Since I began working for my company we have all happily participated in a "book club." We have gone through many great authors; Thomas Friedman, Jim Collins, Malcolm Gladwell and John Maxwell. To shake it up a bit we thought we would go for a book a bit outside of our box.
We are now moving through "It's Called Work for a Reason" by Larry Wignet. This guy is pretty abrasive and in your face. His claim to fame is that the only thing that matters in the work place is the results you produce. Wignet says both good and bad results are your own responsibility and that is all your boss cares about, so start producing.
As you may have guessed, this is a scary topic to discuss around the board room table with my bosses and leaves me wondering how my results are affected by outside factors and what that means for my job. Your media contact having a bad day and won't listen to your pitch? Your fault! Your major sponsor of your annual event go bankrupt and fall through for your event? Your fault!
According to this book your boss doesn't care which forces you have working against you. I guess it is time for us to get creative or get out.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
"Your media contact having a bad day and won't listen to your pitch? Your fault! Your major sponsor of your annual event go bankrupt and fall through for your event? Your fault!"
Maybe not your fault, but your *problem*.
There are plenty of [really good] arguments against this type of draconian view, IMO. I've heard of this book but admittedly never picked it up because I disagree so much with its premise.
Some investors, for example, are against share buybacks (bad use of cash) and rising stock prices (potential source of volatility). In these portfolios, what's typically defined as positive results are very unwelcome.
Elsewhere, overperforming companies or teams might create false expectations for the future. Scale back what's delivered -- the so-called "results" -- and better long-term relationships might ensue.
There are too many other examples to describe. The premise is logically flawed anyways -- if "the boss" were always expecting results, then the only position NOT expecting results is the lowest on the totem pole. And it indicates there are no expectations upward along the company's management chain.
There are plenty of good books and resources on expectation management, but this doesn't sound like one of them. [I'm a sucker, though, because this post still makes me want to buy it.]
Post a Comment