What Your Boss Wants You to Do

The following is an excerpt from Indispensable By Monday: Learn the Profit-Producing Behaviors that will Help Your Company and Yourself by Larry Myler.

In March of 2009, I teamed up with VitalSmarts to create a survey that would establish the value of certain profit-producing behaviors. We asked 1,800 business leaders—primarily in the United States and Canada—how advantageous the core behaviors discussed herein would be if they were exhibited by workers who were being considered for layoffs. Would these behaviors work in favor of employees (keep their jobs), or would they be of no advantage (get laid off)? You probably want to know the outcome of the study before you invest a lot of time becoming skillful in these areas, right? Here’s what we found.

Behavior: Regularly Proposes Cost-Cutting Ideas That Work

Of those business leaders, 87.9 percent rated this behavior as being of moderate, substantial, or extreme advantage to a worker being considered for termination. Only 2.9 percent said it would give no advantage to the worker. When asked what percentage of workers in their own companies exhibit this behavior, 8 out of 10 respondents said it was less than 10 percent, on average.

Behavior: Regularly Proposes Revenue-Producing Ideas That Work

Of those business leaders, 88 percent rated this behavior as being of moderate, substantial, or extreme advantage to a worker being considered for termination. Only 4.1 percent said it would give no advantage to the worker. When asked what percentage of workers in their own companies exhibit this behavior, 8 out of 10 respondents said it was less than 8 percent, on average.

Behavior: Streamlines Company Processes to Save Time and Money

Of those business leaders, 94.6 percent rated this behavior as being of moderate, substantial, or extreme advantage to a worker being considered for termination. Only 1.9 percent said it would give no advantage to the worker. When asked what percentage of workers in their own companies exhibit this behavior, 7 out of 10 respondents said it was less than 12 percent, on average.

Behavior: Improves Personal Productivity by Increasing Work Quantity and Quality

Of those business leaders, 93.6 percent rated this behavior as being of moderate, substantial, or extreme advantage to a worker being considered for termination. Only 1.8 percent said it would give no advantage to the worker. When asked what percentage of workers in their own companies exhibit this behavior, 6 out of 10 respondents said it was less than 15 percent, on average.

Behavior: Proposes and/or Implements Procedures to Improve the Cash Flow of the Firm

Finally, of those business leaders, 83.5 percent rated this behavior as being of moderate, substantial, or extreme advantage to a worker being considered for termination. Only 5.8 percent said it would give no advantage to the worker. When asked what percentage of workers in their own companies exhibit this behavior, 9 out of 10 respondents said it was less than 6 percent, on average.

If the absence of valuable behaviors isn’t appalling to you, maybe the presence of stupid behaviors will be. We asked about the following political or non-value-added tactics for keeping one’s job or getting a promotion. Here they are (and I hope you’re not doing any of them):

• Avoid making waves; fit in, live with problems, and avoid speaking up
• Use flattery or favors to ingratiate themselves with the bosses
• Arrive at work before the boss; leave work after the boss
• Generally appear to be busy doing things (often less important things)
• Make special attempts to be ‘‘visible’’ and claim credit for any good outcome possible

You have no doubt witnessed these—and many other—silly actions on the part of your coworkers, so you might be wondering how often they’re happening nationally. Here’s the punch line: Our study revealed that the non-value-added tactics are being used by workers twice as frequently as those that add money to the bottom line.

Although leaders can recognize financially sound behaviors as being important to the company and advantageous to their employees, they haven’t done the best job of building those skills within the workforce that they lead. Consequently, without the proper skills, knowledge, and ability to enact better strategies, employees have been left on their own to figure out how to make a favorable impression on superiors who are in positions of power. Thus, by default, even smart people lean toward the political—and not the profitable—behaviors.

One final revelation from the study: When asked how beneficial it would be to the company for employees at all levels to have at least a working knowledge of basic accounting concepts such as the Profit and Loss (P&L) Statement, the Balance Sheet, and how the firm makes money, 80.1 percent of respondents answered that it would be of moderate, considerable, or extreme benefit. How many employees actually know this stuff? Seven out of 10 respondents said that less than 13 percent, on average, have this knowledge.

Comments

[Ken]

Interesting findings. As I read the results I wondered if these business leaders even made their employees aware of specific profit making behaviors they look for. If an employee knew that their boss really listened and look for their ideas would that change their work performance? I would also be interested in results if employees ot teams came up with a profit making idea....would they be rewarded in their wallets? Good post!

[Jon]

Coming in before your boss and leaving after the boss only works if your boss is not a workaholic. Not worth it if your boss is crazy and works 12 hour days.

[texashaze]

This is an excellent study and article. Thanks!

[Claudia]

I disagree with the non-value-added techniques that supposedly don't do anything, especially nbr 5 "becoming visible".

I have seen many, many people over the course of my career who did nothing to add value to a company but who are very visible given promotions and people who added value being let go because they didn't fit what management expected (whatever that was).