The most valuable asset

Keeping it short and simple: people are the most important asset. Plain simple, easy to understand but... bloody dificult to IMPLEMENT.

I met today one of the most interesting CEO's of a Romanian company. He is under 40 years old (quite rare for Romania to run a multi-million company) and very inteligent. My discussion with him was focused on what is the most productive engine of a company and we both agreed: people.

The more commited and passionate people you have in your company, the better for the business. But how can you keep them passionate? The answer might be leadership. Again, plain simple, easy to understand and even accept but... how about doing things consistently?

Usually, when things go mad or the season is high or you have a high business pressure, many CEO's forget anout the poor human beings that are working hard to deliver results. I know some of them who care more about the task than the people. My assumption is that they will produce results on short term but will have a decrease on long term.

The predictable follow-up is that a new crisis will arise soon so they will forget again about the human asset. Sad but true: when you are facing pressure you forget about the human side and become focused on the task.

What about the consistently repeated crises? How long a manager will be able to act like a firefighter?

What about having a short break from time to time and think is your actions are really aligned with your vision (if there is one)? What about analyzing for a couple of minutes if your actions are really balancing the task-people approach? What about asking yourself: am I acting in a balanced way, directing but also encouraging my people?

Give yourself a tiny break that might - in a way or another - save your time and... your business life. :)