There Are Two Kinds of Employees. Which One Are You?

Yes, I know the dangers of generalizations. But some of them do hold up to scrutiny. Here's one that evolved from a Corner Office interview with Steve Stoute, CEO of the ad agency Translation LLC, and it's a simple test that we can apply to all our colleagues:

Do they always do what they say they are going to do, or not?

This point became a cornerstone of a chapter on accountability in my new book, “Quick and Nimble: Lessons from Leading CEOs on How to Create a Culture of Innovation," Here's the original passage from my interview with Steve Stoute, in which he talked about the values of his firm.

Doing what you say is a core value. You can’t have people inside a company who are saying things but have no intention of doing what they say. They might have good intentions when it leaves their mouths, but that’s exactly where it ends. You have to find those people immediately, because those people hurt a growing organization. So I have people aligned around the idea that we are not going to just say things that we don’t mean; we’re actually going to do what we say we’re going to do.

I’m very up-front, I expect the best, and I hold people accountable for everything that comes out of their mouths. Don’t say you’re going to do something and not do it, because in a company of this size, everybody is directly responsible for the person next to them.

It’s like one of those moments where everybody’s holding hands. So if somebody doesn’t do something, it’s felt throughout the organization. The organization’s not big enough to withstand those kinds of errors. At big companies, that happens all the time, and it can take years before it starts to affect the bottom line. Small organizations have the benefit of being nimble, but the threat is that when one person catches a cold, everybody catches a cold.”

Now think of all the people you've worked with over the years. Some percentage of them were so reliable that you never had to waste a second of mental energy wondering whether the report they promised you will be delivered on time. It's just automatic. Done.

And then there's the other camp. How many times has somebody told you they would do something, and then they don't? Or you send them an email, and they never respond. Now think how distracting that is, as you wonder, when should I follow up with them? And think of how much time that wastes, especially when this kind of behavior is magnified across an entire organization.

For any company that wants to foster a quick and nimble culture, this value seems particularly useful for employees: Don't say you're going to do something and not do it.

What does everybody think of this framework? Does it resonate with you, given your experience at work over the years?

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