Your Staff, Not Technology, Will Set Your Company Apart

Most of us have worked with both good and bad staff throughout our careers. Some are bang-your-head-against-the-wall awful. I remember one associate editor I had who was invariably late with his articles. The really bad part was that he didn’t give a hoot that it would impact the magazine, the readers or even other staff members. One time when I asked him, “Do you have your article?” he simply said, “Nope.” When I reminded him that it was past the deadline, he raised his hands and shoulders in a shrug. (Needless to say, we mutually agreed that the job was not for him.) Another assistant I had would get angry and burst into tears if anyone criticized her work—and this was almost a daily routine, not at an annual performance review. And then there was the alcoholic senior editor who fell asleep at her desk so soundly that another executive called her from the fax machine to make sure she was still alive.

But there are, of course, those employees who are please-don’t-ever-leave-the-company fabulous. It’s easy to take those people for granted—it can be much more obvious when people are doing things wrong than when they’re doing things right. And taking these star employees for granted can be enough to send them out the door.

It also can be easier to let subpar staff members continue on as they are rather than try to improve their performance, or an even more difficult decision can be knowing when it’s just time for them to go.

Today, as technology changes faster and more often than Brett Favre’s retirement status, an even greater pressure falls on you and your staff to continually evolve as well. As Andrew Brenneman points out in his column (page 32), “As technologies mature, they become more accessible to competitors. … People will emerge as the true differentiators, not the technologies.”