Post by Tanya Goodwin-Maslach, contributing Women On Business writer
Jim Collins had his bus and 3M CEO, George Buckley, has his garden. However you look at it, getting, keeping and growing the right people in your company and on your teams, determines your ultimate success. But then again, didn’t we learn that in grade school?
Remember those days? When we stood in two lines, and the captain was picking fav’s for the dodge ball team, and you knew you weren’t strong enough, big enough, agile enough, or popular enough to get the ‘job’. What the capt’n didn’t know was you had killer instincts, super secret tactics, and inside knowledge that could win you game after game. You knew Jane, and her special strategies for avoiding the ball. And Johnny, how he used to throw games when he didn’t get enough playing time. Basically, you had an inside edge that wasn’t readily apparent – your ‘resume’ didn’t speak too loudly, and having “King of the Chess club” on it didn’t quite measure up in the line-up for dodge ball team selection.
In Jim Collin’s world, building strategy came second to selecting the right team members. IN George Buckley’s world, it means weeding out the bad, before growing the really good. No matter how you look at it, people choices – and how you develop them – make a world of difference in the game called business.
Problem is, nobody’s really paying attention. And especially now – in a recession. The competitors who feel like they don’t need to pay attention is exactly the hidden opportunity for those wanting to jump ahead. People development is like an underground competitive strategy that is talked about a lot, but so rarely done – right. It’s hard. It takes time and it goes beyond looking at fancy resumes and cool schools. Done right, it sets up a company for wild success just when everyone else is struggling. (like now)
Your competitive advantage comes when you don’t play by the same rule book everyone else is using. (This isn’t code word for “be unethical” – for you literal thinkers out there) Finding and developing the best players – whether you use Jim Collin’s bus example, or 3M CEO George Buckley’s philosophy – is the key to building the best dodge-ball team on the world-wide playground.
Some wise thoughts from George Buckley – (for more, please go to: USA Today’s May 18 article):
- Build respect to build trust. “However hokey it sounds, it works.”
- On how 3M passed IBM and GE in the ranks of best for leadership development in one year: “{People} hopped from job to job every year or year and a half. When people move too often, there is more thought given to the next place, not to developing people and developing relationships. I didn’t like the merry-go-round.”
- When asked “Should we be spending money on training? What if these people leave the company?” Buckley’s answer was, “What if we don’t, and they stay?”
- On maintaining leadership development as you cut costs: “It’s more important to invest to differentiate yourself from the competition. In a 2% recession, you have 98% of the business left…You have to focus on what’s left, not on what’s gone. You’re unlikely to do that well if you back off on training and leadership development.”
It seems easier now to argue that there’s no money in the kitty to help your rock stars be even better players. But when you take your next break, and the teams line up on the court again, don’t be surprised if you’re a few players short – and your best are staring back at you with a big red ball in their hands.
Find more quick thoughts from George at USA Today’s article on 3M CEO George Buckley Focuses on Leadership Training.
Onward!
Susan Gunelius
Susan Gunelius is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Women on Business. She is a 30-year veteran of the marketing field and has authored a dozen books about marketing, branding, and social media, including the highly popular Ultimate Guide to Email Marketing, 30-Minute Social Media Marketing, Content Marketing for Dummies, Blogging All-in-One for Dummies and Kick-ass Copywriting in 10 Easy Steps. Susan’s marketing-related content can be found on Entrepreneur.com, Forbes.com, MSNBC.com, BusinessWeek.com, and more. Susan is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a marketing communications company. She has worked in corporate marketing roles and through client relationships with AT&T, HSBC, Citibank, Intuit, The New York Times, Cox Communications, and many more large and small companies around the world. Susan also speaks about marketing, branding and social media at events around the world and is frequently interviewed by television, online, radio, and print media organizations about these topics. She holds an MBA in Management and Strategy and a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing and is a Certified Professional Career Coach (CPCC).
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