Sometimes companies break my heart.
I meet these amazing managers and employees who love their jobs and have a tremendous amount of potential. They are willing to work extra hours for minimal pay, just to make the company better.
These people sit in the middle of the organizations, praying that somebody will ask for their opinion or their help. When we ignore these people, we are losing the soul of our company. We are valuing process over people.
I can’t tell you how many companies I’ve worked with that feel every answer involves a process and a project plan. But people – they deal with that stuff when they have time.
There’s a great story about Herb Kelleher of Southwest Airlines who asked a friend how his management job was going. He replied with exasperation that 99.9% of his job was dealing with people. Herb’s response was, “Why only 99.9%?”
People ARE the job. They are the ones behind those processes. They are the ones implementing the steps in the project plan.
Starting finding the soul of your company by taking three easy steps:
- Make sure you know the name of every person that works for you.
- Get to know the unique skills of each person on the team.
- Have an “ideas” meeting once a month or bring some of these people into other meetings to share their thoughts.
Hospitals have found that when they need a new idea the nurses know more than the doctors about the day-in, day-out operations. The same is true in every organization.
Find the people who are doing the job and ask for their input. You’ll rediscover the soul of the company.