What if you stop working and nobody notices?

Category: KPIs, measures, outcomes, accountability

A few years ago I was on a bus tour from Varadero into Havana. Interesting ride through lush forest, farm, jungle country. Why are there so many visuals of Che Guevara, and angry rhetoric about the revolution? It didn’t seem to matter that the Cuban revolution ended in 1959, and Che died in 1967. So long ago we didn’t even have Starbucks and iPhones. Has nothing happened since then?

In the seat in front of us, a young student was loudly arguing with her seat mate, using the line, “that’s only your opinion.” That went on for a while. No matter what her partner said, she’d turn it into an “everything is subjective,” debate.

Let me tell you about subjective, it only works with words. Beyond that, subjective fails miserably. When you bank bounces your NSF check, you will feel the full force of your banks “subjective opinion” about your account balance. Arguing that deposits don’t have to precede withdrawals because its only a sequencing issue, and money is subjective anyway, won’t get you anywhere. Subjective is at the other end of measurement. Measurement is what makes the world go around.

Life is not all subjective, and measurement does matter. A couple of thoughts.

• If you can’t measure your work, how do you know you’re needed? If you stop working and nobody notices, that’s a problem.

• You’ve heard the saying, “after a thousand times of anything, a pattern develops. Unless of course, you’re in a coma or texting.” Conscious people tend to notice stuff. What if I see a pattern, which enables me to measure, but you missed it?

• If you can’t measure your job, how do you manage it? How do you decide what to do?

• Outcomes are requirements, and they all turn into measures at some level.

• A workplace where nobody measures will eventually organize itself around seniority. It’s always one or the other but never both.

• It’s human nature to work on things which are being measured. Measured things are the important things.

• Measure non financial things, they are the leading indicators of output. Money is a lagging indicator.

Jobs are about outcomes. Outcomes are never subjective, they can be measured. The two ideas, “subjective” and “free ride” are strangely connected.

Let’s build great companies, and measure one job at a time!

Wolf

Partner,

Metrik Management Inc.

• p.s. 90% of your work day clears up when you say, “What’s supposed to happen next?” Followed by, “then just do that.” In the old days it was called focus.

• p.s. Interview question: “How was your work measured?” It will reveal the candidates skills and where they spent most of their time.

• p.s. If you stop working and nobody notices, update your resume.

Can this person tie their own shoe laces?

Category: Personal leadership / character and work ethic

Should I care if they can tie their shoelaces? Yes you should.

Most of our unsuccessful friends will have one thing in common. They can’t tie their shoes predictably, can’t keep a schedule, can’t be on time, and mix up the days of the week. Running my own life is the entry level requirement for being employable. It’s referred to as personal leadership.

On occasion we’ll have brunch with friends. Milestones has a great Sunday morning brunch. Robson St. location is open at 10:00 am. Their attention to ingredients, flavor and texture combined with great service is something I look forward to.

My Dear invited some friends to join us. How did I know beforehand they’d be a half hour late? I was so sure I bet myself fifty bucks and won. They were late.

I don’t have time for thoughtlessness. Whenever I’m on time and the other party is late, I order something, anything. Appetizers, salads, drinks. My party will start on time. I’m here and that’s all that matters.

If you can’t get yourself to a Sunday brunch on time, there’s a whole lot of other things in life that you can’t do. Time, schedules, clocks, calendars are the structures of your life. If you don’t conquer time, you won’t conquer life. Time is the primary ingredient to personal leadership.

With those you employ as well as those you hire, here are the stages of leadership to look for.

• Personal leadership. Running your own life.

• Task leadership. Just doing your own work.

• Leading a project team. Start, stop, end. Eg., Plan an event, get an estimate together.

• Team lead. Daily, working as well as providing direction to others.

• Supervisory but operational management.

• Executive management. You get results from defining the value proposition, selecting people, defining systems. You don’t get near the work itself but only pave the road for others.

If we can’t tie our shoelaces and get to brunch on time, all other levels of leadership will escape us. Most manager don’t have a five year plan for an employee who can’t make it to work on time.

Let’s build great organizations, one great person at a time.

Thank you

Wolf

Partner, Metrik Management Inc.

p.s. Late is disrespect. It requires you put your priorities ahead of others. It’s never about why you were late. It’s about why you would make your company wait for you.

p.s. "This morning I was asleep in bed, now I'm part of somebody's plan." - Woody Allan.

Hire humble people who argue.

Category: Selecting for character

I read an article on Google’s interview process. Google, Microsoft, Intel, in past would get quoted for their intense, often absurd hiring questions. How many gas stations are there in the country? How many manhole covers need replacement in the next decade? Give three steps towards ending world hunger. Show your work of course. Nobody cared about the answer, only how you approached the problem. There is value in seeing how someone’s brain works, but does it influence job effectiveness? Creative people can have high IQs, but they tend to have many more options and therefore suffer less roadblocks. Chimps aren’t that smart but they sure have options, they’re very creative. These questions all reveal how you approached the problem, the process, not the answer. If we wanted answers, we’d use Google. What’s the correlation between interview scores and job performance? Google’s HR VP, Laszlo Bock tells us, “zero relationship.” Google has shifted to finding character qualities such as learning ability, appropriate leadership, humility, ownership, and expertise. Bock says, “If you don’t have humility, intellectual humility, you’ll never be able to learn.” Bottom line, the information that we get from an interview is not that useful. The character qualities it reveals are very useful. Only character will tell us if this person “will” do the work. The funny thing about character, we all see it but tend to look past it. A well dressed candidate with a nice resume, will still get hired faster than deep thinking, committed, serious, boring, often unsure, humble candidates. They also get elected more frequently. Google has it down to deciding on character especially humble people who argue. Okay, I’m going to try that in the next interview. Let’s build great companies by selecting great people. Thank you Wolf Partner, Metrik Management Inc. 1. Creative people can also be very smart. The creative component is what kicks up options. 2. Source: Google article, Fast Company. Drake Baer. 3. “My bad” is false humility. It’s glibly streaking past your mistakes. There’s no humility, only arrogance, in saying “my bad.” Our website: managing.ca