Everyone is talking about Michael Jackson these days. But what has the King of Pop’s death got to do with you? Chances are, you probably won’t lose sleep or lose concentration at work because of him.
Sure, MJ can be a great conversation opener at work when you need to get past the morning grumpiness most employees enjoy wearing around as a badge of honour. Then again, you can always talk about greedy Ronaldo and his US$130 million bailout or the lovely weather. Or even North Korea’s missiles, if you fancy. After all, you need to fill in the boring bits before the start of the meeting, while waiting for the lift, getting a cup of coffee in the pantry or moonwalking to lunch.
Which brings me back to MJ’s sudden departure and the public opinion that’s swaying back and forth currently on whether he was inspirational or just downright weird.
If it was your CEO who left the company abruptly and this CEO was someone you look up to, would you find yourself unable to work? Life in general goes on, obviously. But would the departure sting you? Was the CEO someone who inspired you to put in that bit more at work everyday? Would you, like MJ’s departure, like to turn them into a “trending” twitter hash tag?
Likewise, when you move on to another company, what do you want to be remembered for? It’s no good insisting no one will ever forget you because you have conveniently made yourself irreplaceable.
Continue to act superior and the only parting gift you’d get from your teammates would be a card that says “Goodbye and we’re really excited about who gets your cubicle”.
Perhaps you’d like to be known as the Credit Manager. Constantly claiming credit for any successful project and blatantly dismissing your teammates’ hard work. Or even better, blame their incompetence whenever something goes terribly wrong. That way, you get the glory and none of the dirt on your shiny “employee-of-the-month” award.
Or make promises of training your new hires and subsequently disappearing to “work from home” whenever they need advice. Do that often enough and your management credibility goes down the drain. Very much like how our economy did. Except this time, no amount of bailout will save your corporate soul.
You could also be the Idler who loves sitting on the fence and going to work with the motto: “Never offend anyone”. So even if your staff openly disregards your orders, you’d smile and then proceed to bitch about them behind their backs instead of addressing the issue face-to-face.
Making suggestions which might create more work for you is another no-no in your corporate handbook because that violates rule number one: Less work and more Facebook.
Another fine way for you to cultivate your managerial reputation would be letting work pile up on your desk because you don’t want or don’t know how to handle it. Eventually, one of your teammates has to pick up the slack and you get to say, “Well, that’s my version of on-the-job training for you.”
Better still, you can be the Whiner and constantly moan to whoever’s available about how your department lacks employees who would bring the company forward. But nothing ever comes out of your whining and grand solutions because you are busy putting the very same employees’ ideas down.
If you are a leader or aspiring to be one, you need to start thinking about the legacy you wish to leave behind when you do decide to move on.
Look at Steve Job’s “is he going or is he not” status with Apple. The company didn’t have a leadership backup plan when he first left in 1985 and that got them into a rut. Close to a quarter of a century later, Apple still isn’t any closer to finding a good leader to succeed Jobs. Somehow I don’t think Jobs wants his final legacy before he steps down to be about the state of his liver.
When I last spoke to Douglas Foo, CEO of Apex-Pal, better-known for its Sakae Sushi food chain, he too said the minute his company was in operation, he was already thinking of its legacy. Mind you, this was in the 90s, way before succession planning was deemed as an important business strategy for a young start-up. His reason? “I want to leave the company in good hands.”
Remember, it’s the good qualities which you demonstrate each day at work that gets you into the company’s history books. Do otherwise and your name will be tarnished throughout the business world… and maybe the world wide web.
So have you given a thought about your legacy?
xielil@humanresourcesonline.net
