Business Purpose: The new pecking order for business purposes is Employee, Customer, Vendor, Community, and Shareholder. The Business Roundtable puts customers before employees. I disagree with that. However, it is a step in the right direction.
When The Storm Is Over
So what happens when the pandemic-storm is over? Presently, we are in a tight job market, especially in the hospitality and travel industries. Our employees are reluctant to change jobs now, even if they are not particularly happy.
The Resistance
Engagement: I was slightly amused at the recent NY Times anonymous editorial about the “Internal Resistance” to the President’s leadership. “Welcome to our world,” I said out loud to no one in particular. They are lucky that this is out in the open. We in the private sector rarely get such a heads up! According to Gallup for over two …
Employees First
Sustainable Advantage: I don’t know how we can claim we have a sustainable competitive advantage unless, that is, that we believe that advantage to be our ability to learn faster than the competition. Technology is moving much too fast for us to think that some sort of product or service is really our competitive advantage. But continuous learning, a willingness …
Her Ears Are In My Way
Behavior: One of my leadership mentors, author David Marquet, makes it clear that in his experience, if you want to effectively change people’s behavior, you have to change the environment. I learned that lesson again recently when my assistant, pictured here, exhibited unwanted behavior. It was my own fault. I came home from a photo shoot and put my camera …
People Always
Mission First: But people always. Here’s my takeaway from the mantra: “Mission first, people ALWAYS.” It is true that we are always dealing with people. Ourselves, our leadership team, our employees, our customers and our vendors — all are people. At least for now! I’ve long said that we need to put our employees first. I know from experience that …
The Business of Business
High Flyer: Herb Kelleher, the beloved longtime CEO of Southwest Airlines, said, “The business of business is people. Yesterday, today and forever.” I buy that statement. Employees, leadership teams, boards, customers, suppliers—all the stakeholders comprise people. At least for now! It is hard to see how any business organization can do well, let alone thrive, if they do not learn …
Just-In-Time Talent
Uber is all the rage. Not so much because of its service but more for the business model. Our cars sit idle most of the time. Our buildings sit unused much of the time. Our employees use their special talents only a small percent of their work day. We can get very talented artists to provide a logo, slide template, …
We Don’t Want Employees
Face it; many (most?) employers have employees only because they have to in order to provide a product or service. Few employers will admit this in public. They make jokes about it — “Business would be fabulous if I didn’t have to deal with employees,” — and we know that jokes are at least half true. (By the way, sometimes, they say the …
Loyalty . . . to what?
We can’t have it both ways. As employees, if we think it’s fair to give two weeks notice and leave an employer to pursue our own self-interest, then it is fair for our employer to have the same privilege. We cannot believe that there is an obligation for a company to employ us as long as we want to work there while we retain the right to leave at will.