This week’s noteworthy reads run the full gamut of good to ugly when it comes to leading people. With stories from one CEO who gets to know his employees personally to another who pours over screenshots from his employee monitoring system, this week’s collection highlights the remarkable range of tactics leaders believe are most effective for leading teams.
The CEO who works for you
Gary Vaynerchuck (@GaryVee) has built his business on the foundation of authenticity. In the early days of social media, he built fame for the personalized approach he advocated in building the wine business he ran at the time. Twenty years later, authenticity is still the hallmark of Gary’s approach to running his business. In this short video, he makes the case that CEOs should spend most of their time focusing on their people.
Leaders who win, he says, realize they work for their employees – not the other way around.
If you want to keep your best employees, watch this
The CEO who watches you
In stark contrast with the approach advocated above comes this article from the BBC’s Lora Jones (@LoraElwen) whose profile of a business owner’s use of employee monitoring software paints a remarkable picture.
“By looking at screenshots and how much time everyone is taking on certain tasks, I know if they’re following procedures,” says Shibu Philip, the subject of the article. “And, if they’re doing better than I expected, I also study the photos and ask them to share that knowledge with the rest of the team so we can all improve.”
‘I monitor my staff with software that takes screenshots’
We will be reaching out to Mr. Philip next week with an offer of our services.
Productivity zappers even Mr. P’s camera won’t see
Our third read for the week also comes from the BBC, and it’s an important read for anyone who is managing a team of employees working from home. It highlights issues unique to working from home that saps the energy and productivity of many workers – the sheer discomfort of working from a space that’s not meant to be occupied for endless hours while tapping away on a laptop.
Sam Proffitt and Francesca Gillett (@Fran_Gillett) detail in their article Why I Hate Working From Home the uncomfortable reality of a variety of workers, who retreat to their beds to safeguard confidential client information from roommates and jostle with their spouse for a spot at the one small table in the apartment.
For leaders needing some guidance on helping to improve the comfort (as well as the health and productivity!) of employees still working from home, please take a look at our article from last week, in which our founder, Stefan Wissenbach (@swissenbach) shared the details of the Work From Home package he created for our team.
