Career Advancement Training for the Technical Professional

Professional Development Tips

Volume 3, Issue 3

 - Maximize Your Contributions @Work -

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Employee Commitment

by Susan de la Vergne

In his book Authentic Leadership, former Medtronic CEO Bill George makes an obvious point that business leaders rarely say out loud:  “Missions motivate, dollars don’t.”

What he means is that purpose is what drives people at work, not the financial rewards that come to others.  Workers don’t get up in the morning and say, “Gee, I can hardly wait to get to work today to maximize shareholder profits.”  Even when employees are shareholders who can benefit from improved financials, what draws people to their chosen careers is the work itself and its purpose in the world, more than the profit possibilities.  

Mr. George goes on to say, “I find there is universal agreement (among middle managers) that you cannot inspire employees by urging them to help management get the company’s stock price up.”

There is, in fact, quite a bit of literature on this subject.  In Awakening Corporate Soul, authors Eric Klein and John Izzo say that an employee’s commitment to the job requires knowing “the purpose of our work; it means recognizing the purpose our organization fulfills that goes beyond the bottom line; and it means articulating to others how their (workers’) efforts contribute to a larger purpose.”  Click here to read the complete article.

Case Study: Effect of Poor Planning on an Established, Successful Company

One of five case studies from our Project Estimating, Planning and Scheduling workshop.

Background: Keeping it “Simple”

Family-owned Telecommunications, Inc. (FTI) is a leading provider of mission-critical telecommunication systems.  The company has enjoyed rapid revenue growth, thanks to their dominance in serving a particular niche market. 

FTI takes pride in its family-owned company culture.  Employees are part of an extended family and are treated very well.  The owners want to preserve this atmosphere as they grow, and not introducing too much process or too many constraints is, they believe, important to meeting that objective.

Although they don’t want too much process, FTI recently became ISO9001-registered.  Several customers had recommended they to do this in order to strengthen their credibility as a major player in the industry.  FTI did an excellent job keeping process to a necessary minimum while still meeting ISO requirements.  They implemented only changes that were truly in the spirit of continuous improvement. 

Trouble in Paradise

However, keeping process to a minimum – keeping it simple – had posed some real problems as FTI continued to grow.  Click here to read the complete case study.

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Employee Commitment

by Susan de la Vergne

Case Study: Effect of Poor Planning on an Established, Successful Company

One of five case studies from our Project Estimating, Planning and Scheduling workshop