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企業(yè)家內(nèi)幕網(wǎng)絡(luò)是美國的一個在線社區(qū),美國創(chuàng)業(yè)界最睿智和最有影響力的一些大咖會在這里及時分享與創(chuàng)業(yè)和職業(yè)有關(guān)的問題。今天為大家分享的是GumGum公司總裁兼首席運營官菲爾·施雷德在“當公司陷入困境時如何保持樂觀”這一問題下的回答。 如果你的公司正處在快速增長階段,那么各種困難和挑戰(zhàn)隨時都有可能出現(xiàn)。對于一家需要創(chuàng)新和承擔風險的公司來說,這幾乎是不可避免的。 我所在的GumGum公司是一家位于圣莫尼卡的計算機視覺創(chuàng)業(yè)公司。我們認為,如果你不偶爾遇到一些挑戰(zhàn)的話,那你的公司肯定是出了問題。不過有時候,一次所謂的“失敗”(無論是原型設(shè)計上的,產(chǎn)品上的,還是企業(yè)關(guān)系上的),很可能會讓你的團隊陷入消沉。 這種情形當然不是我們所希望的,所以我們的目標是如何從這些失敗中學(xué)到教訓(xùn),然后迅速邁上新的征程。 那么怎樣才能最好地達到這個目的呢?我認為要做到以下幾點: 慶祝小的勝利 企業(yè)的管理層往往只重視比較大的、明顯的和全公司范圍的成功——比如如果某一年或某一季度的業(yè)績比較搶眼,公司就會召開一次“全體員工大會”,某個來自銷售、運營或是公關(guān)部門的家伙會做一個總結(jié)性的PPT,給大家看一些貌似光鮮的數(shù)據(jù)。會開完了,大家回到自己的辦公桌,心想:“這樣看來,我們公司現(xiàn)在還是不錯的吧?” 然而你需要做的并非僅此而已。有些事情放在大格局里可能微不足道,但它對于個別的項目和團隊可能非常重要,所以你要經(jīng)常地認可這些成就,這樣才能提高團隊成員的積極性和主觀能動性。如果你能在大家面前認可這些小的成功,這樣當一些難以避免的“失敗”發(fā)生時,大家也就會更容易理解和接受了。 不要總是灌輸“狼來了”的危機心態(tài) 有些公司總是喜歡把每件事都搞得仿佛火燒眉毛一樣,我和我的一些朋友、同事都曾在這樣的公司里工作過。公司之所以到處都是問題,每件事都是急事,就是因為它的企業(yè)文化是被動應(yīng)付式的。這種公司喜歡一驚一乍地大叫“狼來了!”然后通過恐懼激發(fā)員工的行動。 這種方法在短期可能是有效果的,然而“狼來了”喊得多了,大家也就懈怠了。等到狼真的來了,員工反而會變得不知所措。“狼來了”文化也會營造一種公司在不斷掙扎并且離失敗不遠了的氛圍,使團隊成員永遠處于提心吊膽的狀態(tài)。 有沒有辦法能讓員工積極地看待消極的事情呢?我認為當然是可以的。作為一名經(jīng)理人,如果你能營造一種積極合作解決問題的環(huán)境,那你的團隊就更容易團結(jié)起來。 營造一種能夠及早發(fā)現(xiàn)問題的文化 只要企業(yè)里沒有那種出了問題就推諉卸責、相互攻訐的文化,那么負責具體項目的員工就會更傾向于及時提出潛在的問題。這樣一來,問題就更不容易演變成“狼來了”的危機。 因此,公司的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)團隊應(yīng)該堅持與員工進行開放的對話,在公司的各個層面建立協(xié)商式的工作關(guān)系。 讓大家都認識到公司面臨的挑戰(zhàn) 要解決一個問題,你首先要理解它。你能從各個團隊拉來越多的人幫你理解眼下的問題,你對問題的了解也就會越透徹。 比如說,一家公司要進入新市場總是很難的,尤其是進軍國際市場。你必須要對當?shù)厥袌龅膶傩杂泻苌畹牧私狻?/p> 因此,每當我們要進入一個新的國外市場時,我們都會針對這個國家建立一個新的任務(wù)團隊。團隊成員有的有推廣經(jīng)驗,有的有運營經(jīng)驗,有的懂當?shù)氐奈幕?xí)俗和禁忌。在解決挑戰(zhàn)以及最終成功地擴展全球市場的過程中,每個人對公司都會油然產(chǎn)生一種主人翁精神。 給“問題”二字換個說法 我不建議經(jīng)理人粉飾問題甚至是危機,但我認為,面臨問題時,經(jīng)理人確有必要保持鎮(zhèn)靜,尤其重要的是要避免向員工傳遞不必要的負面信息。 我個人會盡量必免“問題”或者“糟糕”這樣的字眼(或是一些色彩化更重的詞)。“問題”是一個比較沉重的詞,它總是跟很多負擔聯(lián)系在一塊。而“挑戰(zhàn)”這種詞則會讓人不禁去想:“我們怎樣才能解決它?” 作為公司的管理層,向下級傳達的信息永遠應(yīng)該是:“我們是很聰明的,我們能夠解決眼前的問題,我們有信心”。這才是我們應(yīng)該做的——應(yīng)該重點強調(diào)的是“我們”。 我們要直面挑戰(zhàn),而且最終,我們能夠團結(jié)地獲得勝利。(財富中文網(wǎng)) 譯者:樸成奎 |
The Entrepreneur Insiders network is an online community where the most thoughtful and influential people in America’s startup scene contribute answers to timely questions about entrepreneurship and careers. Today’s answer to the question, “How do you stay optimistic when your company is struggling?” is written by Phil Schraeder, president and chief operating officer of GumGum. When you're part of a company that’s growing rapidly, obstacles and challenges come up all of the time. That’s just a part of life at organizations that innovate and take risks. The way we see it at GumGum, the Santa Monica-based computer vision startup where I work, if you’re not stumbling at least occasionally, you’re probably not doing it right. But sometimes a “fail”—of a project, a prototype, a product, or a relationship—leaves team members feeling demoralized. Which, of course, is counterproductive; the goal is to learn from stumbles and move past them. What's the best way to do that? Here's how I see it: Don’t forget to celebrate small victories and small wins It’s easy for management to only call attention to big, obvious, company-wide successes—like a great quarter or a great year. Someone in sales or operations or PR generates some nice slides with impressive stats that get shown off at the occasional “all-hands” meeting, and then everybody goes back to their desks thinking, “So I guess we’re doing okay?” You want to do more than that—you need to do more than that. Consistently acknowledging accomplishments that may be minor in the grand scheme of things, but are critical to individual projects and groups, helps team members to feel motivated and empowered. And acknowledging these successes in front of everyone helps buffer and contextualize the inevitable “fails.” Avoid constant “fire drills” and a nonstop crisis mentality I've been part of organizations in the past, and I have friends and colleagues who are currently part of organizations, where everything is a fire drill. Everything is a problem and everything is urgent because the corporate culture is fundamentally reactionary. It’s about yelling, “Fire!” and attempting to motivate people through fear. That might work in the short term, but ultimately, it wears everyone down and creates confusion about when something really needs to be escalated. Fire-drill culture also creates an atmosphere of struggle and constant near-failure, which leaves team members feeling like they just can't catch a break. Is it possible to be positive about negatives? I say yes, absolutely. As a manager, when you create a positive environment and you're a partner in the collaborative process of solving a problem together, your team members are much more likely to rally. Create a culture where problems can be identified early When there's no atmosphere of blame or recrimination around problems, the people who are on the front lines of a particular project are more likely to want to bring potential issues to the forefront a lot sooner—hopefully before those issues become actual fire-drill-worthy crises. That means leadership teams should constantly encourage an open dialogue and a consultative, working relationship across all layers of the company. Foster company-wide transparency surrounding challenges To solve a problem, you first need to understand it. The more qualified people you can pull in across teams to help understand the problem at hand, the better. As an example, it's always tough when we go into new markets—particularly international markets. You have to really understand the nature of that local market. So now, every time we enter a new international market, we create a task force for that specific territory. People with launch experience, operations experience, and knowledge of local cultural customs and sensitivities, all come together and learn from each other. Everybody gets a sense of ownership in not only tackling the challenge but, ultimately, successfully expanding our global footprint. Reframe the “problem” I’m not suggesting that managers sugarcoat problems (or even crises), but I do think that maintaining composure and avoiding needlessly negative messaging is profoundly important. Personally, I avoid using language like “problem” or “screw-up” (or even more colorful variations thereof). “Problem” is loaded; it’s a term that comes with lots of baggage, whereas “challenge” makes you think, “How are we going to solve for this?” The implicit message from management on down should always be: We're smart; we can figure this out; we’ve got this. This is what we do—with an emphasis on “we.” We take on challenges and, in the end, we triumph—together. |