There are no bad soldiers, there are bad generals. Don't cut off a healthy leg: the main business mistakes in a crisis

Any businessman should understand that soldiers will always be bad - they are a collective. It is impossible to educate everyone, everyone will be lazy in their own way. Nevertheless, when a general is good, he has good army... And bad soldiers are just the exception that proves the rule. They are essential. Indeed, only in the contrast of 10% of obvious loafers can you see that the remaining 90% are really working.

Dmitry Zhitomirsky

In case you like everyone, you have 100% loafers. This is a team in which everyone must perform their specific functions, because each of us was born exclusively for certain actions.

Everyone raised himself exclusively for these actions, and therefore in any company a person must take his place in order to be useful and work as efficiently as possible. And these are, by definition, people with different abilities and characteristics. Like the liver, heart, kidneys and brain are absolutely different, but nevertheless they are part of the same organism and only in such an algorithm are they able to ensure its full functioning. The brain can never be in place of the rectum.

Do not forget that each individual employee is separate system... Therefore, as in any system, it has both pluses and minuses, both negative and positive features, without which the system cannot exist. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Therefore, you should not, under any circumstances, carry out what may seem to you to be extremely noble, without having objective opportunities and abilities for this. Everything must be done with dignity, measured and reasonable, and reap the positive fruits of your positive actions. This is exactly the case: any employee should work only with positive motivation, and not at all from under a stick or because of a threat. Employees should not be kept in Fear never and has never benefited anyone.

The key to success lies not in making yourself a habit of doing what makes you fearful, but solely in a competent and realistic analysis of the situation and high degree labor investment. Everything else, perhaps, will help you escape from the wolf, and fear, if you have one, will help you run faster in this case, but the task of any businessman is not to run, but to defeat this wolf.

Find a gun and shoot, and if you don't have a gun, grab your throat with your teeth! Then, and only then, you will have both success and victory.

Recently, the phrase that the gift sent by the Lord is always packed into a problem has become extremely popular. But this is nonsense! The amount of material wealth produced by a person on the planet is something limited, the amount of happiness produced by a person on the planet is also something limited, and therefore, if someone is richer, then someone is poorer, and if someone laughs, then someone. crying. We often laugh at anecdotes, but as soon as we penetrate into their essence, it becomes clear that we were amused by someone else's failure. And where is the justice? Others laugh at the fact that someone is very bad. And this resonance will always be! It is he who balances and maintains the harmony of the world. One cries - the other laughs.

The Lord gives each person the opportunity to go their own way and realize themselves as a thinking and feeling creature.

And be that as it may, we all make mistakes - both imaginable and sensual, based on this, sometimes we feel good, and sometimes very bad. But to refer in this matter to the "heavenly freebie", forgive me, is sinful. After all, if the Lord gave you the opportunity to win a lottery ticket, remember how many people also wanted to win, but did not even go and buy it.

It may seem surprising to some to see a ray of light amid total darkness, but the question is asked: how did you get complete darkness?

Would this ray of light really be so large in this life span, if before that you loved everyone and everyone loved you? I think we all remember Bonaparte very well, who was condemned by the whole world, but he still remained Bonaparte. After losing the war, in his entire life he did not suffer a single defeat, battle glory Bonopart was not tainted. As a general, he was the best, but that does not mean that all his soldiers were good. But the point is not only in the generals and soldiers ...

Whatever one may say, one person cannot conquer the whole world, one cannot become the owner of all money and all world happiness - and this is the justice of the Lord. He will never allow just one person to receive everything. After all, it is possible to be happy only against the background of the upset, and to be upset - only against the background of the happy. The Lord never gives a person problems. I have never agreed with the slogan of one of the largest European companies: “Take everything from life”. Does a person need as much as he takes from life, and did he set his aspirations correctly?

Did he correctly direct himself and his desires to master it all?

Will the power to which he seeks: mental, material, bring happiness for him? Take from life what is necessary and sufficient, take even a little more, but remember that if you took a little more, you made someone poorer, and at the same time, tomorrow you will receive revolutionaries at the gates of your castle. And the more you take, the more there will be poor and evil. And therefore, is it worth taking everything from life? A person's problems do not come from the Lord at all, but precisely because a person does not value what he has and cannot control it, or because he does not even want to lift a finger in order to have at least something. Handsome and ugly, stupid and fool, strong and weak - anyone in this world can adapt. There is a certain cell and niche for each of us. This is how the world works. And if we were born, we have already occupied it. And what we are going to do in this space is the task that everyone has to solve. The gift of the Lord always appears to a person only in its pure form, while problems begin from our inability to use this gift.

In addition, the more a person has everything, the more time and effort must be spent on managing this.

Requests are increasing. I understand that before a man had ordinary pants, and now he wants pants exclusively from Calvin Klein, the price range of which differs fivefold. What can you offer such a person? Take these pants, boil them in a saucepan and put them on the table instead of the first course, and then take others and compare: do they smell the same or not and can they be eaten? Everything is absolutely correct - expenses increase in accordance with income, the more you earn - the more clearly the temptation to spend money and surround yourself with large and large material goods becomes. But everything material requires care. So, if you have one car, it is enough for you to look after one, and if three - already for three. Nevertheless, one cannot drive three cars, which means that you need to hire drivers and car mechanics, and the crowd of security should also be hired. And for what? Why do you need all this? Each person has categories according to which he chooses what is more important to him, and if he chooses everything, then, by and large, he does not need anything except the outside opinion of others. Therefore, you always have to start with yourself - to clearly understand for whom you are trying and for whom you are doing all this. After all, if you take from life only what you need, alas, you will not be able to find yourself in everything. Become educated, cultured, educated, put in your work - and work until the end of your days. Knowing yourself, reaching heights, so produce material benefits - grow carrots or help your children to raise grandchildren.

Seeing how the meaning of your whole life grows is really worthwhile!

It is clear that over the past 50 years, during the time of megalopolises, the scale of values ​​has undergone dramatic changes. Although in the hinterland, I am sure, even now they value decent relationships, friendship, honesty and work. Labor is highly valued, especially where there is still a subsistence economy, the attitude to labor is appropriate, and in megalopolises, where people often receive money that is not at all consistent with the labor invested, the scale of values ​​is lost. That is why people are more and more often aimlessly wasting their lives.

reference

Dmitry Zhitomirsky, General and Founder of Artkom SPb. Born on August 30, 1972. Education: Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Faculty of Radio Engineering and Cybernetics. Work experience: 2001-2003 - General Director of Tekhnokom LLC. 2003 - Head of Sales Department at Canoset LLC. 2004-2007 - Head of the network department of LLC Larga. In 2007 he founded his own company Artkom SPb as a group of companies ARTKOM - the official LG-Ericsson in Russia.

A management guru tells how not to lose your main competitive advantages during economic difficulties

According to consulting firm Ernst & Young, companies are responding to the financial crisis in a predictable way: they are laying off people, as well as cutting spending on advertising, training and consulting, research and development. This is both the right and wrong decision.

In Mexico, I have consulted very large company working in the real estate market. The mistake of this company was typical of the times of the crisis. Its leaders spent a lot of time trying to get new loans from the bank. After analyzing the situation, we found that raising capital is too expensive for the company. Most of the expenses were interest payments on loans taken earlier. The worst thing that could be done in such a situation is to build up debts. The company did not have to spend money on loans and pay additional interest. She just couldn't afford it.

I suggested going the other way and selling part of the inventory. What for? To increase the flow Money... Even when you have to sell assets at cost, even when you lose money by covering variable costs, you offset some of the overhead. In the long run, this approach will not work, but it will buy you time.

Company executives nearly made another mistake. They were about to fire employees!

Of course, you will have to examine your organization and identify those who are not efficient enough and eat their bread in vain. Get rid of them. But it should have been done a long time ago. Why do you need ballast? Why keep people who are not useful? Why did it take a crisis to get you to put things in order? Maybe your problem is that you don't have your finger on the pulse of the organization all the time? Do you really need a crisis for you to pay attention to the company's problems?

But don't fire good workers just to cut costs. This is what many traditional consultants recommend. They see that you are spending too much. They put you on the scale and speak. "You know what? You're 20 pounds overweight! You need to reset them. " Then they cut off one of your legs. Now your weight is perfect, but you don't have a leg. I'm not talking about a situation where a company faces bankruptcy. In case of gangrene, the leg will have to be amputated. But don't cut off your healthy leg to get your ideal weight.

You should get rid of fat, but not muscle. By parting with the good people - the muscles of the organization - in order to make the reported numbers look more optimistic, you are fooling yourself. How much money will it take to hire and train new workers later, when the crisis is over and they are needed again?

I once asked Ferdinand Porsche, son of the founder of Porsche: "Ferdinand, if you had to make a choice - to lose people or lose equipment, what would you give up in the first place?" - "From the equipment!" Why? You buy machines, take some time to program them, and they are ready to go. But imagine that you need to re-hire people, train them, build relationships, recreate the culture ... "

Note that the biggest challenge for a company is creating an organizational culture. Sometimes it takes years to find worthy employees who can disagree without showing dislike. Out of a dozen applicants, there are hardly three suitable ones, but first you will have to select them from the general mass of applicants, train them, engage in their development and upbringing and create an atmosphere in which relationships between people are constructive. And after that, will you fire them?

Some executives told me, "I understand everything, but it will cost me too much to stop downsizing." It is possible that labor costs during a crisis may indeed be overwhelming for you. But is dismissal the only way out?

It so happens that a company works in a labor-intensive, not capital-intensive sphere and the wages of workers are in fact the main item of its expenses, but at the same time, employees are talented and efficient professionals, and the problem is a drop in demand for its products in the market. In such cases, I would recommend transferring everyone to a shorter working day instead of layoffs. Let your company go into hibernation like bears in the winter, and the troubles of reduced workload and lower earnings become a common disaster for the entire organization, including senior management. If you divide the work among all, everyone will suffer, but to a lesser extent, which will allow you to save labor.

Follow the example of the Japanese. When a Japanese company finds itself in dire straits, the first person to receive a pay cut is its president. If the situation gets even more serious, he is the first to retire. In Japan, they don't start by firing ordinary employees - the Japanese believe that there are no bad soldiers, there are only bad generals.

What to do with people after you cut their working hours to cut costs? It's time for creative thinking. Previously, when the demand for your products and services was high, the company did not have enough time to get creative - to think about what else to do or how to do their job better. Now that economic growth has slowed down and employees have free time, the time has come to entrust them with the work that will ensure the flow of innovation.

This article is an excerpt from Yitzhak Adizes's book "Management in an Era of Crisis" published by Mann, Ivanov and Ferber.

Napoleon I Bonaparte once said: "There are no bad soldiers - there are only bad generals." This formula is quite applicable to the field of organization management. Why do staff listen to one manager and completely ignore or sabotage the orders of another?

Western management has long asked a similar question. Our domestic science of management in this area has not yet come up with anything fundamentally new and is guided, for the most part, by the experience accumulated by the United States and Europe, in particular, by the works of R. Parkinson, P. Drucker, M. Mescon, M. Albert, etc. What does this experience suggest?

Management is, first of all, the art of working through other people, and therefore the task of any leader is to be able to think and foresee, organize and plan, motivate and control. For this process to be effective, you must adhere to the following rules.

• Be clear about your goals.

You must firmly know what kind of result you want to get. Goals should be expressed in measurable terms, not abstract.

For example, instead of "expanding the client base" it is better to say "attract 20 new clients in the current month", and instead of "promote the project" - "to ensure that the project pays off / brings profit at the level of at least 5% of the invested capital within the next three years." ...

• Map out ways to solve them

You and your subordinates must fully understand the entire chain of actions that are necessary to achieve specific goals.

For example, based on the previous experience of attracting additional clientele, in order to attract 20 new customers in a month, each specialist must call 50 potential buyers a day.

• Decide on the executors, deadlines and responsibility for non-fulfillment

After you determine for yourself the ways to achieve your goals, you must convey the order of the work to each subordinate involved in the project. Remember, most errors are the result of bad instructions.

The timing of each stage of work must be strictly limited in time. It should be remembered that according to one of Parkinson's half-joking Laws, "work always fills all the time allotted for it." This means that if you instruct an employee to complete a task in a month that requires a week to complete, it will take him the whole month to complete the task. So try to stick to realistic deadlines.

• Organize a feedback system.

According to Western experts, the most important communication channel in any organization is the one that goes from the bottom up. The manager needs to know what thoughts are in the minds of his employees, and his efforts should be constantly directed to ensure that this channel is kept open.

And since communication is so important, according to, for example, Drucker, reading poetry and prose is very useful for managers, because it teaches them to appreciate the meaning of words.

• Be open to new ideas.

And remember, rationalization proposals require a special approach, constant encouragement. If you act as if someone else's good ideas are just a reflection of your own, then in the future you will not receive them.

• Get along with people

It should be noted right away that this does not in any way imply familiarity. A successful leader always knows how to reward an employee with a kind word, but never let him get too close to his own world.

Be sincerely interested in your subordinates, their success in work, do not infringe on pride. Remember that for your subordinate main person in the world - he himself.

• Don't break the rules.

No organization can function effectively if its rules and regulations are not fully followed. The art of management in this area implies the ability to identify in time those rules that have "outlived" their own and impede forward movement. All other instructions must be followed without fail, including by you.

Someone said, “Gentlemen don't break the rules. They just change them. "

• Take into account the experience gained, control the results.

Many Western theorists of management science recommend keeping your work diary and writing down in it both various ideas and experience gained. This will prevent you from stepping on the same rake twice.

Pay attention to quitters. Getting good work from them will get you good work from everyone else.

Remember: continuous monitoring of performance is the key to effective management.

• Delegate authority, but not responsibility.

If the purpose of your existence is not a tombstone with words of thanks from your employees for having killed yourself with work, completely relieving them of their workload, then you will learn how to properly delegate authority. And remember: the leader is responsible for the results of the work of his subordinates, but his job consists in the correct organization of the production process, and not in doing everything himself.

• Watch yourself.

Everything the leader does: his appearance and the manner of speech, his family and social circle, his punctuality and lifestyle - all this is under the close supervision of subordinates. Rumors spread instantly. And it's good if these rumors do not become a reason for sloppiness. You may not be loved, but you must always be respected.

But everything seems to be fine. The working process is organized "for five plus", the company works harmoniously, as a single clock mechanism. But through the communication channels, you will still find out that there are dissatisfied. What to do?

Don't get overwhelmed or embarrassed by complaints, even if they are directed against you. People are never completely satisfied. Even if they are doing well, they want it to be better. This is a property of human nature. Never mind. This is a fraction of the price one has to pay for leadership.

Is it possible to identify and begin to develop in oneself leadership skills head? Can. First, you need to identify, and then - the formation of leadership qualities for the management of employees and the company. How to do it? Is it possible to find and "cultivate" a leader in oneself?

You may have heard that there are no bad soldiers, there are bad commanders. This philosophy is hammered into the heads of all students of military schools. There they learn leadership qualities by giving commands and carrying them out. This is a normal way of life in a military environment. Anyone who does not know how to give orders and carry them out will not take root there. In this environment, discipline reigns, and no exceptions are made for anyone.

The same can be said about business: there are no bad subordinates, there are only bad bosses.

Dear Readers! The article talks about typical solutions legal issues but each case is different. If you want to know how solve exactly your problem- contact a consultant:

APPLICATIONS AND CALLS ARE ACCEPTED 24/7 and WITHOUT DAYS.

It's fast and IS FREE!

Leadership development: what is needed for this

Think of all the companies you worked for. If any of them had financial difficulties, an unhealthy morale, low productivity, a drop in sales, an increase in overhead costs, then all this, as a rule, was attributed to poor leadership. must take responsibility not only for the success of the team, but also for possible mistakes. Too often, entrepreneurs blame their failures on poor performance by their subordinates, the state of the economy, or the actions of competitors. However, the best businessmen, first of all, look at themselves in such cases and look for their own mistakes in order to learn from them.

Moreover, you are not at all required to quit your job, close your company and enter military school to learn leadership skills. There are many other opportunities in life to master this skill, as well as learn how to form a team and inspire it to complete a mission.

Sports can be a good example. Become the captain of the local soccer team. Other options include joining one of the ward commissions, the supervisory board of an organization, or taking over the preparation of a charity event. Taking one of these leadership positions, you will not only develop in yourself necessary qualities, but you will also acquire the necessary contacts, which is never superfluous in business.

It is worth emphasizing that leadership implies the ability not only to give orders, but also to carry them out. To become a good leader, you must first learn to be a good subordinate. Only then will you be with those around you and will be able to convince them to follow you. Many small entrepreneurs fail to move into big business because they lack the skills interpersonal communication... They are still able to manage a group of 10-20 people who are close to them in spirit, but they cannot cope with large teams of people who are very different from each other in education and upbringing.

For many, change is more terrible than hot iron, and the word crisis makes you clutch your head. “But if nothing changes, then you are already dead,” says management guru Yitzhak Adizes. We are publishing a few excerpts from his new book, Crisis Management: Keeping Key People and Company Safe.

Changes have been and will always be. And the stronger you are, the more changes and problems there will be, and you shouldn't be afraid of that. This book will help you to face life and professional difficulties fully armed.

Crisis is an opportunity

Crises lead to progress. The crisis stimulates ingenuity, leads to discoveries and new strategies. The one who overcomes the crisis, gains victory over himself, not obeying the circumstances.

“If you're in trouble, don't worry. It means that you are in good company, among the living. "

In reality, any problem is an opportunity. In Chinese, the concepts of "problem" and "opportunity" are denoted by the same character. There is no difference between them. Agree that this is logical and indicative. What is your opportunity? This is your client's or competitor's problem. The problems of others become your opportunities.

As the Steel Was Tempered

Surely your parents warned you in childhood: “You can't go out into the cold after a hot shower! You will catch a cold! " But in Finland or Russia, people, after steaming in a bathhouse and having a good sweat, throw themselves into the snow. I have no doubt that if I followed their example, I would most likely have caught pneumonia and died. How are we different from each other?

It all depends on whether your body is strong. If so, the changes will only temper you, if not, they can destroy you. The above applies not only to people, but also to organizations: those of them that are ready for change grow stronger in difficult times, and the unprepared fall ill and risk bankruptcy.

Belated ball

One of the ingredients of strength is the ability to react quickly to change. You are not an aircraft carrier that takes five miles to turn around. You are a torpedo boat that can change course at lightning speed.

Imagine that while playing tennis, you only run towards the ball after it has hit the ground. Agree, while you are unlikely to be able to successfully recapture it. Problems that you didn’t notice in time are like missing a tennis ball.

The player must be able to predict where the ball will land and take an appropriate position in advance. The same applies to changes in personal life and work. To stay in the game and win, you need to be able to anticipate and anticipate change.

Bad generals

If it's time to change - follow the example of the Japanese. When a Japanese company finds itself in dire straits, the first person to receive a pay cut is its president. If the situation gets even more serious, he is the first to retire.

In Japan, they don't start by firing ordinary employees - the Japanese believe that there are no bad soldiers, there are only bad generals.
Change starts with personal responsibility.

Knee scars

Mary Kay is a famous American entrepreneur who has created a huge cosmetic empire. Starting from scratch, her company made millions.

People often asked her, "Mrs. Kay, what is the secret of your success?" And she replied, “See the scars on my knees? This is the secret of my success! "

Success is achieved not by the one who rarely falls, but by the one who quickly rises to his feet.

How to overtake a lion

Two people are wandering barefoot on the African savanna, and suddenly they meet a lion. One begins to quickly pull on his sneakers. Another asks in surprise: “Why are you wearing sneakers? You still can't overtake the lion! " And he replies: "And I do not hope to overtake the lion, I want to overtake you!"

How long does it take you to "get on your feet"? If you are strong, change allows you to move forward faster and to stay ahead of the competition, and the crisis becomes your ally.

Every problem is a lesson. The question is whether the study will be free for you or you will be able to benefit from it. teaches how to benefit from any crisis.