So here we are, halfway through my eight items for success. We just talked about the hiring process and hopefully you have hired some really great people. So, once hired, now motivate them. But how do you do this…how do you challenge them? You have limited resources and yet, remember; you need these people to help build your company.
Guess what? The types of people you have hired or should have hired are not driven by the God Almighty Dollar. Yes, they need to be compensated but they are willing to take the risk because they see an opportunity to build something meaningful – and they work for you. So you need to make their work fun as well as challenging and rewarding. Hopefully you have hired people who feel the same way as you do.Now you need to treat them well and give them some parameters for success.
Early in my career I had the good fortune to get hired into the account management training program at Ogilvy & Mather in New York. David Ogilvy, one of the founders and an icon in the advertising business, was still actively involved in the agency, and I remember reading his book, Confessions of an Advertising Man, before applying for a position. What really impressed me was how he motivated people. I quote from the book: “We admire people who work hard, who are objective and thorough. We detest office politicians, toadies, bullies and pompous asses. We abhor ruthlessness. The way up our ladder is open to everyone. In promoting people to top jobs, we are influenced as much by their character as anything else.”
So if you have hired the right people, their understanding that the playing field is level should go a long way to motivating them and helping your organization succeed.
The second point I would like to cover today deals with lateral thinking. Lateral thinking allows you to go beyond your boundaries. You see the world through glasses. If you recall when I started blogging, I talked about thinking big. You can do this with lateral thinking.
Frans Johansson wrote an interesting book entitled, The Medici Effect. Europe was in the dark ages but suddenly there were many groundbreaking inventions emanating out of Florence, Italy. The Medicis, the ruling family of this city-state, encouraged craftsmen from multi-disciplines to work together and it was at the intersections of these disciplines that inventions occurred.
Transpose that concept to today. It is at the intersection of engineering and medicine that we have recently experienced dramatic breakthroughs. Another example that comes to mind is the IPads. Computer, phone or both?
So I would encourage you to listen to everything. People in your new organization come with different experiences. Putting them in one room and bouncing ideas off them will lead to breakthroughs.
At Simon Associates Management Consultants, we work with organizations that are looking for “Blue Ocean” approaches that will stimulate innovation and change, and our processes take all of the above into account. If you would like to know more, please contact me.
