanted to be a dog washer for the stars. At first you were making daily contacts and your reputation for quality work was unmatched. But then you accidentally left a mud splotch on Elizabeth Taylor's chihuahua Mr. Fluffykins, and now your name is mud. Every career lives at the intersection of ability and opportunity. If either part of the equation disappears, it may be time to pack up and move on. There was a time when the question "What do you want to be when you grow up?" could be answered with a simple response, such as "A Human Lightning Rod." In today's society, that question is probably better answered with a list. After all, you'll likely change careers several times during your working life. A more relevant question when faced with a career roadblock is, "What do you want to do next?"
4) MONEY. That's right, as a student you had to pay others for the opportunity to kill yourself in pursuit of an elusive goal called "graduation." But now it's your turn to get paid! Don't worry if your friends on welfare are making more than you at first. Just hang in there and when you have a few years of experience, you'll be able to tell people how much you need to make -- and sometimes they'll actually listen! Money can have a downside too, though. Never accept a job you'll hate just because it involves higher pay. A luxurious lifestyle may be worth working towards, but it's just not as fun to drive a Rolls Royce to work when you hate every minute of every hour spent there.
The real world of work can be a great place. It has its ups and downs, but you can find a job you love and a live a balanced life. And when you do, be sure to tell me. I'm looking for the same thing.
Friday, April 11, 2008
How to Be a Good Manager in a Bad Organization
I used to work for the best company in the world. It was, in fact, where I learned to manage.
They had all kinds of problems. They made mistakes, and they were annoyingly bureaucratic. But I was okay with all of that because I knew that at the end of the day, the company cared about me. They cared about people.
It was, in fact, comparatively easy to be a manager in such an organization. The corporate culture fit with my own goals as a manager and I was able to complete projects and take care of people.
Fast forward a few years and I found myself in quite a different situation. My company had been purchased by an investment equity firm and the pressure to perform was immense. I found myself in conversations with superiors about the need to say no more, to be the bad guy. To be, in short, a jerk. At first I went along, not wanting to disappoint management. But I stopped short at making unreasonable demands of my people, though we worked long hours and did our best to do the impossible.
Someone once told me that no matter what kind of company you work for, you have the ability to control the culture and environment that your employees work in. When you are told that your team is failing to meet expectations and you'd better shape up or ship out, you can blame your people and yell and scream at them until they feel just as bad as you. Or you can calmly create and execute a plan to improve, soliciting help from your employees and explaining the difficult situation you are in.
In Man's Search for Meaning, psychologist Victor Frankl described what he called, "the last human freedom." As a concentration camp detainee in World War II, Frankl observed men in the absolute worst of states. Walking skeletons living in hell. Interesting, then, that some of the dying men freely gave their meager crusts of bread to others even worse off than they were. The last human freedom is to choose how you will respond. You can react to the stimulus and be ruled by anger, anxiety and negativity, making others around you as miserable as you are. Or you can rise above.
No matter where you work, no matter who you are, you always have a choice. To be a good manager in a bad organization requires a significant personal effort and it is a daily struggle, but it can lead to change. Norman Schwarzkopf, head of the coalition forces in the first Iraq War, served three tours of duty in Vietnam. His third trip was voluntary. He knew by that point that the war could not be won, but as an experienced leader he felt that his presence in Vietnam might help a few boys get home who wouldn't have made it otherwise.
After Vietnam, the United States army was demoralized. Schwarzkopf found himself in a difficult environment and strongly considered leaving the army. He decided, however, to remain and try to make a difference as he gained knowledge and influence. The success of the Gulf War is indicative of the successful change that Schwarzkopf and others engineered. He stayed in a bad organization and worked to make it better.
It is possible to be a good manager in a bad organization. It will test what you are made of, but you may be the key to a company's changing for the better. It is certainly easier to work in a good organization, but your impact on a bad organization can make a much greater difference.
They had all kinds of problems. They made mistakes, and they were annoyingly bureaucratic. But I was okay with all of that because I knew that at the end of the day, the company cared about me. They cared about people.
It was, in fact, comparatively easy to be a manager in such an organization. The corporate culture fit with my own goals as a manager and I was able to complete projects and take care of people.
Fast forward a few years and I found myself in quite a different situation. My company had been purchased by an investment equity firm and the pressure to perform was immense. I found myself in conversations with superiors about the need to say no more, to be the bad guy. To be, in short, a jerk. At first I went along, not wanting to disappoint management. But I stopped short at making unreasonable demands of my people, though we worked long hours and did our best to do the impossible.
Someone once told me that no matter what kind of company you work for, you have the ability to control the culture and environment that your employees work in. When you are told that your team is failing to meet expectations and you'd better shape up or ship out, you can blame your people and yell and scream at them until they feel just as bad as you. Or you can calmly create and execute a plan to improve, soliciting help from your employees and explaining the difficult situation you are in.
In Man's Search for Meaning, psychologist Victor Frankl described what he called, "the last human freedom." As a concentration camp detainee in World War II, Frankl observed men in the absolute worst of states. Walking skeletons living in hell. Interesting, then, that some of the dying men freely gave their meager crusts of bread to others even worse off than they were. The last human freedom is to choose how you will respond. You can react to the stimulus and be ruled by anger, anxiety and negativity, making others around you as miserable as you are. Or you can rise above.
No matter where you work, no matter who you are, you always have a choice. To be a good manager in a bad organization requires a significant personal effort and it is a daily struggle, but it can lead to change. Norman Schwarzkopf, head of the coalition forces in the first Iraq War, served three tours of duty in Vietnam. His third trip was voluntary. He knew by that point that the war could not be won, but as an experienced leader he felt that his presence in Vietnam might help a few boys get home who wouldn't have made it otherwise.
After Vietnam, the United States army was demoralized. Schwarzkopf found himself in a difficult environment and strongly considered leaving the army. He decided, however, to remain and try to make a difference as he gained knowledge and influence. The success of the Gulf War is indicative of the successful change that Schwarzkopf and others engineered. He stayed in a bad organization and worked to make it better.
It is possible to be a good manager in a bad organization. It will test what you are made of, but you may be the key to a company's changing for the better. It is certainly easier to work in a good organization, but your impact on a bad organization can make a much greater difference.
Compassion: Just Another Word in the Dictionary?
In his book Managers not MBAs, Henry Mintzberg described a survey given to Harvard MBA students and to CEOs. When asked about compassion, 25% of CEOs said it was an important attribute. Only 4% of Harvard MBA students felt it deserved notice.
Why such a difference? Perhaps compassion grows with time and Harvard MBA students haven't yet arrived at a place where they feel it is important. Or, more likely, the competitive environment at Harvard emphasizes cold, hard analytical skills and things like compassion are sissy soft stuff that doesn't lead to business success.
It is disconcerting to think that the business leaders of tomorrow produced by an elite school like Harvard are graduating without believing that compassion is important. It is more disconcerting to think that 75% of today's CEOs feel the same way. These are the people who are responsible for the culture and direction of the company's they lead. These are the people who determine if you have a job tomorrow. In a financial sense, these are the movers and shakers that make the world go round.
Business can be a difficult game. Cutthroat competition regularly leaves thriving businesses in bankrupt dung heaps and only the best survive. The forces at work in a free market economy are not to be trifled with. You have to be tough.
But you don't have to be Ebenezer Scrooge. Businesses can do wonderful things for their shareholders, their employees, and their communities. Compassion involves second chances. It involves thinking about lives that will be affected by business decisions, even if costs will decrease by one tenth of one percent. It involves thinking about someone other than yourself, someone else's bottom line. But, contrary to popular belief, compassion isn't altruistic. It's good business.
Consider SAS software, the largest private software company in the world. The SAS web site contains a Work/Life section prefaced with the following quote:
"If you treat employees as if they make a difference to the company, they will make a difference to the company."
The company reported $2.15 billion in revenue in 2007 and has been featured in Fortune Magazine's list of best companies to work for for ten straight years. The company has built recreational and health care facilities for its employees. 35-hour work weeks are encouraged (anything more, CEO Jim Goodnight argues, and people start to become fatigued and make mistakes).
Jim Goodnight is one of my personal heroes, because he understands what so few business leaders seem to grasp. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the company. I once watched him debate a New York CEO at a business seminar. Goodnight told of his people-oriented philosophy and attributed his company's success to his employees. The New York CEO, in reply, said something like, "Yeah, we take care of our people, yada yada yada. But also we got lucky. We went from $0 to $100 million in 7 years ..." His brief dismissal of Goodnight's philosophy is typical of too many short-sighted CEOs.
It is possible to be compassionate AND financially successful. The world needs more business leaders who care about people. Be one of them!
Why such a difference? Perhaps compassion grows with time and Harvard MBA students haven't yet arrived at a place where they feel it is important. Or, more likely, the competitive environment at Harvard emphasizes cold, hard analytical skills and things like compassion are sissy soft stuff that doesn't lead to business success.
It is disconcerting to think that the business leaders of tomorrow produced by an elite school like Harvard are graduating without believing that compassion is important. It is more disconcerting to think that 75% of today's CEOs feel the same way. These are the people who are responsible for the culture and direction of the company's they lead. These are the people who determine if you have a job tomorrow. In a financial sense, these are the movers and shakers that make the world go round.
Business can be a difficult game. Cutthroat competition regularly leaves thriving businesses in bankrupt dung heaps and only the best survive. The forces at work in a free market economy are not to be trifled with. You have to be tough.
But you don't have to be Ebenezer Scrooge. Businesses can do wonderful things for their shareholders, their employees, and their communities. Compassion involves second chances. It involves thinking about lives that will be affected by business decisions, even if costs will decrease by one tenth of one percent. It involves thinking about someone other than yourself, someone else's bottom line. But, contrary to popular belief, compassion isn't altruistic. It's good business.
Consider SAS software, the largest private software company in the world. The SAS web site contains a Work/Life section prefaced with the following quote:
"If you treat employees as if they make a difference to the company, they will make a difference to the company."
The company reported $2.15 billion in revenue in 2007 and has been featured in Fortune Magazine's list of best companies to work for for ten straight years. The company has built recreational and health care facilities for its employees. 35-hour work weeks are encouraged (anything more, CEO Jim Goodnight argues, and people start to become fatigued and make mistakes).
Jim Goodnight is one of my personal heroes, because he understands what so few business leaders seem to grasp. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the company. I once watched him debate a New York CEO at a business seminar. Goodnight told of his people-oriented philosophy and attributed his company's success to his employees. The New York CEO, in reply, said something like, "Yeah, we take care of our people, yada yada yada. But also we got lucky. We went from $0 to $100 million in 7 years ..." His brief dismissal of Goodnight's philosophy is typical of too many short-sighted CEOs.
It is possible to be compassionate AND financially successful. The world needs more business leaders who care about people. Be one of them!
Success On Your Own Terms
Most everyone wants to be successful, and most everyone wants to be happy. It is possible to be successful and unhappy, however, if your success is achieved using methods that are incompatible with your core beliefs. In management, it is tempting to achieve success on someone else's terms -- your boss told you to get that project out the door as quickly as possible or you won't get a bonus this quarter. Solution? Round up your people, whip them into shape, keep them working all hours of the day and night and--voila--you've got a bonus and your success is assured. But at what cost?
I learned early in my management career that it is possible to achieve short term results by being a jerk. Since being a jerk comes very natural to me, this was an easy way to get things done. Be demanding. Manage with anger. Fire people if they make a single mistake. Pit people against each other by providing them with conflicting information. Malign your coworkers when they aren't around. Send emails with carbon copies to 42 senior executives so all of them know that someone on your team has failed and you sure aren't going to take the blame for the project not being done on time. Some people become very successful using these unfortunate techniques, along with a host of other manipulative backstabbing tools conceived by the Board of Regents at Jerk University.
In 1974, Stanley Milgram designed a fascinating experiment to determine how people responded to authority. In the experiment, a researcher would pretend to receive electric shocks. A volunteer would be told to administer shocks of increasing voltage, and the volunteers could see the effect the apparently real shocks had on researchers, who cried out in pain as the shock intensity increased. An authority figure would give quiet prompts to the volunteer such as "Please continue" and "The experiment requires that you continue." The results? An amazing 65% of subjects administered a lethal voltage to the researcher. Milgram's conclusion was that, when ordered to do things they would normally disagree with, people simply obeyed and continued the experiment.
Does this happen in the workplace? When an executive sets an unrealistic deadline and demands compliance, do subordinate managers--responding to the authority figure--forget their personal convictions and abuse their employees in order to satisfy the authority figure? Perhaps it happens more than we would like to admit. An effective people manager is not afraid to challenge his employees, but he understands reasonable limits and wants his people to enjoy time at home and an occasional uninterrupted vacation. It is one thing to pull an all-nighter, another thing entirely to ask people to work 60, 70 or 80 hour weeks for months at a time.
Author Anna Quindlen said, "If your success is not on your own terms, if it looks good to the world but does not feel good in your heart, it is not success at all." If you work your way to the top by stepping on others, you are little better than an organizational parasite who subsists by feeding on other people. Success doesn't always require fancy cars, important job titles and exotic llama farms.
Successful managers knows that you get power by giving it away. Successful managers achieve success on their own terms, and don't treat subordinates as personal slaves. Successful managers know that they will and won't do to achieve their goals. Perhaps most importantly, successful managers know when to walk away. When asked to compromise morals or hurt people, successful managers refuse or find an alternative. Successful managers recognize that it takes effort to build relationships of mutual respect with employees, and this will yield far better long-term results. This is the foundation of effective leadership. People will follow you because they want to follow you, not because they have to. If leadership is truly your goal, if you really want to bring about permanent change in an organization, then involve employees in decisions, empower them, hold them accountable and let them have life outside of work.
Success can lead to happiness, but only when it is achieved on your own terms. It may take more time and effort to find, but the journey will be as enjoyable as the destination.
I learned early in my management career that it is possible to achieve short term results by being a jerk. Since being a jerk comes very natural to me, this was an easy way to get things done. Be demanding. Manage with anger. Fire people if they make a single mistake. Pit people against each other by providing them with conflicting information. Malign your coworkers when they aren't around. Send emails with carbon copies to 42 senior executives so all of them know that someone on your team has failed and you sure aren't going to take the blame for the project not being done on time. Some people become very successful using these unfortunate techniques, along with a host of other manipulative backstabbing tools conceived by the Board of Regents at Jerk University.
In 1974, Stanley Milgram designed a fascinating experiment to determine how people responded to authority. In the experiment, a researcher would pretend to receive electric shocks. A volunteer would be told to administer shocks of increasing voltage, and the volunteers could see the effect the apparently real shocks had on researchers, who cried out in pain as the shock intensity increased. An authority figure would give quiet prompts to the volunteer such as "Please continue" and "The experiment requires that you continue." The results? An amazing 65% of subjects administered a lethal voltage to the researcher. Milgram's conclusion was that, when ordered to do things they would normally disagree with, people simply obeyed and continued the experiment.
Does this happen in the workplace? When an executive sets an unrealistic deadline and demands compliance, do subordinate managers--responding to the authority figure--forget their personal convictions and abuse their employees in order to satisfy the authority figure? Perhaps it happens more than we would like to admit. An effective people manager is not afraid to challenge his employees, but he understands reasonable limits and wants his people to enjoy time at home and an occasional uninterrupted vacation. It is one thing to pull an all-nighter, another thing entirely to ask people to work 60, 70 or 80 hour weeks for months at a time.
Author Anna Quindlen said, "If your success is not on your own terms, if it looks good to the world but does not feel good in your heart, it is not success at all." If you work your way to the top by stepping on others, you are little better than an organizational parasite who subsists by feeding on other people. Success doesn't always require fancy cars, important job titles and exotic llama farms.
Successful managers knows that you get power by giving it away. Successful managers achieve success on their own terms, and don't treat subordinates as personal slaves. Successful managers know that they will and won't do to achieve their goals. Perhaps most importantly, successful managers know when to walk away. When asked to compromise morals or hurt people, successful managers refuse or find an alternative. Successful managers recognize that it takes effort to build relationships of mutual respect with employees, and this will yield far better long-term results. This is the foundation of effective leadership. People will follow you because they want to follow you, not because they have to. If leadership is truly your goal, if you really want to bring about permanent change in an organization, then involve employees in decisions, empower them, hold them accountable and let them have life outside of work.
Success can lead to happiness, but only when it is achieved on your own terms. It may take more time and effort to find, but the journey will be as enjoyable as the destination.
Monday, April 7, 2008
People, not Human Resources
Every company has an unexploited gold mine: its own employees. How many companies truly understand the vast knowledge and power their people possess? For companies both public and private, revenue and profit far exceed all other considerations. But employees make the decisions and do the work that will make or break an organization. Successful companies would do well to treat employees as if they mattered (because they do).
Too many organizations, even in our so-called enlightened age, treat employees as a necessary evil, a renewable resource, a blight on the income statement. First, they are PEOPLE, not "human resources" or "human capital" or any other host of derogatory buzzwords that encourage dispassionate use and disposal. Sometimes I wonder if self-serving executives see anything but little green dollar signs when they look at their employees. Only when these executives realize that employees are people with hopes, dreams, feelings, ideas and enormous potential will they begin to understand the full valuation of their companies.
Most employees, when committed to a cause, will give blood, sweat and tears to make a company successful. People want to make a difference! But instead of working to gain employee loyalty, companies are quick to introduce layoffs, cut vacation hours, reduce benefits and punish employees for arriving three minutes late to work. This sort of quibbling won't endear employees to a company and, consciously or unconsciously, employees will limit their contributions.
As an MBA graduate and experienced manager, I have built several effective teams. I have seen people produce beyond my expectations and have seen what individuals can do when they know the company, and their manager in particular, has "got their back". When I don't have the answers, or even when I think I do, I'm always amazed when I talk to the people doing the work and ask for their input. Their collective wisdom is much greater than my own. When I make decisions in a vacuum, I am doing a disservice to my company. When I turn to my team--the unexploited gold mine--the decisions we make are better not only because of collective wisdom but because involvement fosters commitment. Human beings naturally love what they helped create, and they won't let it fail.
If you are an executive or manager who thinks he has all the answers, now is the time to start panning for gold.
Too many organizations, even in our so-called enlightened age, treat employees as a necessary evil, a renewable resource, a blight on the income statement. First, they are PEOPLE, not "human resources" or "human capital" or any other host of derogatory buzzwords that encourage dispassionate use and disposal. Sometimes I wonder if self-serving executives see anything but little green dollar signs when they look at their employees. Only when these executives realize that employees are people with hopes, dreams, feelings, ideas and enormous potential will they begin to understand the full valuation of their companies.
Most employees, when committed to a cause, will give blood, sweat and tears to make a company successful. People want to make a difference! But instead of working to gain employee loyalty, companies are quick to introduce layoffs, cut vacation hours, reduce benefits and punish employees for arriving three minutes late to work. This sort of quibbling won't endear employees to a company and, consciously or unconsciously, employees will limit their contributions.
As an MBA graduate and experienced manager, I have built several effective teams. I have seen people produce beyond my expectations and have seen what individuals can do when they know the company, and their manager in particular, has "got their back". When I don't have the answers, or even when I think I do, I'm always amazed when I talk to the people doing the work and ask for their input. Their collective wisdom is much greater than my own. When I make decisions in a vacuum, I am doing a disservice to my company. When I turn to my team--the unexploited gold mine--the decisions we make are better not only because of collective wisdom but because involvement fosters commitment. Human beings naturally love what they helped create, and they won't let it fail.
If you are an executive or manager who thinks he has all the answers, now is the time to start panning for gold.
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