Monday, 7 February 2011 at 09:44, By Whitney Johnson, Harvard Business Publishing
Late last year I attended a presentation by Stephen Kaufman, a senior lecturer at Harvard Business School and the former CEO of Arrow Electronics, as part of the school’s Forum for Growth and Innovation. Kaufman recounted the advice of Betty Jane Hess, the former head of Arrow’s acquisition integration team. “When we make an acquisition,” she said, “every employee has just three questions: 1) Do I have a job? 2) Who do I report to? And 3) How will I get paid? Until they get answers, nothing else matters.”
These simple, yet crucial, questions apply just as much to our everyday work lives as they do to what we go through during an unsettling merger. And only when we get answers, will we truly show up to work:
1. Do I have a job? Security is, of course, a basic human need. But once we’ve got that paycheck, we need to feel that we belong, that what we do matters and that we’re moving toward our potential. Are you clear about your role at the office? Are others? Do you like your role?
2. Who do I report to? If you’ve been through a merger, you know just how blurry the reporting structure can be during this time. But uncertainty can be found in any work situation. Not knowing who you report to, and therefore by what metrics you’ll be measured, can result in chaos. If you’re looking to increase productivity, start with clarifying the lines of reporting.
3. How will I get paid? We all want to be paid in cold, hard cash, and preferably a good amount of it. But how else will you be compensated? What about the intangibles that are ultimately worth far more to most people than money? Think about the people who work for you. Have you thought about what constitutes good performance, and how you will pay them – in ways that go beyond financial rewards – when they perform well?
Whether surviving a merger or simply another day at the office, answering these three questions goes to the heart of retention and morale. If you can’t answer them, it’s time to roll up your sleeves.
(Whitney Johnson is a founding partner of Rose Park Advisors. Previously, she was a double-ranked Institutional Investor analyst at Merrill Lynch covering telecom and media in emerging markets.)
© 2011 Harvard Business Publishing
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