Tech Leadership “Fail”
The brief … True story. a VP of stuff at a large Silicon Valley tech business, stands in front of an all hands meeting and with a straight face proclaims
“We are not matching Google pay.” … can we agree this is an own-goal?
TL;DR His statement “We are not matching Google pay” begs a bunch of questions …
- what purpose is served by saying that?
[guessing] more than one employee came to the aforementioned VP and requested matching google pay. The only purpose served is to deter the requests and deter employees from even bringing it up (more on this later). - is there anything positive that can come of that for the business?
Someone said, “there is no such thing as bad publicity”. Ugh, this IS bad publicity. This is a memorable sound-byte, almost purposeful negative marketing. Word spread fast and no good came of it.
Talent kept looking. Recruiting became harder. New hires were demoralized and their daily efforts were lackluster. Talent left. Dead-wood stayed. No one went the extra mile. The workplace became increasingly apathetic and eventually toxic. The business atrophied and will eventually be acquired. - Is there anything positive that can come of that for the employees?
There is nothing positive here for employees; period.
Employees heard this and concluded:
‘No use asking for a raise. I need to find other work’ (and they did). The thinly veiled message from upper management is ‘We don’t listen. We can’t listen.’ Inexcusable.
Note to management: if you treat your talent as replaceable, your talent will treat you as replaceable. Your job is to grow the value of your business and talent is essential.
Lets learn from this mistake. Every company is on a journey of digital transformation. Digital transformation requires innovation. Innovation requires tech talent and a healthy workplace. Bottom line, without tech talent (ie. the tech talent the aforementioned VP just alienated), digital transformation does not happen. Own-goal.
How might that have been handled differently?
Sure, tech talent is motivated by money. But money is not the sole motivator. Maslow's hierarchy of needs tells us:
We all need basic food, water, warmth and rest.
Next we need belonging and a sense of connection.
Next we need esteem, respect, status. We need to achieve our full potential.
The aforementioned VP could have spoken to the hierarchy of needs:
Living within the financial means of the business is essential for the stability of business and stability of employment. This offers safety and adequate income to support our families. (but, with the claim of stability, comes an obligation to avoid reduction-in-force).
Next is belonging and sense of connection. This is the healthy workplace that we all hope to find, but rarely do. The remedy is to reduce emphasis on individual performance, and increase emphasis on team performance. Emphasis on team performance includes changes in the way upper management works. Functional managers transition into roles of team leads of cross-functional self-managed teams. OK, before you deem this pie-in-the-sky wishful thinking; cross functional teams work. see Microsoft. Shared goals lead to sense of belonging. Mentoring leads to sense of belonging. Project Team success leads to improved business performance.
Esteem, respect and achieving our potential also come from cross-functional self-managed teams. Executive management clearly defines a big problem to solve with clear definition of success. They assign a cross-functional self-managed team to solve the problem and meet key success criteria. In tech, lets not overlook job satisfaction … working on worthwhile projects, patents, education, self-guided innovation (within reason and with oversight), and altruistic projects like Habitat for Humanity and Food pantries. These all truly contribute to a sense of belonging and self esteem.
Ok so, what are executives now doing?
The real change MUST BE EXECUTIVE CHANGE: Executives ensure the organization outgrows functional management and grows into cross-function teams. Executives ensure teams work on the right problems and are set up for success, with adequate skills, time and resources to win (and no micro management from helicopter bosses or resource erosion).
Executives recognize and reward team success.
Executives do not claim credit for the work of others.
Executives accept responsibility for problems and failures.
And in order to do these essential things, Executives must listen.
Is this really so hard to understand?
