4 ms·

Bosses need to accept that employees choose what the future of work looks like

29 points by ianai 4y ago

ianai 4y ago
“Anne Chow (the author) is lead director on FranklinCovey’s Board of Directors and co-author of the best-selling book, “The Leader’s Guide to Unconscious Bias.” Chow is the former CEO of AT&T Business and was twice featured as one of Fortune’s Most Powerful Women in Business.”
jessicas_rabbit 4y ago
Summary: The ex-AT&T CEO author writes an entire article to interpret some “survey data” so she can voice her opinion on behalf of a demographic she doesn’t belong to. Author fails to even reference the names of those survey data sources.
- nisegami 4y ago
  We're well into the post-truth era at this point, so this doesn't really change anything.
- kelnos 4y ago
  I think it's good that someone in an executive position (or at least presumably able to influence others who are in executive positions) is realizing this and writing about this. If only workers are pushing the idea of flexible work arrangements, and all executives are still on the "come to an office 9-5 or else" train, it's not going to go very well. And I don't think she was trying to speak for individual contributors. She was focusing on the concept that, for a business, the "what" and "why" of what gets done is what really matters, not the "where" or "when". It was notable to me that she also mentioned leaving the "how" to employees to figure out, and that it's widely understood already that managers who micromanage don't have successful teams (not saying there aren't still terrible managers, but...). Management also needs to recognize that the "where" and "when" should also not be micromanaged.
  - jessicas_rabbit 4y ago
    IMO it’s valuable that the author tells my boss to focus asking me “how” and “why” I want to do things. This value is partially lost when they use the leading caption & bottom half of their article to sell my boss on survey results via a particular demographic favoring one particular “how” and “why” outcome.
rednerrus 4y ago
As it should be. As a manager, you're better off hiring smart people and letting them do their jobs than hiring complacent people and telling them what to do.
- sorethescore 4y ago
  Not all jobs require hiring smart people, in fact for some jobs, hiring a smart person is a liability, law enforcement for instance.
  - rednerrus 4y ago
    I am deleting this comment.
  - infamouscow 4y ago
    Please explain why hiring a smart person is a liability without relying on a hypothetical strawman.
    - asguy 4y ago
      Because smart people tend to get bored, and then the expense of training them for a job is "lost". It's not a "hypothetical strawman" .. https://abcnews.go.com/US/court-oks-barring-high-iqs-cops/story?id=95836 https://abcnews.go.com/US/court-oks-barring-high-iqs-cops/st...
    - mikestew 4y ago
      You'll have to ask the New London, CT police department about that: https://abcnews.go.com/US/court-oks-barring-high-iqs-cops/story?id=95836 https://abcnews.go.com/US/court-oks-barring-high-iqs-cops/st...
    - toomuchtodo 4y ago
      They will question your decisions and directions instead of blindly following them. You can have curious employees, or obedient employees, but usually not both. You can somewhat pave over this with comp (tech does this), but most of the economy cannot.
black_13 4y ago

29 points by ianai 4y ago

“Anne Chow (the author) is lead director on FranklinCovey’s Board of Directors and co-author of the best-selling book, “The Leader’s Guide to Unconscious Bias.” Chow is the former CEO of AT&T Business and was twice featured as one of Fortune’s Most Powerful Women in Business.”

jessicas_rabbit 4y ago

Summary: The ex-AT&T CEO author writes an entire article to interpret some “survey data” so she can voice her opinion on behalf of a demographic she doesn’t belong to. Author fails to even reference the names of those survey data sources.

nisegami 4y ago
We're well into the post-truth era at this point, so this doesn't really change anything.
kelnos 4y ago
I think it's good that someone in an executive position (or at least presumably able to influence others who are in executive positions) is realizing this and writing about this. If only workers are pushing the idea of flexible work arrangements, and all executives are still on the "come to an office 9-5 or else" train, it's not going to go very well. And I don't think she was trying to speak for individual contributors. She was focusing on the concept that, for a business, the "what" and "why" of what gets done is what really matters, not the "where" or "when". It was notable to me that she also mentioned leaving the "how" to employees to figure out, and that it's widely understood already that managers who micromanage don't have successful teams (not saying there aren't still terrible managers, but...). Management also needs to recognize that the "where" and "when" should also not be micromanaged.
- jessicas_rabbit 4y ago
  IMO it’s valuable that the author tells my boss to focus asking me “how” and “why” I want to do things. This value is partially lost when they use the leading caption & bottom half of their article to sell my boss on survey results via a particular demographic favoring one particular “how” and “why” outcome.

rednerrus 4y ago

As it should be. As a manager, you're better off hiring smart people and letting them do their jobs than hiring complacent people and telling them what to do.

sorethescore 4y ago
Not all jobs require hiring smart people, in fact for some jobs, hiring a smart person is a liability, law enforcement for instance.
- rednerrus 4y ago
  I am deleting this comment.
- infamouscow 4y ago
  Please explain why hiring a smart person is a liability without relying on a hypothetical strawman.
  - asguy 4y ago
    Because smart people tend to get bored, and then the expense of training them for a job is "lost". It's not a "hypothetical strawman" .. https://abcnews.go.com/US/court-oks-barring-high-iqs-cops/story?id=95836 https://abcnews.go.com/US/court-oks-barring-high-iqs-cops/st...
  - mikestew 4y ago
    You'll have to ask the New London, CT police department about that: https://abcnews.go.com/US/court-oks-barring-high-iqs-cops/story?id=95836 https://abcnews.go.com/US/court-oks-barring-high-iqs-cops/st...
  - toomuchtodo 4y ago
    They will question your decisions and directions instead of blindly following them. You can have curious employees, or obedient employees, but usually not both. You can somewhat pave over this with comp (tech does this), but most of the economy cannot.

black_13 4y ago