You know when you hear a Chief Exec say,
“People are our greatest…”
and you are thinking yeah, yeah I know – ‘ASSET’.
Except on the Today programme I heard the CEO of RBS (rumoured to be looking at 20000 redundancies) say,
‘People are our greatest cost’.
Cognitive Dissonance or what!
Life is complicated though. Most of us are BOTH great assets and great costs in weird and dynamic combinations.
Outstanding managers have systematic and effective processes (121s, feedback, coaching, delegation etc) for developing both the asset part of the equation AND the cost. Yes, outstanding managers do want good people to cost more, and more, and more – because they recognise that what matters is the value that they create – not how much they cost.
How are you doing with your systematic and effective processes for asset development?