May 20, 2024
Professional Journey
Recently, my daughter and I discussed her work experience, highlighting the challenges of two extremes regarding vision. One company was all about the big picture, leaving her without daily guidance. The other was focused on the day-to-day but lacked a clear vision for the future.
This resonated with me because finding the right balance is often difficult.
In the company that stressed the overarching mission, she was left without knowing what to do daily. There was little emphasis on standardization or detailed structure that allowed her to know how to do her job well. As a result, there was frustration because many of the details were unclear. She was not sure if she was doing a good job or not. She knew the big idea and was excited, but needed more structure along the way.
In the company that stressed the day-to-day, she felt lost in knowing where the company was headed. Enthusiasm toward a shared mission didn’t exist, which meant that the day-to-day was simply checking off the boxes and completing the work. She didn’t feel like there was a lot of value in the work she was doing.
While it's common for businesses to lean towards one side or the other, the real power lies in balance. Understanding the big picture vision, and being clear about the day-to-day responsibilities and expectations, is not just beneficial, it's essential for a healthy and thriving organization. This balance empowers employees, enlightens leaders, and paves the way for success.
In the book High Growth Handbook, Elad Gil provides a helpful interview with an executive at Stripe about this issue. Stripe, a POS company, has a long-term charter, articulating “why this team or this product exists, what its overarching strategy is, and what success would look like over a three-to-five-year period.” They also have a short-term plan: “In the near term, what are we trying to get done? That can look like a results-based management model or an OKR –objectives and key results–model.” It's a way that a team can say, “This is where we’re going long term. And on a quarterly basis, this is where we’re focusing. We’re hoping to move X and Y metrics.”
To thrive, employees need both big picture and day-to-day structure. You need structure to move towards the mission, but if you only give your team a day-to-day structure, there will be no enthusiasm about the overall mission. It will feel like a grind, and people will get burned out. As humans, we need to make a difference. We need to be a part of something bigger than ourselves. And the best way to have a productive team is by engaging everyone and uniting them around a common purpose. If you are running a business and are only focused on the details of the day today, your team will feel like robots, not humans.
