Last week I was reading quick news tidbit about how Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.com, boogied down to Kentucky to work shoulder to shoulder with his hourly distribution center employees. No cameras, no PR, just good ol’ manual labor. We need to see more of this! Whether you’re an executive at a small or large company, you will lead better if you get down into the trenches.
I have always preached and practiced that you can’t lead if you have no dirt under your nails! Here’s why:
HR, as a profession, is on its way out. Those who claim to be “good old school HR professionals,” should start looking for a new career or drastically change their thinking. In contrast, Human Capital professionals who “get it” are on the rise. Companies are no longer willing to pay for simple paper pushers or resume screeners in HR – they want results.
We have heard many “war stories” from startups navigating “stormy waters” while managing their legions of freelancers, corp-2-corps, and other suppliers. The younger and leaner your startup, the more crucial these relationships are to the survival of your business. Doing things right from the very beginning will save you some sleepless nights and money.
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As someone who is very technical, but also a business person to the core, I have had to straddle the two worlds of IT and business my entire career. I have to admit, us technical people, well… we can be cocky, snotty, and righteous, and us business people, well we can be demanding, impatient, inflexible, and righteous as well.
So how can we keep these cats and dogs happy with each other?
Apolinaras is a business operations leader with 12-year track record of building scalable and capital-efficient operations for technology and professional services companies.