To Have and to Hold
by Miki Saxon
Last December a post entitled Top Ten Reasons Why Large Companies Fail To Keep Their Best appeared in Talent Forbes and about a month later another contributor boiled the 10 reasons down to one (with 2 parts),
1) Create an organization where those who manage others are hired for their ability to manage well, supported to get even better at managing, and held accountable and rewarded for doing so.
2) Then be clear about what you’re trying to accomplish as an organization – not only in terms of financial goals, but in a more three-dimensional way. What’s your purpose; what do you aspire to bring to the world? What kind of a culture do you want to create in order to do that? What will the organization look, feel and sound like if you’re embodying that mission and culture? How will you measure success? And then, once you’ve clarified your hoped-for future, consistently focus on keeping that vision top of mind and working together to achieve it.
Yesterday’s Ducks in a Row focus was Greg Smith and his resignation from Goldman Sachs. Greg resigned because he felt the culture had deteriorated to the point that he could no longer ethically tell candidates that it’s a great place to work—Goldman’s focus is squarely on maximizing their own profit and clients be damned. (The story is all over traditional and social media.)
At the end of his resignation Greg says,
Make the client the focal point of your business again. Without clients you will not make money. In fact, you will not exist. Weed out the morally bankrupt people, no matter how much money they make for the firm. And get the culture right again, so people want to work here for the right reasons. People who care only about making money will not sustain this firm — or the trust of its clients — for very much longer.
The bold is mine and that thought fits the “if you learn nothing else…” admonishment.
But I will go a step further—
You can’t attract great clients without great talent, so even if you make money in the short-term you will die in the long-term—bereft of both talent and clients.
Great culture attracts great talent; great talent attracts great clients; great clients spend great money—over and over and over.
Flickr image credit: Samuel Mann
