8 Things to Ponder

Happy Friday,

From previous GNF’s:

 1.     The ability of 'leaders' to influence people to care about the organization and its mission, (i.e., leadership) determines its success and trajectory more than any other factor. Yet most organizations never define what good leadership is, don’t incentivize it, and have no expectation that their own leaders are any good at it. Do all three.

 2.     Give a manager a financial goal and he'll kill the company to achieve it.

 3.     When new employees join the organization, their 100% engaged. A year later it’s only ~70%. Two reasons: Metrics replaced the mission, and C- leadership.

 4.     If you’re a consultant, the strength of your client’s loyalty over time is the single best job security and compensation factor you can achieve in this business. Repeat business is the hard evidence.

 5.     Trust and Loyalty Drive Career Advancement. You earn less of both when you work from home.

 6.     Most meetings serve no purpose other than to dilute responsibility by artificially adding consensus to what should have been an individual decision. 

 7.     First principles approach to meetings: Require all meeting invitations to include the meeting’s estimated actual cost. (i.e., the sum of the participants' hourly billing rates x meeting duration. For non-billable staff, approximately two times the average hourly salary.) Fewer meetings, more productivity and more profit.

 8.     Rethink titles. Titles are currently counterproductive.

Titles create a caste system that divides people, inviting abuse, resentment, hurt feelings, and frustration that ultimately reduces employee engagement.

Titles offer the illusion of being a leader without requiring the substance.

Titles beckon people to distance themselves from their craft rather than master it, i.e., the greater the distance, the more prestigious the title.

Once given, they're almost impossible to take away, making titles a straightjacket that constrains organizational fluidity and adaptiveness. 

One Solution: Make everyone a VP. Immediate benefits:

Recruiting - Every position offers a title people can’t get elsewhere.

Retention – Quitting results in a demotion.

Title egoists – Neutered

Caste system – Eliminated

Equity goals/virtue signaling—Far exceeded 

Focus—More on the mission, less on the next rung of the ladder.

Unity – More 

Engagement - Stronger

You won’t be exceptional if you always think and act like everyone else.

Have a great weekend!

Dave

Feedback and blowback are always welcome: dave@goodnewsfriday.com

All past topics are still available at @goodnewsfriday.com