People

Grrr…once again, I made the mistake of asking about an organization and was told about the equipment.

Organizations do very little for success.  Now and then you will find an organization that will both attract and retain great employees, but as often as not, organizations worry about themselves.

They generally are there to feed themselves, but leadership requires an understanding that people are the resources that make things happen.  When I ask about someone’s organization usually the last thing I want to hear about is your brand new suite of offices, your equipment, or even your transportation.  I want to know about the people.  The people make the difference in whether or not you succeed – particularly in a brain based economy.

If you have great people, you can accomplish great things.  Too many managers enjoy their title or status, but don’t want any part of the service component which is critical in these relationships.  Again and again, I see groups that will invest in this piece of equipment or that transportation system, but not their employees or that ask their employees to identify compliance problems – an ever increasing issue for those organizations dealing with healthcare – but then trample the employee who shows them the problem.  At the same time instead of empowering the front line foot soldiers in their business, they spend lavishly on middle managers to ensure they are enslaved to their perks and titles, but not the real mission of taking care of their customer or patient.

One thing I know from General Colin Powell is that when employees stop bringing you their problems one of two things has happened.  First, the employee doesn’t trust you.  An employee who doesn’t trust your ability to take their request seriously is a huge issue.  Once you lose the trust factor of an employee believing you think there issue something other than a joke, it is hard to regain.  The second option when employees don’t bring their problems to you is that they think you’re incompetent to fix it.  Here too, an organization whose managers are viewed as incompetent or incapable is almost as bad as uncaring.  In either case, the organization is screwed and it is generally their own fault.