Do You Have the Right People on The Bus?
So, do you have the right people working for you? You’re most likely hiring Salespeople with amazing conversions; Project Managers capable of juggling several projects with ease; Designers that have won the most coveted UX awards; Coders, that are more efficient and faster than his peers. Is that enough? Does this mean you are primed for growth? In my view, this is not guaranteed. Let me tell you why.
“first the people, then the direction — no matter how dire the circumstances.” — Jim Collins.
To make my point, I am going to use the analogy of a virus. The Oxford Dictionary for the definition of a virus — “A harmful or corrupting influence.”
Organisations can have the same reactions to a human resource virus just as your body has to a bacterial virus. If not dealt with, a harmful or corrupting influence can slow down growth, or worse, completely derail it.
This virus could be your #1 salesperson, your #2 designer, or your #1 coder. In the short term, they may be contributing to a healthy percentage of profits that are visible and easy to quantify. Given these circumstances, they may quite naturally start feeling an air of invincibility in the workplace and with their peers.
Because of this, some may develop a ‘rockstar’ mentality which could likely start contributing to wasted hours spent influencing or corrupting others on office politics. Spending time talking and doing things that have zero, or negative contribution to the job in hand. These hours will not be easy to quantify, and more importantly (like a virus), can easily spread into a full-blown epidemic.
Before you know it, unknowingly, your rockstar performers may be changing the backbone or culture of your organisation. A change where productivity and medium to long term growth is a fraction of what could have been. As a leader, you need to decide what is important to you, short term wins, or long term sustainable growth.
So, here a few things you need to do to get started.
Don’t hire ‘rockstar’ personalities that could develop large egos. Before hiring someone, you need to get to know who you are hiring, not just their skills, but them as a person. Whether it’s asking right questions, doing your research on their digital footprint, or even having a hunch based on interactions. This part of the process is vital to avoid the pitfall of ‘harming or corrupting’ your organisation.
Regular ‘real’ communication with your employees. Getting to ‘know’ your employees needs to be ongoing and regular. Individual needs change over time, so understanding and keeping pace with these changes is also something to bear in mind. How many of you can say that you have truly got to know your staff?
“Getting to know your staff is not just about getting a foosball table or having lunch together.” Gary Vaynerchuk
Be humble. Humility is a stronger emotion than you can even begin to imagine. Many in India see it as a weakness and see it as being subservient. You should not let this point of view manifest itself into your company culture. Humility achieves great respect from peers.
It’s no wonder that Jim Collins sees this as a trait Level 5 leaders need to have in his Leadership Pyramid.
