Company, Team, Self
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Company, Team, Self
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Re: Company, Team, Self
#2> As I’ve become a more experienced manager, I’ve stopped giving this advice. I still believe it’s the correct advice, and I continue to see managers who fail because they are missing this perspective. However, I’ve also seen some of the best leaders that I’ve worked with burn out by following this advice too loyally.
Most employees, especially in the West, especially in USA, are going to be biased towards their individual interests. Aligning their interests with the collective organizational interest is an extremely hard problem, but an extremely important one. Definitely something that could burn out a manager. But very much worth trying if you want a successful, healthy organization.
Re: Company, Team, Self
#3It's always about incentive misalignment. As an employee thinking Company first will improve the bottom line for the company. As an executive thinking company first may well eliminate me as an employee.
Why should an employee put the company interests above their own with that incentive alignment? The company should work to make the company's interests serve the individual interests of the employees
Re: Company, Team, Self
#4> As I’ve become a more experienced manager, I’ve stopped giving this advice. I still believe it’s the correct advice, and I continue to see managers who fail because they are missing this perspective. However, I’ve also seen some of the best leaders that I’ve worked with burn out by following this advice too loyally. Most employees, especially in the West, especially in USA, are going to be biased towards their indi…
I've been in situations as a dev where I've figuratively screamed from the rafters "X is happening - we need to do ABC". It's almost universally ignored because "well, devs just like to do ABC! not happening this year... etc".
No... I hate doing ABC.
What's in my immediate interest is to quietly paper over problems, and pass them along to someone else.
What's also in my interest longer term is the organization to fix operational issues to help ensure there is a 'longer term' for the organization to continue in to. To think I'm not thinking of that, and just wanting to do bullshit busy work because "he's a dev! that's what they do!" is patronizing to say the least.
Many people are capable of looking at things from a few perspectives.
Re: Company, Team, Self
#5> As I’ve become a more experienced manager, I’ve stopped giving this advice. I still believe it’s the correct advice, and I continue to see managers who fail because they are missing this perspective. However, I’ve also seen some of the best leaders that I’ve worked with burn out by following this advice too loyally. Most employees, especially in the West, especially in USA, are going to be biased towards their indi…
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Re: Company, Team, Self
#6It's always about incentive misalignment. As an employee thinking Company first will improve the bottom line for the company. As an executive thinking company first may well eliminate me as an employee. Why should an employee put the company interests above their own with that incentive alignment? The company should work to make the company's interests serve the individual interests of the employees
Yes.
And may I suggest a simple method: have employees vote for executives
Incentives align naturally when there is two way feedback
Re: Company, Team, Self
#7I loved this paragraph:
> People are complex, and they get energy in complex ways. Some managers get energy from writing some software. That’s great, particularly if you avoid writing software with strict dependencies. Some managers get energy from coaching others. That’s great. Some get energy from doing exploratory work. Others get energy from optimizing existing systems. That’s great, too. Some get energy from speaking at conferences. Great. Some get energy from cleaning up internal wiki’s. You get the idea: that’s great. All these things are great, not because managers should or shouldn’t program/speak at conferences/clean up wiki’s/etc, but because folks will accomplish more if you let them do some energizing work, even if that work itself isn’t very important.
A think I've found challenging about management is that /people are different/. What works for one person in terms of motivation or style of work won't work for another person. A big part of effective people management is understanding that and figuring out what style works for each of the people you work with.
Re: Company, Team, Self
#8It's always about incentive misalignment. As an employee thinking Company first will improve the bottom line for the company. As an executive thinking company first may well eliminate me as an employee. Why should an employee put the company interests above their own with that incentive alignment? The company should work to make the company's interests serve the individual interests of the employees
I think the idea in the article is something like - by thinking company-first you can arrive at better outcomes for yourself in the long run. It's not about self sacrifice.
Certainly all the good gains in my career happened as a consequence of achieving big things for the company, which I wouldn't have landed with me-first thinking.
Re: Company, Team, Self
#9It's always about incentive misalignment. As an employee thinking Company first will improve the bottom line for the company. As an executive thinking company first may well eliminate me as an employee. Why should an employee put the company interests above their own with that incentive alignment? The company should work to make the company's interests serve the individual interests of the employees
I think the idea in the article is something like - by thinking company-first you can arrive at better outcomes for yourself in the long run. It's not about self sacrifice. Certainly all the good gains in my career happened as a consequence of achieving big things for the company, which I wouldn't have landed with me-first thinking.
Interesting. I think I have come out about the same but being rather self-serving, or at least not company first.. Doing something big for the company reflects well on me, improves my standing, and I can tout those achievements to others for other career growth. But I do make a point of working for companies where I think my own interests align with the role in the company
Re: Company, Team, Self
#10> As I’ve become a more experienced manager, I’ve stopped giving this advice. I still believe it’s the correct advice, and I continue to see managers who fail because they are missing this perspective. However, I’ve also seen some of the best leaders that I’ve worked with burn out by following this advice too loyally. Most employees, especially in the West, especially in USA, are going to be biased towards their indi…
I've been in situations as a dev where I've figuratively screamed from the rafters "X is happening - we need to do ABC". It's almost universally ignored because "well, devs just like to do ABC! not happening this year... etc". No... I hate doing ABC. What's in my immediate interest is to quietly paper over problems, and pass them along to someone else. What's also in my interest longer term is the organization to fix…
This is a really common dynamic and I think it's an opportunity.
Let's assume you are right, you are seeing some real threat and have a solution in mind.
If others were "ready" to see it, they'd already see it on their own and you'd have nothing additional to offer.
The reason your perspective is valuable is because you are seeing something others aren't, but it also by definition implies that they aren't ready to see it.
This is a universal thing - the gap between your insight and the org's awareness is directly related both to the value of your insight and how much of an uphill battle the sell is.
If you can become the person who can both see issues and drive others to see them through persuasive education, you become immensely impactful. Otherwise you are limited to only making impact on things where others are already sold on the issue while being frustrated by this limitation.