“Too often, companies hire for skills without enough consideration for spirit. When that happens, you end up with a bunch of wonks who can’t work together. There needs to be a balance between skills and spirit across the entire company.
This same balance needs to exist within individual senior managers. A VP of global marketing at an IT company recently asked me about this. He told me that one of his senior managers had great skills and was a decent leader, but he wasn’t showing any heart--he just didn’t seem to care about the company. The VP said that the manager’s bad attitude was starting to wear off on his entire team.
My reply was clear and simple. I told him that if the manager’s heart wasn’t in it, there were two options: move him into a purely technical position or let him go. Senior managers are a microcosm of your company. They are the role models for other employees. As such, they need to have both skills and spirit” -- Michelle Randall for Fast Company
I couldn’t agree more. I truly believe that you need to match your business acumen, technical ability and leadership skills with your drive, understanding and heart. In my opinion, there are two kinds of senior level employees - managers and leaders. Managers, well, manage. They may understand the business needs, but don’t necessarily care enough about the little things or the people that make up the structure. Leaders have a ‘door open’ policy, they direct by example and take interest in the business ‘black spots’ as well as taking pride in the successes.
It is important to have leaders in a position of power; people who, as Michelle quite rightly states, are role models. Whether you realize it or not, attitudes and are filtered down throughout teams - from Directors and business stakeholders all the way down to the junior/trainee level employees. If you are excited and enthusiastic about the project or role in general then it will inevitably have a knock-on effect, making everyone else around you passionate about what they’re doing.
So in summation; be a positive person, be in a job you love or at the very least make the most out of the one you’ve got!
This same balance needs to exist within individual senior managers. A VP of global marketing at an IT company recently asked me about this. He told me that one of his senior managers had great skills and was a decent leader, but he wasn’t showing any heart--he just didn’t seem to care about the company. The VP said that the manager’s bad attitude was starting to wear off on his entire team.
My reply was clear and simple. I told him that if the manager’s heart wasn’t in it, there were two options: move him into a purely technical position or let him go. Senior managers are a microcosm of your company. They are the role models for other employees. As such, they need to have both skills and spirit” -- Michelle Randall for Fast Company
I couldn’t agree more. I truly believe that you need to match your business acumen, technical ability and leadership skills with your drive, understanding and heart. In my opinion, there are two kinds of senior level employees - managers and leaders. Managers, well, manage. They may understand the business needs, but don’t necessarily care enough about the little things or the people that make up the structure. Leaders have a ‘door open’ policy, they direct by example and take interest in the business ‘black spots’ as well as taking pride in the successes.
It is important to have leaders in a position of power; people who, as Michelle quite rightly states, are role models. Whether you realize it or not, attitudes and are filtered down throughout teams - from Directors and business stakeholders all the way down to the junior/trainee level employees. If you are excited and enthusiastic about the project or role in general then it will inevitably have a knock-on effect, making everyone else around you passionate about what they’re doing.
So in summation; be a positive person, be in a job you love or at the very least make the most out of the one you’ve got!
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