And it involves spending a lot of time thinking before acting. Real thinking and focusing on solutions is the hardest work any of us will ever do. Pfeffer, in the Harvard Management Update newsletter, lays out seven rules for successful organizations that wish to put people first. None of them are exactly revealed wisdom. But they all require different behavior by the boss.
Employees are loath to really improve productivity if it means they no longer have a job.
That means a thorough knowledge of the work to be done and skills needed. Southwest Airlines, for example, uses a committee of people actually doing the work as the final screen for new hires. Virtually all high-performance companies give workers great autonomy. If people are your company's most important asset, their pay levels should reflect that. It's a fast-changing world.