Aligning Incentives
Why is it so difficult to align incentives?
A brief, non-professional example:
My landlord loves his lawn and his trees. While he lives 1,500 miles away it’s one of the first things he wants to see when he comes back to town. But…he didn’t want to pay for a regular gardener or pay the water bill. My wife and I are responsible people, but we’re also not made of time or money. How green and weed-free do you think the land around our house is? (Answer, if you needed it, I just mowed my lawn for the third time this season…dead grass doesn’t grow.)
Why does this always happen, especially in professional environments?
Two main reasons come to mind.
- People don’t recognize the importance of doing so and thus don’t take the time to think it through (or they are incapable of thinking along those lines)
- Assumptions are made about what motivates people rather than getting to know those they are attempting to motivate
There’s much you can do if you don’t recognize the importance except experience the outcome of not taking care of business beforehand.
As for the second point, take the time to ask people what matters to them. Context will change the conversation, but this should be one of the first conversations you have with all new hires. A few questions to help get to the bottom of things:
- Which accomplishments are you most proud?
- What are your goals?
- What do you want to get out of working here?
- When are you most excited to come to work (describe people, environment, type of work, compensation etc.)?
I’m sure there are more questions to ask – this was only after a quick think. What else would you want to know to help set up incentives?
Biggest Regret, Failure and Learning Experience
I don’t believe anyone can lead a life without regrets. Though it’d be nice, if you encounter someone who can lay claim to that then he is a person who can’t empathize and lives a very self-centered life. (And now I regret casting that stone…)
That said, my biggest regret (caveat: in the workplace) was one of the first true tests I had as a manager. A test I failed.
One of the guys on our team came to me seeking career advice. He didn’t love his role or my boss and wanted my advice on whether he should stick with it or pursue a riskier venture, but one that he really enjoyed.
A quick note on him: I loved working with him. He was intelligent, very creative and funny and was good at what he was tasked with doing. The risky venture? His wife was an actress on a popular cable show and he’d been dabbling in writing episodes for her show.
He prefaced our discussion by saying that he respected my input, ability to shoot-straight and trusted that I could give him sound advice from a viewpoint that wasn’t his manager. This should have been such a perfect lead-in that I couldn’t have possibly failed.
Rather than tell him what I truly believed (and still do), I spoke from a very selfish point of view. I liked working with him, I needed him on the team and he provided a necessarily role on the team that had nothing to do with output. I talked about the opportunity, the team we had and the awards for which we were nominated.
Nothing I said was a misrepresentation, but it was coming from my best interest and not his.
The moral?
You can’t be a leader (and thus a successful manager) if you can’t put your teammates needs in front of your own. Respect them enough to be transparent and tell them the truth. And, most importantly, do both of you a favor. Encourage your teammate to do what s/he enjoys. It’s hard to be successful (though not impossible) if you can’t put your heart into your job.
And how many times does one really get the chance to write for a popular television show?
Fortunately, he saw that I was full of shit and left anyway.
While I regret the poor ‘advice’ (used rather loosely) I gave, I’m grateful for the lesson that’s stuck with me for the past decade.
Leaders vs. Managers
I’ve been meaning to write about this topic for some time and recently came across this post on Slacker Manager, one of the more interesting blogs around. This post, like the preceding ones at LeadershipTurn are taking the manager vs. leader are starting to go in the right direction after our clinging to Bennis’ theories for far too long.
The world has changed from when Bennis wrote about the differences between leaders and managers nearly half a century ago. As a culture, we’re increasingly less responsive to command and control situations than we were then.
The difference between the two is behavior and mentality, not tasks nor title.
Why does it all matter? Well, which would you rather have on your side?
Leaders:
- Motivate, inspire, coach
- Set the tone for how business is conducted (good or bad)
- Recognize and promote good ideas regardless of where they originate
- Promote others before themselves (usually, though not always)
- Know what they don’t know…and have the ability to say “I don’t know”
- Understand what makes the people around them tick and utilize that to maximize performance
- Speak the truth, always
Managers:
- Stick to the plan
- Ensure tasks are completed as expected
- Protect themselves by sycophantically managing up and take credit for their team’s success
- Can’t see the needs of others through the work that needs to be completed
- Tell people what they think they want to hear
Living to Ride Part II
Regrettably, I forgot the most important lesson learned, or remembered, from cycling.
- Focus on where you want to go, not the obstacles. Once you fixate on a rock, pothole or asphalt seam you’re sure to ride directly at it. The lesson is to focus on the clear path so you navigate through the danger easily. The obstacles will always be there, but if you choose not to focus on them they’ll pass harmlessly by.
This reminds me of a quote I read once from a sailor in the Whitbread Round the World Race. Commenting on the icebergs around Cape Horn (paraphrasing), “We really have to navigate carefully during the day as the icebergs are all over the place. Fortunately, they disappear at night.”
Getting Unstuck
There are times when you’re stuck. You’re in a rut, your creative juices flow like lava and you feel boxed in. Financial burdens weigh on you and you don’t see all the possibilities that lie in front of the professional you.
Been there. It’s not fun.
You lose confidence and lack motivation. In these situations you have to do something radical.
After parting ways with my former employer, I realized that I had been allowing myself to be defined by others. I was listening to them when I applied for jobs or completed projects or brainstormed ideas.
Redefining the rules of the game.
Once I had gone I started thinking of all the things that I could be and do. If I wanted to start plumbing I could learn the trade. The difference was I started believing in it again. I stopped letting people tell me what I was (and wasn’t).
Being honest with yourself about what you want.
Figuring out what you really want is damn hard. But if you can be honest and admit the ego needs to be satisfied and that you have ambitions that lie beyond the point of modesty then you’ll be a bit closer to getting to the heart of the matter.
Getting out of your own way.
Let something other than yourself stop you. Just keep going, taking one step at a time until you reach a real brick wall. An obstacle that forces you to go around or turn around. You’ll never know the limit unless you let yourself hit it.
