It is rare to work in an organisation these days that does not claim that ‘Our people are our greatest asset’.
This is the BIG lie! If it were true then we could simply recruit our way to success.
The truth is that some people are assets while others are liabilities and many managers find it hard to tell the difference. And managers who can effectively work with both assets and liabilities are rare. Instead we just settle for a complacent acceptance of the status quo.
So if people are not our greatest asset – then what is?
Well how about one (or more) from the following list:
- Ideas
- Passion
- Energy
- Commitment
- Skills
- Time.
How would we manage people to harness every idea, every ounce of passion, energy and commitment, and every skill; to make sure that none is wasted?
Focusing on what we expect people to contribute to our organisation holds the key to significantly improving our effectiveness as a manager.