Unlimited Vacation and Productivity
Interesting article on companies that have moved away from accrued vacation to: “Take what you need.” I agree that’s how it should be managed - but it also requires you to do a couple of things as a company that will be better for you in the long term but tough for middle managers to execute in the short term.
1) Embue a sense of responsibility and ownership in every employee so they understand how best to use the vacation policy and make sure their work gets done.
2) Deal with those that insist on not dealing with their responsibilities and dismiss any employees that have proven they can’t handle the responsibility
There’s a glaring hole that’s not really mentioned here - this only makes companies more productive if your measure of productivity is not a result of hours worked. Factory assembly line jobs require hours on the line. Waitresses are not going to be more productive if they take vacation. What’s the equivalent in those industries (if one exists?)
Further, if you’re billing by the hour then where does this start to go South? What conclusions can we draw about the impact billing by the hour has on productivity in creative industries?
(via FastCompany via Summify)
Continuations: Trust and Personal Scaling
Delegation is worthless if you redo every bit of work that comes back. So you can only delegate effectively if you trust the people you are delegating to. That’s one sense in which trust is key to personal scaling.
But trust is needed in the other direction as well. The people you delegate to have to trust you. They have to trust that they won’t be second guessed at every turn. That their work will be recognized and valued. Without that trust it is difficult if not impossible to sustain motivation. And without motivation delegation will not produce results.
Key takeaway for me is that low trust environments will never be more efficient than high trust environments, and will always scale poorly. Strategically, this creates a clear imperative to focus on hiring (and PAYING) a core group of great people at the expense of headcount growth because of the trust payoff (revenue++, scalability++, flexibility++). That, and it’s SO much more fun to work with great people!
"Dissent is fine. If – and this is a big IF – you have other ideas. If you’re constructive. If you’re also willing to be a leader.
But too many people are “back benchers” – the people who are in the back of parliament and get to throw out their opinions in public time but aren’t having to lead.
"
~ Mark Suster from his blog article “Lead, Follow, or Get the F*ck Out of the Way”
"One of the things I strongly believe is that being a brigade commander or division commander has a lot of similarities to being a good company commander: Have a simple plan, articulate it early, give people authority, hold them accountable."
~ More from GEN Barry McCaffrey (ret) from his Oral History. (via Best Defense)
"… battalion command taught me … to see down two levels but command down one. When I was a battalion commander I always knew where my platoons were. I knew everything about what platoons were doing — but I was only about giving orders to company commanders — period. At every level [of] the chain of command, if you command down one level and see down two levels, it is not very hard to be effective."
~ General Barry McCaffrey (ret) in his Army War College Oral History (via Best Defense)
I can’t WAIT for this beta invite to finally hit my inbox - very exciting. If they can combine it with scheduled bill pay a la Manilla they will own my entire life, but I will love it.
The SPEED and ease of use is evident in the video, which really excites me. Many banking sites right now don’t do personal metrics well (Yes Mint, even you require a boatload of work to categorize cryptic banking transactions) but the searches here allow for nice, easy management. Also useful is the location of each transaction for those times where a random hash number from your bank isn’t descriptive enough.
"‘I just work here’ is the worst sort of ethical excuse. I’d rather work with a company filled with ethical people than try to find a company that’s ethical. In fact, companies we think of as ethical got that way because ethical people made it so."
~ Seth Godin’s Blog, making a good point about why companies actually behave correctly. Because being ethical when it’s hardest (and impacts your profits) is one of the hardest things of all.
"We would rather be approximately right than precisely wrong."
~ Warren Buffett from the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Report (page 23), discussing precise valuations of companies and net income using Black-Scholes calculations. This advice, however, can be applied to a myriad of issues as demonstrated by its use by Tom Ricks in his series Gen Buffett - What the Military can Learn from Berkshire Hathaway.
"Back in 2005 at Brontes, I was working hard with our VP Engineering, Ed Tekeian, to convince a talented engineer to stay at the company and not take another job offer. I was struck when the engineer said to us, “guys, I respect you, but I really don’t know why you’re making such a fuss out of my leaving. I did a fine job here, but really only did what I was asked. In truth, I’m very replaceable.” Ed responded, “The more that you manage people in your career, the more you’ll find that it is very hard to find people who can execute well on what they are asked to do. Don’t underestimate how valuable you are and how hard it will be to find a replacement."
~ …It was a very candid moment of talent assessment in which the bar of performance wasn’t innovation, but simply competently executing the expected job. Ed was right, finding people who can do the job that is asked of them is quite hard.” Eric Paley, managing partner at Founder Collective and former CEO of Brontes in his post “The Curve of Talent” Summary of the Talent Curve article from Venture Hacks: F performers are not at all productive. C performers struggle to competently fill their role, but are somewhat productive with sufficient coaching. Hard to admit, but most people in the business world don’t have a particularly clear idea on how to do their job well. Startups need to help C players transition out of the organization. B players understand their objectives well and deliver them competently with minimum coaching. Coach B players on the need to not just competently deliver their function, but drive toward innovation within that function. A players write the book and not just read it. They not only have a clear idea how to competently accomplish their functional objectives, but actually lead the organization to innovate and be world class within their functional area. They raise the bar on the entire organization. One way these candidates can be identified during an interview is when they actually teach the interviewer something about how the company can win.
"Few people notice this, but for IT groups respect is the currency of the realm. IT pros do not squander this currency. Those whom they do not believe are worthy of their respect might instead be treated to professional courtesy, a friendly demeanor or the acceptance of authority. Gaining respect is not a matter of being the boss and has nothing to do with being likeable or sociable; whether you talk, eat or smell right; or any measure that isn’t directly related to the work. The amount of respect an IT pro pays someone is a measure of how tolerable that person is when it comes to getting things done, including the elegance and practicality of his solutions and suggestions. IT pros always and without fail, quietly self-organize around those who make the work easier, while shunning those who make the work harder, independent of the organizational chart."
~ In case we needed a reminder - ”It’s all about respect.” Second time I’ve posted a quote from this great ComputerWorld article on managing Geeks, but it’s still ringing true.
About Me
A strategy consultant with a passion for IT, geopolitics, economics, and the open ocean. Awed by simple, innovative solutions to difficult problems. This represents my favorite slices of the web and serves as networked storage for my brain which is now entirely pointer-based. Opinions expressed here are my own and do not represent those of any organization with which I may or may not be allegedly associated.
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