Lessons From The Office: Part II

Lesson #2

We're all different. Use that to our advantage.

Did you ever hear this old children's song?

Hello, my name is Joe and I work in a button factory.

I have a house, and a dog, and a family.

One day, my boss said to me, "Hey Joe, are you busy?"

I said, "No."

He said "Turn the button with your left hand."

(Repeat and add a new action each time.)

Sometimes, it's very easy to treat all employees as if they are identical. We're all just named Joe and we're all doing the same job in the button factory. Oh sure, Joe #1 uses his left hand and Joe #2 uses his right foot but we can train them on how to do each other's job. After all, neither job is too difficult and the most important thing is that we treat everyone equally, right?

That standard and those asumptions do not hold true for parents raising their kids. It's doesn't hold true for teachers with a classroom of students. And it should not hold true for employers with their employees.

Each employee has their own unique abilities and personality. Each employee has something that they bring to the table that no one else has. Our job is not to fit the person to the job, it's to fit the job to the person. Don't devote too much time to trying to fix the weaknesses, put the effort into accentuating the strengths.

There are some people that are good at implementation, there are others that are good with the big ideas. Great. Put those people together, work out the plan and let each person do what they do best. That's the whole point of the HOTS personality tests that we do at work. Each personality has its own advantages and none of the personalities can do the complete job on their own. It's when we combine our efforts and those advantages that the best results are achieved.

The common joke is that managers are always promoted one level above the level they're actually good at. We take a computer programmer and try to make them into a software designer. We take a software designer and try to make them into a manager. Sometimes these changes are necessary. Often times the person makes the best out of it and learns the necessary skills to get by. The difference is that the talented designer will never be as great a talented manager, yet too often we put them in that straight jacket anyway and then we're displeased when they don't measure up to expectations.

We need to learn about our own strengths, our own personality and our own preferences. That will allow us to excel in the things that we're best qualified. Apply that analysis to others and communicate it properly and we can empower all of the best parts of our team. The whole becomes more than the sum of its parts.

It's like our button factory. Hey, some people are good at the repetitive button pushing. Some people are good at multi-tasking and changing buttons all the time. Some people are good at being the boss. And some people are good at chanting the song with the kids.

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