Page 243 - Executive Warfare

Culture

e-mail. Admittedly, there are many dif-
ferent kinds of workaholics, and I was NO MATTER WHAT
certainly always thinking about the job. YOU DO, SOME
But I saw no upside in appearing to be PEOPLE WILL SEE
machine-like. YOU AS AN ALIEN
Of course, no matter what you do, ANYWAY, JUST
some people will see you as an alien BECAUSE YOU
anyway, just because you have an office HAVE AN OFFICE
on the top floor. And the rumors can be ON THE TOP FLOOR.
pretty strange.
One day I was having lunch in the
cafeteria. Two women I didn’t know were sitting next to me. One of them
asked, “Is it true that you have a hot tub in your office?”
I said,“Do you mean a cauldron?”Sadly, the joke was lost on these two.
“Well,” she said dismissively, “everybody thinks you have a hot tub in
your office.”
At John Hancock, we had a simple
cultural goal: We wanted to make the NO ORGANIZATION
company a great place to be at and a CAN HANG ONTO
great place to be from. ALL OF ITS GOOD
A great place to be at, in my opinion, PEOPLE. IF
is one where there is a free exchange of NOBODY LEAVES,
ideas, where there is some humor and YOU WIND UP WITH
fun, and where people’s contributions MANY HIGHLY
are rewarded. TALENTED BUT
Why did we want to make it a great EXTREMELY
place to be from? Because no organiza- FRUSTRATED MEN
tion can hang onto all of its good peo- AND WOMEN.
ple. There is only one head of marketing
slot, only one CFO’s job. If nobody
leaves, you wind up with many highly talented but extremely frustrated
men and women. And no boss says, “Where can I get more of those?”

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