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You Think You Know What Your People Need to Know
But how do you know?
No one is that smart. No one is smart enough to ask all the questions, and no leader is smart enough to know when to give the information you might need to run your business effectively.
I’m on a slightly tangential rant with this post today.
The blog is loading slowly. I am creaky and cranky. Let’s shake off some rust, shall we?
I read this article from Chris Dessi on Inc. this morning entitled “7 Things You Say That Make You Sound Old at Work” and it included a list of things that might help you relate better with the young people in your organziation if you didn’t say them.
Here’s is the list from Dessi. You can go read the full article for the back story on each one, most of which make sense.
1. Please put your phone away.
2. No, you can’t work from home.
3. You’ve got mail!
4. Don’t forget the four P‘s!
5. There’s nothing like an in-person meeting.
6. You’ll get your information on a need-to-know basis.
7. She’s a social media guru.
This list got me thinking about things I had said when I was younger, and how I have actually grown past some of those naïve statements. You’ll recognize them. They sound like this:
- Cell Phones? That thing is gigantic. Why would you ever want to carry something like that around on your belt? People could get in touch with any time. I’d never do that! (MVD circa 1996)
2. This one gets credited anonymously to one of my former supervisors circa 2003, and covers working at home and the need for face to face meetings.
Her: “I don’t care if you have worked from home successfully from home for the past five years. “We” (read I, your new boss) believe your customers deserve personal access to you.
Me only 6% of the clients I serve in my region work at that building.
Her: “We” (read I, your new boss) still believe your customers deserve personal access to you. Oh and by the way, you are going to have to cut back on travel also.
Me: You mean cut back on personal visits to the other 94% of my customer base? Don’t they deserve to me in person like the customers in Indianapolis?
Her: Michael, stop being difficult.
4. Again with the old boss,
Her: “You’ll get the information you need to know when you need to know it.”
Me “How will I know if I need to know it if you won’t tell me about it?”
Her: “I’ll know it when the time comes.”
Me: “but how does that work, like the supreme court decision on porn?”
Her: “Michael, stop being difficult.”
And so it goes…