The Sweet 13

Greg Smith, a 33-year old executive with Goldman Sachs bared his soul to the Wall Street Journal – and the rest of the world – on Wednesday, March 14 in an open letter. In the letter, Smith lamented the organization’s perceived decline in a customer-first culture, and he placed the blame squarely on the shoulders of Goldman’s two top dogs, CEO Lloyd Blankfein and President Gary Cohn.

I found this interesting for a couple of reasons, not the least of which is Smith’s apparent concern for an organization he claims to have loved but could no longer tolerate, much less support.

But the really interesting thing to me is that Smith places the blame directly on the CEO and the president. Nowhere in the letter does he mention his immediate supervisor. That’s interesting because survey after survey, and research paper after research paper all suggest that the single most important influencer to job satisfaction is a worker’s immediate supervisor.

And while I won’t even try to mitigate the impact of the immediate supervisor in most instances, the truth is that the tone is set for the whole organization by those in the C-suite. The workforce looks to the top executives for guidance and to see which behaviors are rewarded and which are punished. What gets rewarded gets done.

Like “What gets measured, gets done,” rewards provide workers feedback that encourages certain types of behavior. Managers need to be mindful of what behaviors they encourage. Encouraging certain behaviors is how you shape a culture – “What you do is so loud I can’t hear what you say” (remember that one?).

There will always be individual managers whose skills need refining or fine-tuning to align with executives – you can’t bat 1.000 all the time when you select your team – but by and large managers will try to emulate the behavior of those in charge.

I’m reading Good Boss, Bad Boss: How To Be The Best … And Learn From The Worst by Robert Sutton. It’s Sutton’s follow up to The No Asshole Rule (one of my favorites – and they should be read in order), and it provides even more insight for bosses and creating effective workplaces. The story about Greg Smith made me think of Sutton’s 11 Commandments for Wise Bosses:

1. Have strong opinions and weakly held beliefs.
2. Do not treat others as if they are idiots.
3. Listen attentively to your people; don’t just pretend to hear what they say.
4. Ask a lot of good questions.
5. Ask others for help and gratefully accept their assistance.
6. Do not hesitate to say, “I don’t know.”
7. Forgive people when they fail, remember the lessons, and teach them to everyone.
8. Fight as if you are right, and listen as if you are wrong.
9. Do not hold grudges after losing an argument. Instead, help the victors implement their ideas with all your might.
10. Know your foibles and flaws, and work with people to correct and compensate for your weaknesses.
11. Express gratitude to your people.

I think I’d add a couple more:

1. Act with integrity
2. Treat EVERYONE with respect

It sounds easy, and intuitively we know it’s right and that it works – we all know the difference between right and wrong, good and bad. Guess we’re back to the Golden Rule again.

I don’t know Lloyd Blankfein or Gary Cohn, but if they are responsible for cultivating the culture Greg Smith describes, I wouldn’t want to work there either. If the executives at your workplace don’t employ Sutton’s 11 Commandments, do your best as a manager to use them with your people anyway.