The Value of Axiology, Part II
Here in the United States we have been moving from an industrial driven economy to the information age for well over 50 years. During the industrial age, management's view of its employees was that of a machine. Picture a sweatshop in Manhattan where rows and rows of workers (mostly women) sitting at sewing machines, tasked with producing x number of pieces of clothing per hour. These managers did not value people, only what people could produce.
For most of the 1990s I worked for enterprise software company, Computer Associates, the second largest software-only company in the world at the time. Each year we had a CIO Conference. It was a way to connect with Chief Information Officers (CIO) as a way to build relationships with the top executives who held the budget for the money that our clients spent on software. I was in attendance at one of the conferences when one of the CIO’s asked our founder, Charles Wang, how much he paid top programmers. Charles responded that he paid top programmers as much as $300,000 a year. That was 26 years ago.
The CIOs were flabbergasted, saying, “They make more than we do.” Charles responded, “I’m in the software business; if I don’t have good software to sell, I have no business. Great programmers are worth every penny to me.” That was a clear demonstration of a leader valuing employees’ capabilities.
For four consecutive years, I had the distinct honor to facilitate a high performance leader program for the president of a $1B+ business unit of a women’s health company. Year after year, our client Pete invested heavily in developing his high potential leaders. He did so because he understands their value and the importance of investing in them.
Pete once shared something that really struck me. He said, “I keep a paper in my pocket at all times with the top ten people in the company that I can not afford to lose for any reason.” He would do just about anything to keep them.
When leaders say they value their people, it is appropriate to ask to see the budget. Talk is cheap, but having money allocated to invest in your team is a clear demonstration that they value their people. Pete clearly knew the worth of his people, and his budget reflected his commitment. Keeping a list of your top 10 employees you can not afford to lose is further demonstration of valuing people.
For eleven years I coached my son Simon’s basketball teams. When my son was in middle school, I coached a team in our neighboring community. When I got my roster, I discovered I got Jimmy on my team, to which I sighed. I felt that way because the year prior, my assessment of Jimmy was that he was a goof-off that didn’t take playing organized basketball seriously. He played like he would on his best friend’s driveway, just screwing around all the time.
At first, I almost quit because Jimmy and a couple other teammates made practice miserable for me. But I soon realized that Jimmy could be a really valuable asset to our team. Although he was the shortest player in the league, he was very athletic, very aggressive, and had a great spirit, things you can’t teach. If I could harness this for good, he could make a huge difference for our team.
I had a heart to heart conversation with Jimmy and his best friend, who was also on our team. I told them that if they weren’t willing to play my way, there would be no team, as I was going to quit. I explained to him that if he just allowed me to help him use his gifts, he could be the most disruptive player on the court, in a positive way for our team. He agreed.
Jimmy became my point guard and I had him playing suffocating defense on the other teams’ point guards. This resulted in an incredible number of steals and turnovers, which resulted in easy baskets for our team. That year we won the championship and I was able to give Jimmy the trophy for Most Valuable Player. One of the other coaches came up to me at the awards banquet and said, “I’m amazed at what you were able to get out of Jimmy.”
I didn’t teach Jimmy how to be an athlete, make him aggressive, or give him spirit, all I did was recognize Jimmy’s gifts and ask for permission to allow me to tap into it and play to them for the benefit of his team. That’s what valuing people looks like.
I recently saw an interview with the mayor of a small town in the upper midwest, talking about the winter weather. The mayor said, “there is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing.” In business, there is no such thing as bad employees, only poor leaders who don’t recognize people's unique abilities, don’t value people, and/or don't employ employees in the best place to leverage their natural strengths.
In my previous blog, I stated that Axiology says that the optimal order of value is people, tasks, and systems–or said another way, having the right people, solving problems (tasks), and using systems or structure to support them. Without people we have nothing. While systems, processes, ideas, and theories have value, they are not what produces extraordinary results, people do.
I challenge you to take stock in the people you lead. Identify their greatest natural gifts, skills, and capabilities and then ask yourself, have I set them up to leverage their strengths for the benefit of the team. If not, get to work.
Of course, you can always reach out to me and I can help you do this for you and for your team.