The Best Place to Work, Part 6: Let People Be People Last week, in this continuing series on creating the best place to work, I talked about being a great enabler of people, meaning you do your best to let people do their best work. This week, I want to talk about Letting People Be People. I wrote about topic a bit this last year when I wrote my series on Return Path’s Core Values, in particular the post on our value People Work to Live, Not Live to Work . Work-life balance is critical. I’ve worked in a grind-it-out 100-hour/week environment as an analyst before. Quite frankly, it sucks. One week I actually filled in 121 on my hourly…
Archives / August, 2012
The Best Place to Work, Part 5: Be the ultimate enabler
Fifth in my series on creating the best place to work – Being the best enabler. As any management guru will tell you, as you have a larger and larger team, your job is much less about getting good work done than it is enabling others to get good work done. What does that mean? First, don’t be a bottleneck. You don’t have to be an Inbox-Zero nut (but feel free if you’d like), but you do need to make sure you don’t have people in the company chronically waiting on you before they can take their next actions on projects. Otherwise, you lose all the leverage you have in hiring a team. Don’t let approvals or requests pile up!…
The Best Place to Work, Part 4: Be the Consummate Host
The Best Place to Work, Part 4: Be the Consummate Host Besides Surrounding yourself with the best and brightest , Creating an environment of trust, and Managing yourself very, very well, it’s important for you as a creator of The Best Place to Work to Be the Consummate Host. What does that mean? This is how I approach my job every day. I think of the company as a party, where I’m the host. I want everyone to have a good time. To get along with the other guests. To be excited to come back the next time I have a party (e.g., every day). By the way, I always have co-hosts, as well – anyone who manages anyone in…
The Best Place to Work, Part 3: Manage yourself very, very well
Part of creating the best place to work is learning how to self manage – very, very well. This is an essential part of Creating an environment of trust , but only one part. What does self-management mean? First, and most important, it means realizing that you are in a fishbowl. You are always on display. You are a role model in everything you do, from how you dress, to how you talk on the phone, to the way you treat others, to when you show up to work. But what are some specifics to think about while you swim around in your tank? Don’t send mixed signals to the team. You can’t tell people to do one thing, then…
Hiring vs. Promoting – and a Must-Read Blog
Hiring vs. Promoting – and a Must-Read Blog I have to admit that I have a bit of blog envy when it comes to Fred and Brad. We all started blogging roughly at the same time over 8 years ago (Brad and I the same day, Fred a few month before), and both have hugely large audiences compared to mine. I don’t care all that much — mostly I blog for me and for my company, not for any other reason. But one of the things I admire about both their blogs, particularly Fred, is the size of their *active* audiences. (Both of them tell me not to worry about it when it comes up in conversation — as they…
The Best Place to Work, Part 2: Create an environment of trust
Last week, I wrote about surrounding yourself with the best and brightest. Next in this series of posts is all about Creating an environment of trust. This is closely related to the blog post I wrote a while back in my series on Return Path’s Core Values on Transparency. At the end of the day, transparency, authenticity, and caring create an environment of trust. Some examples of that? Go over the real board slides after every board meeting – let everyone in the company know what was discussed (no matter how large you are, but of course within reason) Give bad news early and often internally. People will be less freaked out, and the rumor mill won’t take over Manage like…