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Want to be a leader? Wash the Dishes When Nobody Else Will.

thesash.me

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Re: Want to be a leader? Wash the Dishes When Nobody Else Will.

#41

Post by timr »

allantyoung wrote: post #35
timr wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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." It depends on the size of the organization you're in. Sad and irrational as it may seem, people are basically just monkeys, a…

I suppose that we'll have a revival in the way we measure employees. Not everything can be put into neat metrics but there are probably lot of factors and outputs we haven't even begun to put together in a systematic way. Knowing who your "Guys Who Quietly Gets Things Done" are would be invaluable for any enterprise. Would they pay for a tool to help them identify and retain these quiet superstars? I think so.

"I suppose that we'll have a revival in the way we measure employees....would [people] pay for a tool to help them identify and retain these quiet superstars?"

Perhaps, but I don't think it would help. The way things are isn't necessarily bad...it's just human nature. Give a cage full of monkeys a new incentive system, and the monkeys will learn to game the system in order to get more bananas. Give them a tool that lets the quiet monkeys make more noise, and the loud monkeys will use it to make themselves even louder.

Generally speaking, hyper-rational people (like most geeks) try to fight this trend at first, but they eventually come to the conclusion that it's easier and better to just play the game.

Re: Want to be a leader? Wash the Dishes When Nobody Else Will.

#42

Post by cosmicray »

guptaneil wrote: post #14
jrockway wrote: post #6

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.

Only if that's the only thing you're known for. 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.

> doesn't consider himself too high to do the grunt work too

go read 'Up the Organization' by Robert Towsend (written many years ago when he was the CEO of Avis Rent-a-car). Everyone at Avis (janitor, receptionist, CEO, all the way down the line) was required to work 1 or 2 days a year at the counter, renting cars. Helped everyone what business they were in, and why they had a job.

Re: Want to be a leader? Wash the Dishes When Nobody Else Will.

#43

Post by eftpotrm »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #8
fefzero wrote: post #5

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.

For me, CEOs also need to enable their staff to produce their best performance. If the dirty dishes are getting in the way and the staff are honestly pushing to the limit elsewhere, IMHO it's a sensible enabling behaviour for the short term at least, regardless of who sees it.

I know if I have a busy few days and the housework starts piling up my heart sinks a little when I get in and see the task ahead; I'm quite sure it'd be the same in an office if I had that problem. That can just as easily be the point of this sort of action.

Re: Want to be a leader? Wash the Dishes When Nobody Else Will.

#44

Post by nuclearsandwich »

I love to do the dishes. Does this make me a natural born leader?

In seriousness though I feel like the best way to manage in situations of ambiguously shared responsibility is not to be afraid of getting stuck with it because the slackers start to feel embarrassed around you and either pitch in or leave.

There's little more cathartic in life than actual physical toil and while doing the dishes isn't all that rough, it presents an opportunity to occupy the hands and let the mind wander.

Re: Want to be a leader? Wash the Dishes When Nobody Else Will.

#45

Post by sloak »

Reminds me about the story of Netflix CEO. From http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2011/0...

[... Huffington coaxed Hastings to talk about leadership -- and one early experience that informed his leadership style.

Hastings recalled how, as a 25-year-old software programmer, he would stay up all night, propelled by coffee. He'd leave an array of mugs on his desk. Once a week, he would discover the cups cleaned. One day, he arrived at work at 4 a.m. and walked into the bathroom to discover the company's CEO, sleeves rolled up, washing the collection of nasty cups.

"That whole time, I thought it was the janitor," said Hastings, who said this had been occurring for a year. He asked his boss why. "He said, 'You do so much for this company, this is the only thing I can do for you.' ]

Re: Want to be a leader? Wash the Dishes When Nobody Else Will.

#46

Post by khafra »

jrockway wrote: post #6

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 guess the secret is to be the "X guy who isn't afraid to do the dishes," where X is something other than doing dishes.

Re: Want to be a leader? Wash the Dishes When Nobody Else Will.

#47

Post by maxwell »

thesash wrote: post #34
maxwell wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you read the article? "One day, I walked by the kitchen and noticed it was a huge mess. So I washed the dishes."

That's exactly it. He motivated me to take the initiative, and now, years later, I'm in a position where I can pass that on to my team.

I had literally the same experience a few years ago. I was working at a fine dining restaurant, the dishwasher called out, so the chef happily did both dish and grill. Turned out he was the best dishwasher there. Since then, I've noticed that one invariably cooks as well as they clean.

Re: Want to be a leader? Wash the Dishes When Nobody Else Will.

#48

Post by grellas »

Want to be a great leader? Work hard to develop extraordinary skills. Become an independent thinker and have the courage to follow your ideas. Show respect to others and never think more highly of yourself than you ought. Avoid bad habits of sloth, dissipation, dishonesty, and other qualities that would cause others to lose respect for you. Set goals that challenge you to do your best and follow diligently after them. Apply all this consistently to every part of your life, always striving to better yourself in even the smallest ways while maintaining integrity.

In my student days, I worked in restaurants. I worked with a guy who was a Mexican immigrant, who washed dishes with me for several years in a busy restaurant. He worked hard. He was always upbeat. He never complained. And he radiated a sense of joy all about him. Why? Because he was content with what he was doing while obviously striving to improve himself at the same time. He would often sing while he worked. And that was inspiring. That man might never make a mark in the broader society but I could see he would be a fine leader wherever his life circumstances took him.

These same qualities can be found in the startup world, as nicely reflected in this piece. But they are by no means limited to those who seek success in business. They are life qualities. It profits us all to follow them.

Re: Want to be a leader? Wash the Dishes When Nobody Else Will.

#49

Post by arctangent »

edw519 wrote: post #39

This reminds me of the litmus test my father had in his small business years ago. Every new employee, no matter where they worked, had the same first task: clean the bathroom. Lots of people never made it through the first day. I guess he figured that the best way to have employees who would "wash the dishes when nobody else will" is to only hire those who would.

I assume he wasn't hiring software developers...

Re: Want to be a leader? Wash the Dishes When Nobody Else Will.

#50

Post by jarek »

edw519 wrote: post #39

This reminds me of the litmus test my father had in his small business years ago. Every new employee, no matter where they worked, had the same first task: clean the bathroom. Lots of people never made it through the first day. I guess he figured that the best way to have employees who would "wash the dishes when nobody else will" is to only hire those who would.

Maybe it's just my millenial entitlement, but that strikes me as a bad strategy. Unless the business was a cleaning or maintenance company, cleaning the bathroom seems far removed from anything relevant to my work and is in essence busywork. Questions that immediately spring into mind: is this some weird attempt at saving money by having employees do both their job and cleaning? Is this supposed to be some hazing ritual? Will this be representative of my time at the company?

Pitching in when it needs to be cleaned? Sure. Boss paying attention to who voluntarily cleans it? Sure. Making employees clean it on their first day? Not so much.

- millenial who cleans up after himself in the company kitchen

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