Takes a Village

What motivates people to either give you there best or something that falls short of the mark? Do some people wake up each day with a conscious thought just to “mess up”? Do people really do the best they can do even though their outcome leaves a lot to be desired? When you are in a leadership role, in your professional or personal life and encounter behavior or outcomes that are contrary to your expectations you probably go through this decision tree matrix. The frustrating proposition for managers is that even after you provide instruction, some folk still continue down a path that is less that desirable for them and for you. The question is what should you do?

Some management gurus suggest that folk do the best they can each day and that you should wait and “catch” them performing at optimal levels and then praise them. They also suggest that during the intervals that you have to wait for these folk to perform at optimal levels you should just provide consistent feedback. These management gurus have long ago fallen out of favor as companies found out that this process could run you into bankruptcy. More recent management gurus suggest that the critical factor is choosing the right people for the job and then investing in their success. This frame of reference would then pick experienced people from inexperienced people, thereby limiting the pool of folk who are provided opportunities.

Some management gurus suggest that strong leadership is the only thing needed for an organization to succeed. Well if that were true then ENRON would still be in business and GE would still be a world market leader.

My guess is that it takes a “village” not to only raise children but also a successful company which suggest that everyone in the village is working for the success of the village and not their own individual position in the village. That takes each of us examining our own motivations and work behaviors daily. This level of introspection is healthy for me and I suspect can be healthy for all that partake in the activity. Being part of a village is a great thing as villages both protect us and provide sustenance. We each then owe it to the village to be good citizens and provide sustenance back!