Rules 3, 4, and 5 are a block.
3) Take care of the people who work for you. The Team comes first.
4) Take care of the user/customer.
5) Take care of the people you work for. Rules 3 and 4 will do most of the work on rule 5, but the boss always comes last.
They sound mostly self-explanatory. They are. But the order is important.
3) Take care of your team: This goes equally for members of the team as for blowhards. Team members must look out for each other, and sometimes to the exclusion of other important things. Most managers hate this, but if you want team cohesion, taking care of a teammate is more important than taking care of something the boss wants. This one can be tough for even the most magnanimous managers. But if you really want to have a great team, get over yourself. If a team wants to take a half day to help a team member move when the manager wants to do something else like have some stupid trust falls, or read Steven Covey in a circle while quietly saying, "Namaste," your best bet is on the moving. And then go burn your Steven Covey books. I'm just kidding. Sort of.
4) Take care of the customer: Again it's obvious, but also the order is messaging in itself. The team comes first. You need a good team to take care of the customer. A cohesive team works together to nail customer needs. Period. Some blowhards' first instinct is that "the customer always comes first." Well, if you haven't got a good team, the customer gets crap.
5) Take care of the people you work for. Rules 3 and 4 will do most of the work on rule 5, but the boss always comes last: At the end of the day, you are an organization that needs the team's skills, and the cohesiveness of the team. Usually executing well on 3 and 4 require little execution for rule 5. But sometimes you have to do rule 5 stuff too. But it's last. We'll call it Jason's Heirarchy of Corporate Needs. Except instead of that really important stuff like Physiology, Safety, Love, it's Team, Customer, Blowhards. And no, just reading Steven Covey and doing trust falls to please your boss doesn't count.
Distinction: "The people you work for" is not just about the blowhards/bosses. It's also about the company as a whole. The fuzziness is intentional to be broad enough to cover both.
For the aspiring blowhards: Team rule three is critical. Make sure your team feels truly taken care of from their peers (no backbiting, politics, etc) and from their managers (no backbiting, politics, etc). Keep your teams from getting depth charged. If customers are unruly, ask the customers to deal with you directly. This isn't that hard, but it seems to be one of the leadership functions most massively missed in today's corporate culture.
This is directly in support of Rules 1 and 2. Content and effective.
What the heck is the cloud?
2 months ago
