As you probably know, I liked the win-win approach to business since the first time I heard it. With the workday getting ever busier and everyone being exposed to more and more distractions, it’s hard to imagine getting someone’s attention or buy-in unless there is a readily apparent win in it for them.
The approach applies to so many aspects of business, including the employment relationship. Marketing analytics professionals looking for new market research jobs or web analytics jobs frequently ask me why things go wrong between companies and employees, and how such things can be avoided or prevented. While it’s an oversimplification, things can often be boiled down to desires…desires of the company, desires of the employee, and the desires of each that intersect with the other.
When starting a new position, mutual desires are critical. The company wants certain things from the employee (most of which can be found in “responsibilities” and “requirements” of job specifications) and the employee wants the right location, pay, responsibility, upward mobility, etc. In the best of circumstances, both get the majority of what they want, with room for fulfilling the rest over time (Figure 1).
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Figure 1: Starting a New Position
As things progress in a new employment relationship (which can be a new position within the same company or a new position within a completely different company) the goal of both is to attain the closest alignment possible (Figure 2). If that can be attained, then generally speaking, the company gets a good employee and the employee gets fairly compensated for their experience and various skill sets.
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Figure 2: The Near-term and Ongoing Goal for a New Position
When things start to get out of alignment, the Venn diagram starts to look like a Death Star, which is an appropriately ominous sign of things to come. Whether it is the employee that is not getting what they want (Figure 3), or the company not getting what they want (Figure 4), each of these circumstances typically leads to changes in the relationship…with the party not getting what they want much more likely to initiate change. And if neither is getting what they want after a period of time (Figure 5), then the relationship is likely to change or end very quickly.
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Figure 3: Death Star #1 – Most Common Incongruence in Desires
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Figure 4: Death Star #2 – Company Wants More
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Figure 5: Death Star #3 – Imminent Separation
When things start to get out of alignment, there are many alternatives and outcomes, the impacts of which can be subtle or abrupt. Generally speaking, the sooner the misalignment is recognized and addressed, the better the outcomes. Changing jobs and hiring/training new employees can be disruptive, time consuming and costly, but total separation is sometimes the best option.
Then again, sometimes it pays to try and work things out. There are too many variables and circumstances to cover here, but please allow me to oversimplify one more time. For companies: communicate clearly and be as specific as possible regarding expectations. Action plans or performance improvement plans really do work and are highly recommended. For employees: the single biggest piece of advice I can give to marketing analytics professionals looking for that next great market research job or web analytics job is to proactively manage your career and not focus exclusively on your current job to the point that you lose perspective. With technical professions such as ours, it’s easy to focus too much on the task at hand and not so much on strategically managing your career. Take yourself through the process detailed in “Resume and Job Search Strategy 101” because that will help you think trough and define wants and needs. Once that is accomplished, you will be in a position to more accurately assess your situation, which inevitably leads to better decision making for the near and long-term.
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