Musings at Altitude

I’ve mentioned in the past that I struggle mightily in staff jobs.  It goes back to my military days when I learned the difference between mission and staff components.  Mission guys executed.  Staff guys organized, trained and equipped for that execution.  Both jobs were critical.  If the staff guys didn’t do their jobs right, the mission guys were poorly structured, inadequately trained, and grossly underfunded and thus under-equipped for their missions.  If the mission guys did their jobs wrong, battles and lives were lost.

It’s not much different in business.  The bigger a company gets, the more the line is drawn between those responsible for driving revenue and thus delivering profits and those that are responsible for organizing, training and equipping those revenue generating forces so that income can be created.  Staff functions in business do things very similar as the military – they organize for success; they train/develop the teams and the leaders so they can succeed in growing the business in the way and at the pace desired; and they equip the business with dollars and policies that lead ultimately to operating plan success.

The military has it down (even though most “line” folks don’t like it), because they rotate line officers out of the mission executing components of the military to the staff.  Thus, they always have mission experienced and mission empathetic people in those staff organizations actually then supporting the very roles and people they love the most.  In an ideal world, business would be the same way, with the staff being populated heavily by those that came out of the line functions and empathetic to the needs of those businesses that they are now destined to support.

Throughout my career I have been blessed in knowing very good military and business leaders that could mentally and emotionally shift between the two, mostly because they realized that staff roles were temporary and eventually they’d get back to the field where they wanted to be the most.  But I also realized that some folks were much better suited for one or the other.  And knowing where folks are best suited should ultimately drive where most of their career is spent.  That ultimately gets the most out of all the talent in the organization.

For me, I’m an operating company guy…that’s where I love and long to be.  Whether I’m good at it or not is for others to decided, but when I wake up in the morning and think about what I’m going to do for the business today, when it’s tied to revenue and income instead of strategy and policy, that stokes me…that gets me fired up…that gets me to launch out of bed rather than to crawl out of bed.

So, in a nutshell, here are the 10 things I love the most about an operating company:

(1) wins – nothing like winning that very important contract

(2) losses – so much learning comes from a loss

(3) hiring – getting that key hire that supposedly guarantees the win or greatly enhances the probability of success for the company

(4) firing – letting go of someone that acts like a cancer to the organization or is in some way holding back the team or the performance of the company

(5) alignment – rallying around a common goal with common purpose and common values

(6) planning – tactical; geared towards an annual expectation of performance; often times very tense

(7) tension – success is measured in days, weeks, and ultimately years, rather than decades, and thus the tension that comes with meeting expectations

(8) tears – when a very important part of the team leaves; when a very important customer rejects you; when a major milestone is not met; when the mission is not accomplished

(9) cheers – when a member of the team is recognized for doing something awesome; when a promotion occurs based on merit; when expectations are exceeded; when the contribution to the parent goals is extraordinary

and last but most certainly not least

(10) accountability – authority with great accountability; all eyes are on the operating companies because ultimately that’s where the revenue and income come from

Is it possible to feel that same intensity, same urgency, same emotion and same accountability at the staff level?  Probably, but it rarely happens.  Priorities tend to be different.  Time to close (any issue) tends to be different.  Expectations tend to be different.  Knowledge of the customer tends to be different.  Intensity tends to be different.  And unfortunately, accountability tends to be different.

Lots of reasons for that.  It’s the difference between a carrier and a cruiser.  It’s the difference between a B-52 and an F-16.  It’s the difference between a billion dollar company and a million dollar company.  One is big and lumbering and though it carries lots of fire power and has lots of resources, may take a long time to get to target.  The other is smaller, faster, more nimble and can deliver specific ordinance on a specific target with pinpoint accuracy.

I know that was a stretch…but not by much.  Smaller and nimbler allow quicker assessment of performance and greater urgency when that performance isn’t what was then expected.  That tension that comes from adapting and reacting is what makes an operating company very different from a staff.  That accountability that comes from ultimately winning the business battle is what makes an operating company very different from a staff.  That desperate desire to deliver above and beyond what’s expected is what makes an operating company very different from a staff.  That bond that is developed in the heat of battle when the mission is hard, the timing is urgent and the needs of the company great is what makes an operating company very different than a staff.

That’s why I love an operating company.