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The CEO only accomplishes 1 thing by doing the dishes: He shames everyone who sees him doing their job. He doesn't get my respect for it, especially if he does it more than once. It means he failed as a leader to get people to do their job, or even to have someone to do that job. Sometimes, it's necessary to roll up your sleeves and get some work done, but if you are doing other peoples' jobs, it means you aren't doi…
The CEO only accomplishes 1 thing by doing the dishes: He shames everyone who sees him doing their job. He doesn't get my respect for it, especially if he does it more than once. It means he failed as a leader to get people to do their job, or even to have someone to do that job. Sometimes, it's necessary to roll up your sleeves and get some work done, but if you are doing other peoples' jobs, it means you aren't doi…
No, it means he's trying to get people to do their job and take pride. He's not failed, he just hasn't yet succeeded completely.
The CEO only accomplishes 1 thing by doing the dishes: He shames everyone who sees him doing their job. He doesn't get my respect for it, especially if he does it more than once. It means he failed as a leader to get people to do their job, or even to have someone to do that job. Sometimes, it's necessary to roll up your sleeves and get some work done, but if you are doing other peoples' jobs, it means you aren't doi…
I agree that it's a public shaming if he does it right in front of everyone else, but sometimes you just have to buckle down and do what has to be done, even if the work is perceived to be below your station. Obviously work should be invested in hiring a permanent dishwasher, but it is conceivable that occasionally you may not be able to find one, especially if you're intent on abiding immigration laws.
Nope, now you're the dishwasher. At least in my experience; if you do something that other people don't want to do, you're now the "that thing" guy for life.
I have a lot of respect for a CEO that runs the entire company and doesn't consider himself too high to do the grunt work too.
The CEO only accomplishes 1 thing by doing the dishes: He shames everyone who sees him doing their job. He doesn't get my respect for it, especially if he does it more than once. It means he failed as a leader to get people to do their job, or even to have someone to do that job. Sometimes, it's necessary to roll up your sleeves and get some work done, but if you are doing other peoples' jobs, it means you aren't doi…
His CEO is showing by example what he expects of his employees - if you see something needs doing, even if it's not "your job", then roll up your sleeves and get it done.
We've all probably been "the nice guy" in some situation that did some mundane/tedious task, ended up being that guy forever, and ended up resentful and vowed never to do it again. I don't think this is the point here though.
In my opinion, the easiest way to command respect is to not think about commanding respect. If there's a problem, just solve it, and your peers and subordinates will respect you an order of magnitude more than if you just tried to motivate them with some "problem-solving" Power Point slides.
One of my favorite examples I've seen of "washing the dishes:"
- At a startup myself and four other engineers wanted attend a conference across town. Our cab was running late and we were in danger of missing the first sessions. The CEO chucked his keys at us (he drove a minivan) and his credit card and said, "take my car, it needs gas though so fill it up with my card on the way back."
Did we expect we now had unlimited use of this guy's car forever and abuse it? Of course not. Did we totally respect him for trusting five guys to drive his car and made sure we had enough gas? Yes. Did we notice that he didn't even use the corporate credit card because only about 10% of that full tank of gas would be used for work purposes? Yes.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think the point here isn't just that the CEO was performing a mundane task, but that he was doing work that had to get done, even though it wasn't a desirable task. There was a giant pile of dishes - he cleaned them. The dishes were the thing that needed to get done. If he does it just once, I question his motives. This repeated behavior shows his true conviction.
CEO's need to lead; exceptional behavior creates a buzz. This is morale building advice, not socialism. His motive? to show that no one is too good to do the hard stuff. Its a stunt, but its a lesson too. Everybody will get that.
Leadership is facilitation, and being a leader ain't the same as being the boss. If dirty dishes are dragging on the team, taking care of them is just being part of the team. People respect supervisors when they believe the supervisor won't ask anyone to do something they wouldn't do themselves.
The CEO only accomplishes 1 thing by doing the dishes: He shames everyone who sees him doing their job. He doesn't get my respect for it, especially if he does it more than once. It means he failed as a leader to get people to do their job, or even to have someone to do that job. Sometimes, it's necessary to roll up your sleeves and get some work done, but if you are doing other peoples' jobs, it means you aren't doi…