Should I stay or should I go?

By the Lionesses of Africa Operations Dept

We were shocked to hear of the passing of Model and Singer Nick Kamen this week at the tender age of 59. The Levi Jeans model and singer shot to fame in the iconic ‘Laundrette’ ad (here). 

Reflecting on that we were reminded of another incredible Levi’s ad (seen here), featuring the song, ‘Should I stay or should I go?’ by the British Punk Rock Band, ‘The Clash’. Although possibly not intended, this song dealt with toxic employer/employee relationships and indeed when a band member was sacked later, the lyrics took on a whole new meaning…

Throughout this song you can hear, through the gritty, grinding guitar riff the pull between the toxic relationship, indecision (a killer in businesses), a feeling of being trapped and begging to be set free, the confusion as to which role they have to play within the organisation coupled with a realization that the boss doesn’t even know them! 

“This indecision's bugging me

If you don't want me, set me free

Exactly whom I'm supposed to be

Don't you know which clothes even fit me?”

...and yet a longing for there to be a change to encourage the person to stay - after all, none of us jump from a job easily - all would far rather find a way to make it work, and although that takes two - such leadership and drive has to come from the CEO. So...

“[How] Do you know the difference between a good place to work [and your people stay] and a bad place to work [where your good people get up and  go] ?...In good organisations, people can focus on their work and have confidence that if they get their work done, good things will happen for both the company and them personally. It is a true pleasure to work in an organization such as this. Every person can wake up knowing that the work they do will be efficient, effective, and make a difference for the organization and themselves. These things make their jobs both motivating and fulfilling.

In a poor organization, on the other hand, people spend much of their time fighting organizational boundaries, infighting, and broken processes. They are not even clear on what their jobs are, so there is no way to know if they are getting the job done or not. In the miracle case that they work ridiculous hours and get the job done, they have no idea what it means for the company or their careers. To make it all much worse and rub salt in the wound, when they finally work up the courage to tell management how f####ed-up their situation is, management denies there is a problem, then defends the status quo, then ignores the problem.”

So wrote Ben Horowitz the Founder of the famous Tech PE Fund - ‘a16z’ in his hard hitting (and yes, be warned, as you see, it does contain some colourful ‘Anglo-Saxon’ words) book: “The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers” by Ben Horowitz, (here).

Obviously without a great product, you might as well stay under the duvet each morning, and without a market for your incredible dream, it will remain just that - a dream. But as has been proved numerous times, if you have a great product and a fabulous market, you can be as ghastly as you like and you will succeed…for a time. But as Mother Nature shows herself, there are natural ebbs and flows, and at some point every company and industry goes through an Autumn where the dead wood drops to the ground and if that doesn’t clear up the bad bits, then comes Winter…

And that is when the cream rises to the top, which is when being at a good company comes into its own. When people decide to stay and fight for you, for your company for your (and their) dream. That is the difference.

It is the good times that hide the bad companies, as JFK said: “…the rising tide lifts all boats”, but when the tide goes out and the sea drops, all can see the rubbish lying on the bottom of the sea, plus the rust and barnacles on the bottom of the boats by now lying on their side in the mud. This is so true with companies well or badly run. A strong economy supports all, but also hides so many ills.

Once the tide turns, there is very little a bad company can do to keep good staff. At some point your good employees will start to ask “Should I stay or should I go?”. In a bad company at these times, one of the often heard complaints is that the ‘Rats deserted the sinking ship’, that is a lie - in fact it is so often the Rats that are left at the end on the ship unable to find anything dry.

One of the things that Ben emphasizes is that:

“THINGS ALWAYS GO WRONG”

There has never been a company in the history of the world that had a monotonously increasing stock price. In bad companies, when the economics disappear, so do the employees…”

We are not alone in this. Mistakes are made - we are after all Human and if this were easy as we often say - everyone would be doing it! So even good companies will have downturns, but what Ben emphasizes in bad companies, there will be no turning back, a death spiral will start as good employees leave. 

As Melanie in one of her daily blogs this week said: 

“…the reality is that for most women entrepreneurs, the journey has never been plain sailing and often a very tough road will have been travelled before achieving success. It’s all too easy to think that other people’s entrepreneurial journeys have been easier than our own, but in fact the real experiences can be very different.”

So how can we ensure that yours is a good company and therefore able to weather the storms?

Ben quotes his old boss Jim Barksdale who was fond of saying, “We take care of the people, the products, and the profits—in that order.”

…and the best way of looking after your people is through Training.

Of course higher pay, better bonuses, (or in our HoF’s case) decent coffee do make a difference, but employees really want to be engaged, to be appreciated and empowered. This is best done through Training.

When good employees leave, questions are asked by others staying behind, productivity drops, morale takes a hit and the increased workload has to be taken by someone. In addition you now have recruitment and training costs to deal with. Far better to avoid that, we would suggest, unless as we show in a while, it is all part of a plan to lift everyone up…

So why do people leave?

As Ben found when he ran Netscape there were two main reasons:

1. “They hated their manager; generally the employees were appalled by the lack of guidance, career development, and feedback they were receiving.

2. They weren’t learning anything: The company wasn’t investing resources in helping employees develop new skills.”

That is why Training is so powerful.

“Making educational and career advancement opportunities available, even if they result in employees growing up and out of your organization, is a must, because you never know when an employee might return to your organization, or when they’ll make a key referral.” According to Wendy Duarte Duckrey, vice president of recruiting at JPMorgan Chase (here).

She adds: “One of the key things — if you're really listening to employees — is to find out if they are getting the resources to add to and change their roles, to take on more and different responsibilities, to spearhead new projects, to experiment… and not all educational opportunities have to be job-focused.”

As Ben says Training increases: 

1. Productivity: “Training is, quite simply, one of the highest-leverage activities a manager can perform.”

2. Performance management: “If you don’t train your people, you establish no basis for performance management.”

3. Product quality: It’s great to employ new blood and new ideas, but if you don’t train them in your current processes the chances are high that the newbies will just add on, unaware of the unintended consequences or unable to suggest through their own experiences, solutions that will improve and grow your product.

4. Employee retention.

So where to start.

Product and company training is the first area. ‘Functional Training’.

‘Management Training’ comes next. Not all great employees make great managers, but so many are promoted into this role simply because they have created results. Training will guide them for this future role or just as importantly will make you recognise there is a reason a lone Wolf works best on their own!

Finally comes ‘Life Training’. Starting with how the business is run and why. The economics, the finance, the e-commerce, covering all areas that many within your organisation never come across (as they are hidden away in product development or accounts, or the warehouse). If your employees understand the ‘Why’ and the ‘How’, they will become far more engaged and personally invested in your dream.

The difference between a good place to work and a bad place to work is answered by your view of these two questions:

What if I train my staff and they should go?

What if I train my staff and they should stay?

Stay safe.