Working Smarter, Not Longer
Robert Glazer
5X Entrepreneur, #1 WSJ & USA Today Bestselling Author, Top .1% Podcast Host and Keynote Speaker. Board Chair & Founder @ Acceleration Partners
At Acceleration Partners, we put tremendous value on outcomes for our clients and our business. This is why one of our operating principals is “Work Smarter.†Here is how we define it:
“Excellence is about knowing what to do and what not to do, and finding the 80/20. We are measured by our results and our outcomes (our performance), not our inputs or time. Urgent and important are not always the same and we strive to know the difference and remain focused on outcomes.â€
Yahoo CEO, Marissa Meyer has come under intense scrutiny lately for her comments about 130-hour work weeks and how she can determine the potential success of a start-up by who is there on the weekend. Meyer also made headlines a few years back for setting up a nursery at her office so that she could go right back to work after having her first child.
While I am all for working hard, I believe it’s better to work smart and be outcome-oriented. We are reaching a crisis point in the US workplace where inputs, not outcomes, are being rewarded. Companies are celebrating individuals who put in the facetime; who login in late and work from vacation.
Think about the lawyer working at 1:00 am when their cognitive ability is severely diminished, all while billing their clients $750 an hour. Studies have clearly shown that performance and health diminishes considerably beyond 55 hours a week, especially when stress or exhaustion is present. People also need quiet time to think and be creative.
Not only is†work longer, not smarter†mentality unhealthy for the individual, it sets the foundation for a company culture that values how much time is put in as opposed to what is getting accomplished. Contrast this with the famous Netflix Culture deck, authored by culture czar, Patti McCord. It reflects why Netflix has been one of the top performing companies of the past ten years, is able to continually innovate and pivot its businesses model ahead of the market.
Their secret? Hint: it doesn’t involve a 130-hour work week. Here’s a snippet from Netflix’s culture deck:
As they demonstrate, what matters to Netflix is results. As leaders, if you value the people who put in long hours but don’t necessary produce the best results, then you’ll reap what you sow. If you want better outcomes and results from your team, then you must recognize and reward those who work smart.
This article was originally published on Robert Glazer’s personal blog FridayFwd.com.
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Robert Glazer is the Founder and Managing Director of Acceleration Partners, a leading performance marketing agency focused on profitable online customer acquisition for high-growth consumer businesses. Acceleration Partners was ranked #4 in Fortune’s Top 10 Places to Work in Advertising & Marketing and has been named a Best Workplace for Women two years in a row by Great Place to Work? and Fortune. The company has also been ranked on Inc 5000/500’s Fastest Growing Companies for 4 years in a row and named to Boston Business Journal’s Fast 50 for three years in a row. Representative clients include Tiny Prints, adidas, Target, Reebok, eBay, Jet.com, The Children’s Place, ModCloth, The Honest Company, Warby Parker and Rent the Runway. You can read his Friday Inspirations at www.fridayfwd.com.
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8 å¹´Classic.... "Companies are celebrating individuals who put in the facetime; who login in late and work from vacation." Great words of wisdom. It's good to see these thoughts expressed from a successful businessman. I've been in situations where people are expected to have enormous facetime and login as much as they can. I think this will have several negative effects. First, would be the lose of focus and cognitive ability. But secondly, when employees begin to believe that this facetime is held very high up in importance, their days becomes more about that, than of putting out quality work. Once an employee starts to watch the clock, it's all down hill from there. Now, I'm all for putting in some late hours from time to time. If there is a big proposal that requires a massive audit, then it may be worth putting in a few extra hours. But these should be special occasions as opposed to "the norm"
Workforce Productivity & Retention
8 å¹´Good share, Russ, hope all goes well for you and family...
Owner Progressive Molding Technologies Inc.(Plastic Injection Molding, Product Development, LED & Optical Design)
8 å¹´Robert, couldn't agree more. However I do find it challenging when dealing with Millennials. We have the latest generation entering the workforce which has been rewarded based on inputs rather than outcomes. The Netflix quote was right on point, I will be R&Ding that one. In today's job market, effective hiring to find and retain A-Players has become more critical than ever!
President @ Vistage Spain | Accelerating Business Growth | Senior Lecturer @ IESE Business School
8 å¹´I asked a good friend of mine to review a business plan I had put together for a new business. He looked at me and said "On a scale of 0 to 10, how emotionally committed to this business are you?" He said "dude, if you are 9-10, you will make it work. If you are less than 7, stay home." Hours are perhaps, at best, a proxy for "emotional commitment". If someone will do what it takes then the startup will work out. If someone is not fully responsible, then the hard times will stop them. Hours is only one way of seeing emotional commitment... but it can also be a fake measure. A lot of management consultants do lots of hours... not because they are emotionally committed to the outcome... but because they feel it will further their career. In this case, hours is a terrible measure.