The Essence of Business
• John is promoted over Jane and an ego battle begins.
• Eric is territorial and never shares critical information with others, as he should.
• Rebecca comes in extremely late every day despite many warnings and the prospect of possible termination for chronic tardiness.
And the list goes on and on.
Business is all about getting the job done for your customer or client and being compensated for it. All the processes and efficiencies that can be mustered to make things run smoothly and reach the endgame should be the number one priority. And the best people — and only the best people — should be “on the bus.” Of course, that’s always easier said than done. People can deflect and also be deflected. Managers have to swing into action.
I recently came across a great quote that says it all. It’s something to remember when we get bogged down, thinking about all the things that can prevent us from achieving the desired result. Here it is:
“Keep in mind that, in the work setting, the purpose of the interaction is to accomplish a certain task, and not to teach a lesson, win a contest, prove something, or demonstrate who is right and who is wrong.”
Professor Renato Tagiuri
Harvard Business School
Amen!
Technorati Tags: Professor Renato Tagiuri, Harvard Business School, reputation, communications, public relations, business, Makovsky
posted by Ken Makovsky at 4:25 PM
2 Comments:
Accomplishing the task is clearly what we're in business for - but the method by which a task is accomplished is equally as important. A learning organization not only needs to accomplish the task, but it may indeed need to "teach a lesson" if in doing so the values and practices of the organization are being passed on. How often do we see one manager moving heaven-and-earth to accomplish his task, only to find that he's disrupted things for another manager trying to accomplish a subsequent task?
Agree. That is why task force is so important. A good manager will see that and correct it.
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