Andy Raynor - Beyond the Brief
Andy Raynor's blog
Happiness, happiness
I can't get it out of my head.
An unexpected theme from four different places, none connected, none looking for this answer. Starting with my presentation to the PMF/MPF last Monday, then increasing knowledge of two lovely (no, really) but challenged professional services businesses and finally, to press the point home, a question put to me about about a high-maintenance team member.
The common thread here is happiness. Yep, happiness.
If you’ve checked the URL to make sure you’ve not strayed onto a self-help site (although I'm soon to start a basket-weaving therapy page), now you can come back and listen to the reasons.
I’ve not set off down the hippy route. Last Monday, one of my slides that prompted much comment was from First Direct, recruiting people on the promise that a job at FD made you happier.
Which is a step away from most accountants and solicitors campaigns, isn't it?
But hang on. The only difference between you and them on this may be language. Swap “I want all our people to be happy” for “I want all our people to be motivated” and you’ll see what I mean. Do you want motivated people? Is that a serious question? Can you really be motivated if you’re not happy in your work?
You don’t have to think about this, surely? Happier people make happier clients.
But happiness is never a free ride. Think of these challenged businesses and their mending strategies. Costs or Growth? Growth or Costs? The alternatives have been chimed out like an unyielding mantra from the Accountants Book of Truth.
The businesses in question, so far, have gone for cost reduction in a big way. That's good, but they have lost revenue as well – so much that they're in danger of a sub-scale hard landing. What they need, right now, is growth as well. High efficiency - with an attack force taking the market head on.
It's easily forgotten under pressure. Professional services is about people first. People are motivated by involvement, knowing where they are and where you are, their place in the landscape, being engaged as equals.
It isn’t a time for closed minds or secretive aloof, authoritarian leadership......or worse still – pretending that management is leadership. It’s a time for belief in the people you have, leading from the front, being honest about the pressures you face, getting out from behind the sofa and being first in the office in the morning and and last out at night.
Tell me what you think at andy@andypraynor.com
And take a look at what's been said before by looking in the archive:
© Andy Raynor 2013