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When (Scott) described your boss who wanted first to make lots of money, and
second, play golf, I can sincerely sympathize, as I have been there. In
fact, we may have worked for the same guy, based on your description! But
no philosophy, no methodology, no process, no value system, no focus on
coaching, is going to change that guy. This is again, not a fault with
the process, but with the implementer. You did the right thing when you
moved on.
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His comment reminded me of the operational philosophy of the consultants
in the organization at the time. I recall it as:
"Never try to teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time and just
annoys the pig."
Many of us gave up on trying to get Ed's involvement and ideas and
sometimes just did the best that we could with what we had at the time. A
few pilot projects blew up and never got additional work from the client.
Rol also said:
>For me, the spirit of ranking does not conflict with the spirit of
>coaching and mentoring, it enhances it. Assessing everyone's strengths
>and weaknesses is a necessary first step to ranking, and it is hard work.
And I am reminded of Luis Polonia, who was traded from the Yankees to the
California Angels baseball team where he became an All-Star player (same
guy, same game, same league, same skills, etc. only a change in
leadership, organizational philosophy and environment) and who gave one of
my best quotes on leadership:
"The Yankees are only interested in one thing.
And I don't know what that is."
Our measurements, rankings and PHILOSOPHY must be in alignment and in
league with our values. If not, conflict and resentment and all sorts of
other negative side effects.
In my own situation, many of the consultants went on to compete with Ed,
including me and Ken. Ken billed millions with some of Ed's former
clients. Instead of Ed building a bigger business and larger network, he
seemingly worked against himself and couldn't manage growth very well
(from my perspective).
One wonders how things might be different today if he had only been open
to feedback.....
But then again, as they used to do at the conclusion of the skits on
Saturday Night Live where Yorick came up with this wonderful idea, only to
react at the end,
"Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa."
-- For the Fun of It!Scott J. Simmerman SquareWheels@compuserve.com Performance Management Company -- We support consultants and trainers worldwide with products like -- -- The Search for the Lost Dutchman's Gold Mine -- www.clicknow.com/stagedright/dutchman/
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>