Measure results, not hours

From the article it doesn't sound like he is trying to enforce long hours for everyone. Being CEO he wouldn't have time to talk in depth to employees about non critical issues.

So providing he doesn't burn out doing it, it is probably going to help the company a lot if he can put in the extra hours to be across some of the lower level stuff.

How do you square this sort of mindset with the well-known demands of entrepreneurship? In other words, if it's possible to do great work in short amounts of time, why do most successful entrepreneurs end up working very long hours to make their companies succeed? If it's possible to check out at 5pm M-F and still excel, why do investors look for the highest possible levels of commitment from the founders in whom they invest?

Personally I think stories like this arise from the fallacy that jobs have a set amount of work. Entrepreneurs know that is not true--there is not some predetermined, set amount that an Apple laptop needs to better than an HP laptop. The truth is that any and all competitive advantage should be seized--it might be needed to survive.

Of course not everyone is a founder; most people are employees. But employees have an interest in their company's success too--it keeps them employed. In addition, high performance offers them opportunity for promotions, raises, advancement, publicity, etc.

I think that if you are a talented enough employee to get the "expected" work done in less than the expected time, the thing to do is to fill the remaining hours by doing work that beats expectations. Increase quality even more; put that gold leaf on since you have time. Or, spend that time thinking and inventing an unexpected addition or improvement--or even a new product.

These things are a little more complex than they first appear..If you realize that performance has to be aggregated and reported up the food chain, then you'll understand why even a very competent manager cannot really afford to measure performance by the metrics he believes to be most accurate, just the ones that are easiest for his Boss to understand and send up the food chain. Unfortunately, your job as a "mid-level manager" is not to get your unit functioning with the utmost efficiency. Rather your job is to make you own Boss look as good as possible, while making sure your unit/group continues to function at an acceptable level.

Mm... great article, but I can't help feeling it skips over the important bits.

"But your boss is likely to be receptive if you politely raise the question of productivity and show you’re willing to be held accountable for results, rather than hours worked."

Yeah right.

The problem is that it's extremely non trivial to deconstruct your assumptions and social behaviour.

Even if your boss/manager/whatever is clued up and knows his/her stuff, workplaces are a social gathering, and quiet introverted non-socialising members of the team will never get rewarded for their hard work. Especially if they're seen leaving early every day.

Where I work, we have a guy who leaves at 3pm every day; he gets in between 5-6am.

His own team gives him the 'ironic' farewell round of applause when he walks out everyday.

Why? Because he's leaving early.

He's a hard working dedicated worker, but appearances are important, and leaving early makes it appear that you're slacking off, that you're not there when you're needed for that last minute 5pm meeting.

The few people who actually know what he does completely respect him; but no one else gets it.

That's the problem: unless you publize not only to your immediate work peers, but the entire local work area, what you're doing and why, no one gets it, and they make assumptions.

This article would be more useful if it addressed that issue.

Simply saying: Work hard, leave early and get your boss to accept you for who you are... agh. Don't. It wont work.

Can you explain how your company uses ROWE? Was it there when you started, or did you witness the shift from hour-based work/pay to results-based work/pay?