Three Fields, Three Rings, Troika

What makes a company the company one wants and will work for? In other words, why are people leaving in droves from one company, but are clamoring to work at the other? Is it money? Prestige? Benefits? No. Certainly money plays a large role, let’s be honest here. And prestige never has hurt - heck, one would love to work at Google or IBM.  But that’s not what actually keeps employees within the company.  What actually motivates employees to stay with the company beyond the usual 2-3 year span is the way the company approaches its employees. If the company’s management structure has been set up well, both vertically and horizontally, with extra focus on finding and nurturing potential talent, then it has already provided a fertile soil for the employee base that’s not just content but is willing to devote extra energy and time for the company’s goal(s), and thus, its bottom line.

I always think of the plant and soil metaphor when I think of the employment. Just as cactus that flowers brilliantly in desert during the brief days in spring cannot grow in a  temperate climate, the employee that performs the best in small, tight knit team environment will not perform the same at a large, devoid of person-to-person teamwork corporation. And vice versa - the person who is adept at navigating the bureaucracies at a corporation and excels at geographically dispersed corporation will have a very difficult time adjusting to the ad hoc nature of a start-up.  Of course, there are exceptions to the rule - but even there these exceptions have benefited from the way the management structure has been set up.

The education and the innate talents of the employee at a large corporation actually may matter little if the soil the employee is planted into does not allow for that employee to fully leverage his skills and knowledge.  And if the management around that employee fails to recognize it, and fails to actually work with the employee to figure out the ways this situation can be amended, the employee is a lost one for the company, for all the practical purposes.  Then this situation becomes a cancer - the employee becomes demoralized, his/her productivity tanks, his/her reputation within the company is shot, the company itself loses thousands and thousands of dollars in lost potential (be it ideas, initiatives, or projects), and in eventually re-training a new employee.

What a waste…

It’s an oft repeated axiom: “time is money is freedom.” Indeed, I lately can’t help but think how valuable time is. The reason we humans were able to evolve so quickly is because we’ve figured out that by specializing and by distributing/sharing the burden of tasks we can become more efficient and thus devote more time to more important tasks.

This is a rant, yes, I admit that. I probably should stop being shocked but I still keep being surprised. One would think that after decades of management research and studies, and after decades of professional work, people would learn what works and what does not work. Au contraire… Even at large corporations one can find multiple instances where resources are shuffled on eve of deadlines, for example. Huh? Imagine a Boeing-777. Imagine that it’s literally minutes away from landing, with flaps down, with landing gear activated, and such. Suddenly the tower makes the call: “John and Jack! Switch seats, John will take over the landing process, Jack will be on standby!” Would you be comfortable being on that plane?

Really, I don’t care what project management methodology we’re talking about. There are a gazillion certification programs, be it PMP, PMI, etc. It all boils down to common sense, experience, and again, common sense. One can know nuclear physics ice cold, for example, yet act as a complete moron. No training, no education, no money can replace common sense.

Another thing that rather boils my blood. If you’re a manager with direct reports, e.g. people reporting to you, you must ensure that your subordinates:

1. Are in appropriate environment (think of it as the fertile soil) - with appropriate team members, appropriate responsibilities, appropriate processes.
2. Are given space and opportunity to grow. The moment you sense that one of your subordinates feels out of place or feels intellectually under-challenged - immediately attack the core issue! The range of solutions is great, but a solution must be decided upon and acted upon resolutely. Nothing is worse for the team morale than demoralized, brooding employees who feel ignored, underappreciated, and dumbed down. The productivity of employees is at its highest when they’re intellectually challenged, motivated, and feel part of the team. Period.

In other words, select appropriate plants to grow in appropriate soil. Otherwise, make the soil appropriate for the target plant. Plant a cactus in moist soil, and it will die. Plant a birch in desert, and it will die.

Communication. It’s both the boon and bane in management and companies. Time and time again I come across the same problem: lack of communication leads to deterioration in teamwork, which leads to isolation of an employee, which leads to sagging morale, which leads to neglect of project(s), which leads to crises, which leads to dismissing or reshuffling of the employee(s). Too much communication = distraction from the high priority tasks. Too little communication = disaster (unless you’re a scientist and single-handedly work on your obscure experiment).

What else? Politics! But that deserves a separate book in itself (I highly recommend this book by Joel R. DeLuca, Political Savvy: Systematic Approaches to Leadership Behind the Scenes, available here at Amazon.com.

I’ll stop now, and think about my own company, and think about the future plans.

It’s been a long time since last post. The month of May has been absolutely insane! First, I am doing a couple gigs on the side. Second, I am seriously considering pursuing MBA this coming fall, so I’ve been busy taking GMAT, writing essays, and such (sponsorship, anyone? please?). Third, I had the luck of taking a vacation with my wife to San Francisco and Sonoma. We actually took an open cockpit biplane ride! I highly recommend it - anyone coming that way in Sonoma and planning to take plane ride should go there: Vintage Aircraft (http://www.vintageaircraft.com). I highly recommend these folks!

As June rolls in, I’ve decided to focus on these things:

1. Work on the consulting gig - this gives me the opportunity to get back in touch with software development world, and thus, keep my brain cells from dying out at disproportionate rates.
2. Work on my own family’s start-up. We have exciting things coming up, and the buzz among the musicians has finally picked up. Stay tuned!
3. I am thinking about creating a subsection on this blog, which will feature my analytical articles. These will, theoretically, feature synopsis of the market, company, or product, and associated metrics with it. I’ve always been interested in analysis - be it business or market, and then deriving the high level strategy based on the findings.
4. Preparing for the MBA school in Fall - if all goes well!

1. Finding great people, bringing them into my company, building a team out of them, and becoming friends with them
2. Watching the people I discovered and recruited blossom throughout their careers
3. Brainstorming with my folks on software or technical problems

Bottom line: I enjoy nothing more than finding great people and building a team out of them, and being their co-worker. I’d like to repeat what I’ve done at Xplana many times over in future, but this time for my own company.