HR Leader on People Management (Part 2)
The dynamics within a family are much different than they are with a team at work. With your family, everyone is joined together with undying love. Your work team comes together to build and create exciting things to share and move forward. Work is not about your friends or family. It’s about “work,” and people management is critical to building successful teams.
I attended a conference with CEOs that focused on culture and people management. One of the guest speakers was Gregg Popovich, head coach of the San Antonio Spurs. Someone asked him about how hard it is to let players go after they’ve worked so hard. Popovich simply replied, “it’s basketball – that’s part of the deal.”
When it comes to building teams with great leadership in place, the sports metaphor is a good example of having a very clear outcome in mind. Everyone knows what the expectations are when they come in and they know that the results will impact their future when the season is over.
Think about how many people you know that still work for the same company when they graduated from college. Even when I ask this question in front of 800 people (unless you have interns), the answer is usually zero. It’s not as if these companies are horrible places to work because they didn’t retain everybody. People have to drive results or they find a new path.
Over the past 20 years, I changed my mindset about people management from trying to keep every person to create a company that everyone agrees is a great place to be from. We know that people are going to move on at some point. I believe in making sure that employees walk away with an experience that enhances their career.
About the speaker
Patty McCord leads a consulting practice focused on defining leadership and building culture at many of the world’s most innovative companies. During her 14-year career as Chief Talent Officer at Netflix, Patty created the Netflix Culture Deck - which is the modern standard for on-boarding practices at today’s leading organizations.