Lurkers: Your Untapped Vein Of Gold
by Miki Saxon
Monday we focused on Jakob Nielsen’s Lurker Rule as described by Des Walsh; I commented that I thought it applied as much to the real world as to the online one and asked what you thought. Sadly, no one offered up any comments, but I did say that I would share mine today.
If you want to see my attitude towards lurkers, take a look at yesterday’s Wordless Wednesday. That says it all.
Still not clear? OK, here’s the long version.
Lurkers are the folks who complete the picture. They’re the ones who make the projects happen; keep things running smoothly and innovate in small, quiet ways that improve companies by an order of magnitude.
In terms of the 1/9/90 rule, 1% always get the credit they deserve—and sometimes credit that they don’t—and 9% also receive recognition, but the 90%—the lurkers—who often carry the bulk of the work on their shoulders—labor in obscurity.
Because they aren’t splashy and often fly under the radar you may not even realize what or how much they’re doing—and that’s a major error.
As a manager, you should be aware of the contributions of all your people, that’s one of the most important parts of your job, but especially those of the lurkers. One of the top three reasons that people leave a job is lack of recognition and appreciation.
The reality is that you often don’t really know the value of a worker until she is gone and you find out how big a hole in your organization she left. Many managers find that the hole left by a lurker is harder to plug than one left by either the 9% or even the 1%.
Focus on, and get to know, your lurkers; value them, offer them the recognition they deserve and I’m willing to bet that you’ll be amazed at how the value they add will increase exponentially.
Image credit: flickr
