Even when I left Corporate America, I didn’t leave. For at least a few years I think I was still caught in the corporate culture trance as I contracted in semi-permanent positions. It was lucrative and fun, but I didn’t really experience the freedom of the outside until later.
Freedom can be scary, but to me, now, it’s not nearly as scary as the idea of going back. I’m not alone. Most solopreneurs I meet who’ve survived more than a year or two on their own wouldn’t go back for the world, even when we miss the camaraderie and teamwork of a group. Just this weekend I met a young woman who’s experimenting with multi-level marketing programs and dreams of escaping her corporate job – even though she just got a promotion and is 15 years younger than the next oldest colleague on her leadership team. When I was in that position in my 20’s, I thought I’d made it and was determined to stay, and I did for ten years. Is this generation so much less patient? Many signs say yes.
Why is corporate culture such a bummer for so many people? What’s the secret sauce of flying solo and can corporate leaders inject some of it into corporate America? It just might save corporations from the brain drain that’s already happening and is likely to become an avalanche if the self-employment penalties ever loosen (by which I mean primarily the corporate flytrap of “affordable” health care).
Here are three lessons for corporate leaders about why their folks leave and how maybe they could hold onto them if they tried.
Responsible Autonomy
Autonomy is like an aphrodisiac to the creative mind. From the standpoint of corporate culture, many think autonomy needs to be reigned in and fear it will be abused – that people will play golf or hang out at the pool all day instead of working. In fact, research shows that employees who telecommute with flextime, actually work more hours.
But when you’re really on your own, you learn quickly that the “cost” of autonomy is responsibility. Sure you may blow of an afternoon playing Frisbee with your dog on a gorgeous day (or taking that same gorgeous day to stay home with a sick kid), but if the client deadline is still there, you’re probably burning the midnight oil working – something that hopefully you’re 9-5 counterparts aren’t doing (though we know too often they are). Autonomy is a different style of working and achieving productivity, but if responsibility and results are the price, many people will gladly pay it.
“The ultimate freedom for creative groups is the freedom to experiment with new ideas. Some skeptics insist that innovation is expensive. In the long run, innovation is cheap. Mediocrity is expensive—and autonomy can be the antidote. – Tom Kelley General Manager, IDEO”
— Daniel H. Pink in Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
Satisfaction for a Job Well Done
Sounds simple – and it is – but when people really feel ownership over the results of their work, they’re more motivated to do it. In big companies, responsibility, authority, blame, everything tends to get watered down across tons of people. Being in a huge group of people can feel like being stuck somewhere in a ball of yarn. You don’t know where you start and where you end and you certainly don’t feel any satisfaction when revenue goes up or responsibility when revenue goes down.
When you’re on your own, however, every pay check is a victory. It’s a constant challenge to create this kind of condition within a corporation – giving rise to the science of compensation – but when it comes down to it, it’s not that hard to break work into chunks, give people clear direction and support, and celebrate their victories. Break every project into 6 month mini-projects, achievable phases and watch how people’s motivations can improve.
“…what are the fewest, most important things we must accomplish in the next 6 months? This question forces ruthless prioritization. Pay careful attention to time frames. Regardless of how long we must work to achieve our (desired) To Be state, it’s critical to set interim goals that can be achieved in 6 months, never more than 18 months. Beyond that focus is lost. Each goal achieved should be designed so that it’s accomplishment is cause for celebration.” – Chris McGoff in The PRIMES
Respect
One of the best parts of being outside is becoming free of corporate culture. It feels like waking out of a trance. Once you’re out, you realize you’re not feeling guilty for eating lunch on your deck instead of at a desk or not trying to look busy when nothing much is going on.
Even more heady, though, is that when you’re on the outside, the same kind of person that used to treat you like crap on the inside – calling meetings without looking at your schedule – is now much more polite, asking “what time is good for you?” What would happen if corporate bosses just treated their employees with this level of respect from the get go? After all, they’re free to go at any time (and many do). Imagine a corporate culture where employees treated their bosses like clients and their bosses treated their employees like valued consultants who were serving out of choice instead of servitude?
Of course there are some bad apple employees who would take advantage of this kind of work environment, but I bet they’re actually a minority. If we treated everyone with the respect, clear cut goals and responsible autonomy that you treat contractors, the bad apples would stand out really clearly. Peer pressure would bring some around and the rest will be easier to spot and fire.
All this isn’t to say I won’t go back for the right reason, but being on my own has sure raised the bar. Now that I work with Human Resources and Organizational Development experts struggling to influence corporate culture, I have an even greater appreciation for how dysfunctional and difficult corporate culture can be. Maybe this post will give them some support in talking to corporate leaders. I hope so.
Try it, see what happens.
Check out the resources in the InPower Coaching EQ at Work and Soft Skills Research Index.
