Guy Kawasaki, a Christian as well as a big name in the venture capital world, wrote an interesting article on the 'Art of laying people off'. I think it's a subject that takes a lot of courage to address, and for the most part, Kawasaki covers it well.
Some of us may one day find ourselves serving our organizations from the top. Should that ever happen, I think this article has some wisdom to offer, helping manage a bad situation.
Two of the 12 points I'll share:
Share the pain. When people around you are losing their jobs, you can share the pain, too. Cut your pay. In fact, the higher the employee, the bigger the percentage of pay reduction. Take a smaller office. Turn in the company car. Reassign your personal assistant to a revenue-generating position. Fly coach. Stay in motels. Sell the boxseat tickets to the ball game. Give your 30-inch flat-panel display to a programmer who could use it to debug faster. Do something, however symbolic.
Two of the 12 points I'll share:
Take responsibility. Ultimately, it is the CEO’s decision to make the cuts, so don’t blame it on the board of directors, market conditions, competition, or whatever else. In effect, she should simply say, “I made the decision. This is what we’re going to do.” If you don’t have the courage to do this, don’t be a CEO. Now, more than ever, the company will need a leader, and leaders accept responsibility.
Share the pain. When people around you are losing their jobs, you can share the pain, too. Cut your pay. In fact, the higher the employee, the bigger the percentage of pay reduction. Take a smaller office. Turn in the company car. Reassign your personal assistant to a revenue-generating position. Fly coach. Stay in motels. Sell the boxseat tickets to the ball game. Give your 30-inch flat-panel display to a programmer who could use it to debug faster. Do something, however symbolic.
5 comments:
I do love the title of the book this comes from - maybe even something for some night time reading: Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition.
But I'm still a little put off by calling it an 'art'.
True. Though that's more a thematic consistency - Guy's earlier book is called 'The art of the start' and has numerous blog posts titled similarly.
You're right that it seems a touch more calloused this way.
I will be, once again, playing the role of the contrarian.
Art deals with bad things all the time. (see Picasso's Guernica). Why not call laying people off an art? What he's trying to do is to recognize that, if it's got to be done, it should be done properly and with care. He's not suggesting: "put people out of work so that you can get that year end bonus" which would be an ass-like move.
I'm fine with him calling it an art.
Nice perspective. If it was 'the sincere joy we should all aspire to experience...', then we can contest it.
As usual, I bow to the wisdom of my elders in this regard ;)
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