In the 1970’s, New York City was run by a gentleman named Ed Koch, who had an interesting habit. He’d visit subway stations or popular intersections throughout the city, and ask residents heading to and from work, “How am I doin’?” This scenario became legend.
When I was a young executive in a large corporation, our president would visit various departments throughout the day, and ask employees things like, “How are you?” or “Are you working on anything exciting?” or “How can the corporation help you?”
I first thought these were examples of leaders being polite, or maybe just “attention seekers,” or maybe even managers who didn’t have much else to do. What I didn’t realize was that I was witnessing a brilliant leadership tactic. [Read more…]
He also discussed how the more we complicate this message, the more we get off target. By “complicate,” we mean things (that even experts debate) like worrying about depreciation, inventory valuations, and “accrual versus cash” method, which are all good to know, but not for understanding the nuts and bolts of what makes a successful business.
I have a colleague and supplier (an information technology specialist) who earns a significant part of his income fixing disasters. He gets lots of work from clients who thought they were computer savvy and capable of building their own network or website (WRONG!) or after having assembling a team of independent specialists who do not understand the overall underlying structure of a system (NOT A GOOD IDEA!) As a result, they got themselves in all kinds of trouble, like accidentally deleting their important system files, or breaking key system components that brought their site down.