On rare occasions, a situation demands that the team make sacrifices to achieve an extraordinary result or to avoid succumbing to a potentially catastrophic event. In these rare moments, leaders ask everyone to show up and make the needed sacrifice. All hands on deck, as the sailors say. No exceptions.
Great post today. While reading, at least a dozen examples popped into my brain. When this is done well, people and teams pull together and come out with a shared experience that bonds them for weeks, months, in some cases years. Some early career personal examples are: 1) Having 24 hours notice to build structured interviews for all job levels in a division (about 30); 2) Finding out Friday afternoon that our manager promised we could not only do a better job in creating/deploying a company survey than an outside vendor (cost savings of $100K), but that we'd be ready by Monday morning; 3) Building a database in less than 6 hours to track money being wired to employees and their spouses during Hurricane Katrina to get them off the streets and out of their cars. In each case, the leader pulled the team together, explained the situation, set expectations, and helped lay out the plan to get it done. And of course, they were there helping us in anyway they could including bringing us coffee and food.
Thanks, David. It is nice that you have examples of all hands situations that led to "mission accomplished" -- typically the most memorable reflections from people are often the opposite result.
It was a long time ago. But I'm pretty sure there was a big meeting the beginning of the week. The Executive Team wanted to see our work product. Our manager was pretty new to the company at the time. We won the project and it put my manager and our department on the map. It wasn't about the external rewards, we didn't get a bonus or any special recognition. We did it for the fun of it and the personal challenge. To see if we could do it. To see if we could go up against a big consulting firm and win. And we did.
It's tough to know what crisis mode looks like if it is already baked in to your very first company culture. You'd have a natural tendency to not to be critical of it as it is.
Great post today. While reading, at least a dozen examples popped into my brain. When this is done well, people and teams pull together and come out with a shared experience that bonds them for weeks, months, in some cases years. Some early career personal examples are: 1) Having 24 hours notice to build structured interviews for all job levels in a division (about 30); 2) Finding out Friday afternoon that our manager promised we could not only do a better job in creating/deploying a company survey than an outside vendor (cost savings of $100K), but that we'd be ready by Monday morning; 3) Building a database in less than 6 hours to track money being wired to employees and their spouses during Hurricane Katrina to get them off the streets and out of their cars. In each case, the leader pulled the team together, explained the situation, set expectations, and helped lay out the plan to get it done. And of course, they were there helping us in anyway they could including bringing us coffee and food.
Thanks, David. It is nice that you have examples of all hands situations that led to "mission accomplished" -- typically the most memorable reflections from people are often the opposite result.
If your team was going to save the company $100K, you'd think the company would be willing to wait until Tuesday AM. :)
It was a long time ago. But I'm pretty sure there was a big meeting the beginning of the week. The Executive Team wanted to see our work product. Our manager was pretty new to the company at the time. We won the project and it put my manager and our department on the map. It wasn't about the external rewards, we didn't get a bonus or any special recognition. We did it for the fun of it and the personal challenge. To see if we could do it. To see if we could go up against a big consulting firm and win. And we did.
Congrats!
Not when a pizza party is on the line. :)
That'll do it every time!
I recall a job where "crisis mode" was the norm. I should have departed before my breakdown. 🤣
It's tough to know what crisis mode looks like if it is already baked in to your very first company culture. You'd have a natural tendency to not to be critical of it as it is.
Exactly. I find that the ideal "model" in my head still sometimes looks a lot like that first culture.