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Leveraging People and Profit: The Hard Work of Soft Management

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The truly successful organizations in the next century will be those that learn how to engage and energize the creativity an enthusiasm of their human assets. This is the next frontier in competitive advantage. In fact, there's always likely to be someone out there who can outspend you on those things. What makes your company unique is your people. Their innovation, creativity, and enthusiasm can't be copied. And, if that uniqueness is directed to creating processes, products, and services that are better than your competitors, you have an unbeatable advantage.

In Leveraging People and Profit the authors introduce a new term, altrupreneur. Altrupreneur is defined as one who conducts the affairs of an enterprise with conspicuous regard for the welfare of others. The altrupeneur is not one who acts only for the welfare of others, but one who acts with awareness of others' welfare as one of his or her top priorities.

The authors go on to outline a leadership model which includes the following.

1. The very essence of leadership is you have to have a vision. It's got to be a vision you articulate clearly and forcefully on every occasion. You cannot blow an uncertain trumpet. 2. Employees want and expect leaders to set direction and determine the business focus. Leaders are relying more on the power of influence than of command and control. 3. To be credible as a leader, you must first clarify your own values, translate them into a set of guiding principles, a credo, that you can communicate to the people you hope to lead. These overaching values help employees make decisions consistent with the aspirations of the company. 4. A leader must earn the trust of those he/she expects to lead. 5. Establish a mutual service compact which helps people understand where they fit in the value chain, aligns recognition programs to reward organizational successes, establishes training and personal development programs to reinforce continuous improvement, develops a communicaiton plan to ensure every employee understands values and vision and allocates resources to support improvment initiatives.

When an organization is energized by a vision that draws out the best efforts of all stakeholders in a positive and mutually beneficial context, there is virtually no limit to what is possible. Human creativity is not maximized until it is challenged by the impossible.

This book encourages those of us who want to make a little difference every day. It also dares us to be bold and public and exemplary in holding others in conspicuous--and high--regard. Written from experience on the inside of corporations, yet rich with values and insights, it is the most "balanced" look at leadership this year.

There are "how to treat people" books out -- and tons of "how to make more profit" books. Mark this book as one of the very few that integrates the themes with effective, believable ideas about how to manage more productively (and humanely!) tomorrow. One neologism worth noting in this book: altrupreneur. The word symbolizes the writers' core idea: that you can be an entrepreneur while being altruistic. You don't have to exploit to advance, they say, in convincing, straightforward language, statistics, and quotes.

Altrupreneur: One who conducts the affairs of an enterprise with conspicuous regard for the welfare of others." An excellent concept and philosophy that we should all learn to grasp as we operate in today's business environment. Nagle and Pascarella, very successful in their own right, quickly get to the essence of the successful business formula. It comes down to people! They cover the gamut from "Healing the Wounds of Betrayal," to "Creating a Mindset for Change," to "Building Community from Complexity." They reference that to the alrtupreneur, the company is a system but not just a system; it is something more human than that--itis a community. Furthermore, the new covenant being established in the altrupreneurial workplace exchanges accountability and continuous improvement for a reasonable and competitive income and continued opportunities for employability. This is best summarized by two quotes in the book; 1) "Did you do what I told you?" the traditional manager, versus 2) "What results did you get?" What did you learn? today's effective manager. An excellent book, with excellent insights. I have personally purchased a number of these and have passed them on to CEOs of both small and large firms with which I do business!

This book changed my life and my career. Reading it made me certain I was in the wrong place, in the wrong industry at the wrong time (for me). Companies that adhere to the tenets of LP&P will not have the retention issues most companies are dealing with today. People are drawn to and loyal to bosses who hold them in positive regard. Such companies are out there. Such leaders do exist and together they attract the best and brightest and the profits take care of themselves.