-- [ From: Jim Ross * EMC.Ver #3.1a ] --
Responding to LO12977
"My question is whether there may be other structural, systemic or cultural
obstacles that we should be looking for."
snip
"Most of the reading that I've done identifies the individualistic and
competitive personality traits of executives as the primary reason that
leadership teams fail to gel."
Forgive me, for I might ramble a bit. This particular subject and the way
compensation and rewards are generally delivered has intrigued me ever
since I've entered the workforce. There seems to be some very obvious
things out of place.
There appears to be a real disconnect in business today with what we say
we want from executives AND the rank-and-file, what we want work to
become, and how we pay and reward people.
Who among us has not heard the terms "empowerment", "teamwork", "pushing
decision-making down", etc. I've picked up a number of articles recently
that tout the virtues of involving people...how important it is to have
their "hearts and heads".....then turned the pages to read about cost-
cutting, downsizing, paying people less....
...Just the other day I picked up our company's proxy statement to read
about the compensation and bonuses given to our firm's senior executive
team .....read about their golden parachutes and stock options...
I just spent my whopping 3.2 percent "incentive" pay to help retire my
taxes this year. I shudder to think what my team spent theirs
on.... 3.2 percent of nothing is nothing.
What's wrong with this picture?
It's a bit embarassing to me as a leader to look my employees in the face
and ask them to do more of the work I formerly did (which means, I do
less) then tell them their compensation (and mine) is going to stay the
same.... they're smart people....they know they're doing more and are
being paid less .... they know the latest "land" deal when they see it.
Also, it's a bit absurd to have senior executives look at you in a
business briefing and (blink, blink) tell you "No one's job is secure"
when they know that they're taken care of no matter which way it goes. And
they're the ones who determine which way it goes and to whom it may go to
(if the price is right.)
These are just some of the things.........real things........that keep us
running after the latest fad.........hoping it will in some way motivate
employees to reach deep within and pull out that discretionary effort and
use it. Then we sit back and collectively scratch our heads when we fail
to reach our grand expectations....hmm, must have been the
delivery........or "those durn consultants (Sherri's post)....Couldn't
have been that we failed to address the basic question, "what's in it for
me?"
Until we reconcile ourselves to bring everything to the table and
fundamentally restructure it so that it is equitable, we will continue to
see a large portion of the workforce unplugged....and watch the talent
walk out the door to a better deal.
I don't know if this addresses what you asked for in your post, Roxanne,
but for what it's worth, it's my take on the issue.
Jim Ross
Jim Ross
Internet:JARoss@linknet.net
--Jim Ross <JARoss@popalex1.linknet.net>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>