How are successful businesses like black-clad Japanese assassins?
The ninja is a clever, out-of-the-box, fast-moving, fast-responsive warrior.
And to succeed in business today, a business or someone who works in it has to respond to the situation with the tools at hand, be flexible, clever and overcome bigger forces.
What are “ninja” companies looking for in their employees?
I’ve gotten to know a lot of CEOs, and they’re very similar. They don’t want yes-men. They want someone who’s going to challenge the status quo, who’s going to come up with a solution. If you see a brick wall, you don’t go back to your boss and say, “There’s a brick wall, I can’t get over it.” You get around it: Jump over it. Tunnel under it.
If an employee finds himself in a non-innovative business, what’s the first step he needs to make to effect change?
Volunteer to try different things. I’ve looked at the people we’ve promoted in our little 150-person corporation. The person who runs the biggest part of our department has no college degree, and she would volunteer for anything.
Workers are being asked to do more with less. How can workers define their goals while in a constant frenzy of activity?
Figure out what is being asked that is unnecessary. Are reports being prepared that no one is reading? That is common in every corporation. You do things because you’ve always done them. Or are you doing things that make sense from the customer’s perspective? Businesses waste a lot of time and money. It’s not a matter of putting more time into your job. It’s also a matter of working smarter and coming up with ways to do things better.
As an employee, how can you ensure you’ve accounted for every possible obstacle that can come between you and a successful career and the success of your company?
I have no problem, as a president of a company, when any employee asks me what they can do to move forward. It’s like dating. Men think women are really smart if they ask them a lot of questions. Same thing in a job interview or even with the CEO. If you ask them questions about what they’re thinking and you’ve done your homework, it makes a lot of sense. But 90 percent of the time, I realize that people who are trying to sell me something, or even employees sometimes,haven’t done their homework. It is a risk if you haven’t done your homework.
What kind of environment should employers be creating to get the most out of their employees?
Don’t treat employees as just a cost. Treat them as individuals. They have issues in life. You have to show that you care about them. And you should care about them. Things happen to employees, with their families, with themselves — and you have to respect that.
Why do you think so many employers have a difficult time doing that?
Obviously there are costs associated with that, but you have to focus on the long term. And the best predictor of an organization’s success is the engagement of the employees. If they’re not engaged, you’re doing something wrong and you need to rethink that.
60 Seconds with Gary Shapiro
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60 Seconds with Gary Shapiro
