硅谷是個研究上司和直屬下級關系的好地方。20年前,硅谷的人們不關心、也不是很贊同管理技能。而今,硅谷企業卻對此癡迷不已。但個中原因并非如大家所想,比如說經營者是不斷尋找某種理論的新紀元精神導師,或者這些公司的員工和別處的完全不一樣。這也不是因為硅谷公司有大筆培訓預算,或者研究大數據后對人性有一些根本認知。 不,硅谷之所以適合研究上下級關系,是因為人才爭奪戰很激烈。在硅谷,不斷成長并且招兵買馬的出色企業太多,感到不快樂或者懷才不遇的人不會被留下來。當然也沒有理由去支付“混蛋稅”。不喜歡老板就辭職,反正會有10家公司排著隊請你。因此,硅谷的公司在理順上下級關系方面壓力很大。 即使身處硅谷,交際圈也不會擴大多少。谷歌聯合創始人拉里?佩奇手機里真正的聯系人不會比你多幾個。但你和幾名直屬下級的關系會對團隊業績產生巨大影響。如果你領導的是一家大公司,你肯定無法和所有人聯系上。你和直屬下級的關系將影響他們和直屬下級的關系。連鎖反應的影響很大,既能建立優秀的企業文化,也能毀掉企業文化。交際圈的規模沒那么容易擴散,但公司文化影響廣泛。 用“關系”這個詞真的恰當嗎?是的。2001-2011年擔任谷歌CEO的埃里克?施密特和拉里?佩奇的關系是商業史上一段比較有趣的故事。時任蘋果公司首席運營官、如今的CEO蒂姆?庫克提出愿意把部分肝臟移植給史蒂夫?喬布斯,后來喬布斯拒絕了,這都是私交深厚的表現。 怎樣才能準確描述這些關系的本質?管理資本主義是個比較新的現象,古代哲人沒有描述過這樣的人際關系。盡管當今世界幾乎每個人都會不可避免有老板,但哲學、文學、電影以及探究生活中種種關系的努力都忽視了上下級關系的處理。我想改變現況,因為無論是在蘋果、谷歌還是地球上的任何地方,成為好上司的核心都是維持好關系。 我發現,描述理想上下級關系的最佳詞語就是開誠布公。(財富中文網) 譯者:Charlie 審校:夏林 本文節選自Kim Scott的作品《開誠布公:成為厲害又不失人情味的老板》,未經編輯。該書于2017年3月14日出版,版權由Kim Scott所有。摘錄已獲圣馬丁出版社的許可。 |
Silicon Valley was an ideal setting in which to explore the relationships between bosses and the people who report directly to them. Twenty years ago, management skills were neither taught nor rewarded in Silicon Valley, but today its companies are obsessed with it. This isn’t for the reasons you might think—that they are run by new-age gurus ever in search of a theory, or because the people there are fundamentally different from people anywhere else. Nor is it because the companies there have huge budgets for training, or have some fundamental insight into human nature unleashed by access to all that big data. No, the reason why Silicon Valley turned out to be a good place to study the relationships between bosses and the people who report to them is that the war for “talent” there is intense. So many great companies in the Valley are growing and hiring that there’s no reason to stay with a company if you are unhappy or think your potential is being wasted. And there’s certainly no reason to pay the “asshole tax.” If you don’t like your boss, you quit, knowing that ten other companies will be lining up to hire you. So the pressure on companies to get these relationships right is enormous. Even in Silicon Valley, relationships don’t scale. Larry Page can’t have a real relationship with more than a handful of people any more than you can. But the relationships you have with the handful of people who report directly to you will have an enormous impact on the results your team achieves. If you lead a big organization, you can’t have a relationship with everybody. But the relationships you have with your direct reports will impact the relationships they have with their direct reports. The ripple effect will go a long way toward creating—or destroying— a positive culture. Relationships may not scale, but culture does. Is “relationship” really the right word? Yes. The relationship between Eric Schmidt, Google’s CEO from 2001–2011, and Larry Page was one of business history’s more interesting dances. And the willingness of Tim Cook, then COO and now CEO of Apple, to give part of his liver to Steve Jobs, and Jobs’ refusal to accept the sacrifice, exemplifies a profoundly personal relationship. What is the proper nature of this relationship? Managerial capitalism is a relatively new phenomenon, so this human bond was not described by ancient philosophers. Even though almost everybody today has a boss at some point, the nature of this connection has gotten short shrift in philosophy, literature, movies, and all the other ways we explore the relationships that govern our lives. I want to fix that, because at the very heart of being a good boss—at Apple, at Google, or anywhere else on earth—is a good relationship. The term I found that best describes this relationship is Radical Candor. This is an unedited excerpt from Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity, by Kim Scott published March 14, 2017 Copyright ? 2017 by Kim Scott. Reprinted with permission from St. Martin's Press. |