Just Do The Job(?)

"The cure for boredom is curiosity and there is no cure for curiosity."

Dorothy Parker

Early 20th century American satirist

Keeping employees engaged and interested in their work is in management's best interest, but is doing so also their responsibility?

Employees: Let Them Do The Job

"Our work is the presentation of our capabilities."

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
18th century German writer

All employees should read and embrace this thought; however, if employers do not give them the latitude necessary to do their best work, they will know it and will perform accordingly.

The Price of Worry

"We have to fight them daily, like fleas, those many small worries about the morrow, for they sap our energies."

Etty Hillesum
Jewish Thinker/Writer
Died November 30, 1943, Auschwitz

That we all worry is no revelation, nor is saying that worrying, needlessly or otherwise, affects our performance.

The goal should not be to not worry but to only worry about what is important, about things over which we can exert some control.

So easy to say, so difficult to do.

How does worry affect your business life and what, if anything, do you do to control the negative affects of worry?

Crisis Management: What Are You Doing?

"Man is not imprisoned by habit. Great changes in him can be wrought by crisis--once that crisis can be recognized and understood."

Norman Cousins
Political Journalist/Author

1. We don't have to be victims.
2. Good things can come from bad.

He doesn't say how but we can surmise it won't come from doing things as we have before (habit).

I've heard from many of you who are either out of work or feel you are about to be because the company you work for is not doing well. Crisis.

What do you recognize and understand?

Mergers and Acquistions: More "Managing the Marriage"

"The single most important thing was to dismantle the organizational structure of Fiat. We tore it apart in 60 days, removing a large number of leaders who had been there a long time and who represented an operating style that lay outside any proper understanding of market dynamics."

Sergio Marchionne
CEO Fiat Group

"The Italians have been shocked by how bloated Chrysler's management still is--there are nearly ten times as many people in external communications as there are at Fiat."

The Economist
April 25, 2009

"If this thing (Fiat acquisition of Chrysler) comes off they're (Chrysler management) really in for a shock."

Anonymous Senior Fiat Executive

You are Fiat's CEO. How do you balance the immediate need to change while at the same time maintaining a minimum level of Chrysler employee morale?

Or do you even need to care?

Employee Morale: What Should Management Do?

"I feel sorry for the person who can't get genuinely excited about his work. Not only will he never be satisfied, but he will never achieve anything worthwhile."

Walter Chrysler

So who's responsibility is it to see that employees are "genuinely excited" about their jobs? I would imagine that in his day Mr. Chrysler would have either said the employee or more likely, he just didn't care. If so is that the right response today? And if you think management should do whatever they can to help the employee enjoy what they do, be specific as to what that is.