The ship of life

I think looking at our lives as ships - yes, physical ships - can help us make the decisions that are most likely to make us happy. And likewise, it can steer us clear from making decisions that might make us miserable for a while.

A cruise ship for example, is a pretty awesome sight. To see up close something that is essentially a skyscraper floating on water is something to behold. There's all the food you could eat, a climbing wall, 15 bars, swimming pools, stages, room for thousands of people, and on and on and on.

In fact, I'd love to have a cruise ship, wouldn't you?

But wait, what if you want to go water skiing? Or what if you don't want to depend on carbon fuel? Or what if you want to be able to travel inconspicuously? Or what if you don't want to have a staff of 300 people to manage?

Hmm. Maybe I don't want that ship after all.

Okay, how about a speed-boat? That's a great ship! It's quick, nimble, pretty unremarkable so you can travel in secret, doesn't require a crew, and you can water ski behind it. Awesome!

But wait, what if you want to have a party on your ship? Damn, maybe that speed-boat isn't right either.

Most of us were raised that what was right was to get an education, get a job, get more education, buy a house, buy a bigger house, by a bigger house again, by a bigger car, make a bigger garage on our bigger house so we can fit our bigger car in it, and on and on and on.

And if you have a business we're taught to scale, get bigger, get faster, become more efficient, make more money, work on your business - not in it - make more money, make more money, make more money, and make more money.

But what if you don't want that ship? What if you don't want the burden of employing people? Or what if you don't mind having employees, but you don't want to hire someone to do the one thing that you're great at?

Or what if you're more concerned with how you're business can give you more time with your family instead of how it can get you a fancier watch or a faster car?

My point is that our lives, and our businesses, are like ships. There are trade-offs. Get one thing, give up another.

Are you getting what you want? Are you giving up something you need?

Life is a ship. Spend some time thinking about which kind you want to build.

The problem with managing by influence

One of the most common things you hear HR professionals and middle managers talk about is the concept of "managing by influence". I despise this notion, and think it's an old, outdated, and harmful concept in today's business world.

This isn;t to say that leadership doesn't matter. It is of course as vital now as it ever was before. And good leaders can indeed get people to perform at levels they might not otherwise have performed at. Great coaches, teachers, and orators can certainly influence people, but it's a by-product of their leadership.

I'm talking about the idea that if someone performs poorly, it's the failure of someone to properly influence them that's the problem. Under this notion, it's not George Bush's fault that we went to war in Iraq, it's the fault of the war protester for failing to influence him.

Absurd.

Martin Luther King wasn't a failure because there are still racists. Al Gore isn't a failure because we don't have more electric cars. And Ghandi wasn't a failure because there are still wars. Yet they all failed to influence thousands (or more) of people. An HR professional very well might have told each of them to spend some time trying to influence the people they'd never reach - all the while ignoring those that were seeking their leadership.

The same holds true in business and on projects.

Daniel Pink teaches us in "Drive" that what motivates people in today's economy isn't money, or carrot's and sticks, but is instead the freedom to do our jobs and our creative work in a time, place, and way that we want. People need enough direction to understand what needs to be done - and then they need managers to get the hell out of their way.

What's even more dangerous about believing in the power of "managing by influence" though, is that while a manager is busy trying to influence a poor performer, those that excel are being held back. I have worked on dozens of projects in a variety of organizations - from fortune 500 companies, to medium sized companies, to those that have just a few employees - and the single biggest frustration of people who were awesome, was management's inability or unwillingness to remove the people that were holding them back.

It's time for less management by influence and time for more more rewards for performance.

(And if you think reward means money, you still don't get it.)

Happy Columbus Day

[without commentary]

"They... brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things, which they exchanged for the glass beads and hawks' bells. They willingly traded everything they owned.... They were well-built, with good bodies and handsome features.... They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron. Their spears are made of cane.... They would make fine servants.... With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want."

From the Diary of Christopher Columbus

via A People's History of the United States of America by Howard Zinn