5 Lessons from Undercover Boss
After the Super Bowl I decided to watch Undercover Boss on ABC. Admittedly, I was a bit reluctant to watch it, but something was nagging at me to watch the show. The premier featured Waste Management and their President / COO Larry O’Donnell and what he learned when he went undercover within his organization. What follows is what I learned from the show:
- The higher up you are in a corporation/organization, the more chance that you are either out of touch or growing further out of touch with what makes your company truly great: your front-line workers.
- Your best employees aren’t always those in leadership or management positions. The best are the people who put their heart and soul into their job regardless of their position, title or salary.
- Metrics and measurements are essential…unless they undermine the people-side of your business. Never compromise the human side of your business just for quantitative measures. They have to make sense to make dollars and cents.
- Good leaders stop and listen. Great leaders do more…they want to see the company through the eyes of employees at all levels to see where they are getting it righ, where they can improve, and then do something about it.
- Finally, never underestimate the power and impact of keeping your word. Corporate culture is based on what the company really is, not some grand mission and vision statement. It takes employees at all levels of an organization to create and nurture a strong corporate culture.
All-in-all, I was impressed with the show. Sure it was a feel-good experience and the reality as shown on TV could be totally different than the reality, but it made me hopeful and left me feeling inspired. It also introduced me to a leader who I had never heard of before and ended up respecting greatly. We need more stories like this.
I’ll definitely watch it again next week. Let’s just hope the hype lives up to the first week’s performance.
Posted via web from Dave Sabol
Related Posts
If you enjoyed this post, you may find these interesting as well.
My name is Dave Sabol and I work at the intersection of technology, online learning and knowledge management. Associated Knowledge is my way of capturing the insight that I gain as I navigate my way through the world of social media and open source technology.
I watched this also, and with some hesitation because I thought it looked corny in the vein of ‘Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.’ But I was pleasantly surprised at what he learned going undercover in his company. The higher-ups often have no idea what’s really going on. It was inspiring, and really gave a glimpse into what it must be like a lot of places. I really like the list you have about what this showed us – people truly do make up your company. And no one wants to be just another brick in the wall!
Nice write up, Dave. Good tips for anyone in any industry. I shared your post with my team!
Thanks Brantlee! My frame of reference definitely reflected what I learned and saw at PMI. Of all of the larger organizations that I worked at, I thought the leadership was the most accessible and collaborative that I have experienced in my career. Culture like that can’t be manufactured. It has to start at the top and work its way through the organization. Thanks for stopping by and commenting!