Know-How Exchange : Career/Training

Sunil,

You write, "How important for company management to develop USPs and 'Value Additions/Differentiators?'"

Only as important as having air for us. If a company does not have USPs and Value Additions/Differentiators, the company will die. There is no reason for it to live. It provides nothing that the customer needs that the customers can't already get from a competitor. As when we don't have air when we die a very painful death as we feel a sharp pain in our lungs followed by blacking out as our brain is starved for oxygen, followed by our heart stopping - a process that seems to take forever, the company dies a very slow, painful death.

I am not sure what you mean by a "platform." If you mean the company must provide a decent environment in which the senior management can exercise their skills and in which they are rewarded for their work, then this is a very obvious requirement. Opportunity for realizing all of the levels of Maslow's Needs Hierarchy (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow_needs_hierarchy) is critical to retaining talent. Without this, the firm is perpetually in a "starting over" mode as the company must bring on new talent because the existing management leaves.

I hope this helps.

Wayde

Dear Fiatuno,

Curious that you should name yourself after a small Italian car,
but there you go. All right. Here's my humble two cents' worth.

When a company treats its staff like idiots or dirt (or both), said staff tend to walk. Often, the walk turns into a trot. Every now and again,
that trot becomes a sprint.

The more senior the staff in question and the heavier the rain coming down on them, the faster their movement toward the door usually becomes.

Why? For two reasons:

Because senior staff are often valuable to competing companies. And because senior staff are all too often the company lifeblood. Not only in terms of their experience and wisdom, but also in their institutional knowledge.

Sadly, much of that knowledge is seldom written down. And when it is written down it's rarely used to improve the lot of anyone farther down the totem pole.

This means that when senior staff bolt, the company that doesn't learn from its mistakes is doomed to repeat them.

And as Wayde points out, the practical upshot of all this for the company is death. Slow. Painful. Agonizing. Brutal death.

So, the motto here is simple: treat your people like dirt and it will come back to haunt you. Ignore this point at your peril if you want to remain in business.

But ignored it is, and all too often by CEOs who have often been promoted beyond their level of comprehension and intelligence because they talked a good game at their interview.

What illustrations do we have of this? Look around you right now
at corporate America, where head honchos are being accused of fraud, and Lord knows what else, while sitting before federal committees and having the cheek to moan that they only take home an annual salary of a dollar.

Curious, is it not, how the golden parachutes they've picked up elsewhere seldom get mentioned while the pension plans of the regular schmoes they've been tasked with managing are going down the pan?

And who puts these people in charge? Why, badly advised or clueless Boards of Directors of course!

Said CEOs usually care not one whit as to the drastic side effects his
or her "management" (for which read "meddling") might have because often, the CEO has asked for (and been given) not only free reign from the Board but, as is often the case, has also wrangled his or herself a generous golden parachute that becomes (as and when the need arises), their corporate "get out of jail free" card.

And off they trot to count their loot as the company they've "managed" tumbles from the sky of commerce behind them, and frequently in smoke and flames.

So, you asked how important it is for a company to provide a decent platform for its senior employees in terms of their performance (particularly for senior positions)? It's vital. Crucial. Imperative.

Why?

Because employees who firmly believe their contribution is valued and appreciated are happy employees. And happy employees are productive and loyal employees.

Read that again.

But note that the notions of "contribution" and "value" here do not have to equate to more money, or a bigger office because often, money and baubles are not the driving forces in employee loyalty.

The biggest contributing factor to employee happiness is often more subtle than money and perks. So, what is this immeasurable quality?

It's significance.

Does the employee feel their effort, input, and contribution is of significance to the general running of the company? Does the employee feel they are empowered and that their part has meaning?

If the answer to these questions is yes, great. All systems are go and nothing will slow down the corporate effort.

But if the answer is no and their efforts to contribute are rebuffed
and rebuked again and again, employees become bitter, twisted, and unproductive. They feel undervalued. Downtrodden. And eventually,
they leave. Or, if they make themselves too much of a thorn in management's side, they find themselves being fired.

If the company in question values its existence, wants to carry on making a profit, and doesn't want to find itself facing questions from the SEC or a grand jury, said company gets its ducks in a row.

You also asked how important it is for any company or its management to develop their USPs and figure out their notions of value additions and differentiators.

Again, the answer is: it's also vital. And for exactly the same reasons.

It's not necessary to spend two years getting an MBA to figure this out.
All that is necessary to keep a company on track is the notion of "self" and an honest, truthful answer to the following question:

If, when in a position of authority, one is not comfortable dishing out
dirt, does one appreciate being on the receiving end of it when it is not warranted, needed, necessary, constructive, or profitable?

If one's answer is yes, then really, what business does one have being in business?

If one's answer is no, then one ought to give that answer careful reconsideration because all things considered, what one dishes out on one's way up normally meets one at some on one's way down.

Generally, when one is nice and pleasant and kind to people and
a genuine joy to work with and for, neither asking too much or expecting too little, while also showing that one is willing to roll up one's sleeves and get stuck in, one's coworkers and subordinates gladly reciprocate.

The opposite is also true.

I hope this helps.

Gary Bloomer
Wilmington, DE, USA

Sunil,
Here is my observation...
Companies with no plan to correctly compensate senior management end up with a company driven by folks who are basically going through the motions.

When Sr. Leadership just goes through the motions of working, the lower level employees move into coast mode.

I am the most senior employee in the company for which I work.

I am 11 years older than our CEO.

The older I get, the more I realise that the more I learn, the more there is to know.

I try to adopt an attitude that 'Ok I do know a little - but I recognise that I need to continue learning every day if I am to remain relevant to the business and valuable as an employee'.

This is in stark contrast to the attitude of my young CEO who believes that 'he knows everything' :))

The important question to ask of each of your more senior staff is:

Have you had 25 years of experience? or have you had 1 year of experience 25 times?

In other words, are they continuing to learn to grow and to improve their performance year after year or are they basically stuck doing the same old thing they have been doing every year?

Senior people CAN bring a great deal of experience, wisdom and the ability to predict the future outcome of a particular action taken now (based on former experience).

On the other hand, senior people can also demand higher salaries and benefits, feel like they deserve to work fewer hours and or take more holidays and need more sick benefits etc.

So it is up to each employer to assess the value of each employee - to provide them with the best possible working environment and continue to give them access to training and learning THROUGHOUT their whole career.

The idea that we should only train YOUNG people is completely nonsence.

BTW: I can honestly say that in the last 5 years, I have studied and learned more than I ever did in High School and College put together.

My mind is sharper my learning ability is better and my retention level is sharper than it has ever been.

I often show my ids how much material I am reading and retaining on a daily basis compared with the easy time they are having in college :) They are shocked at the level of work and output that I achieve in a day and I doubt that they could keep up with me :)).

It has taken 20 years to 'learn how to learn this fast and this well'. The more I learn, the better I become at learning :))

Good luck with your senior employees.

Matthew