“I would love to see the boss do my job!”
Some employees are getting that chance. Undercover Boss, which debuts on February 7 after the Super Bowl, is the newest television show to join the onslaught of reality show programming. The idea is simple enough – take a corporate CEO and put him in one of the front line jobs in the company. The objective is to provide the CEO with a glimpse of the everyday challenges associated with the jobs that drive the company forward. No, not administrative or sales positions, but the primary jobs that define the company’s work.
A good idea, though not necessarily a new one, as pointed out in a recent Harvard Business Review blog post:
More than forty years ago, Robert Townsend, the former head of Avis Rent-a-Car described how he had his executives spend time every month working behind a rental counter, and similar versions of this activity were documented many years ago in HBR and elsewhere. They serve as valuable, first-hand reminders for managers of how difficult certain jobs are, how hard their people work, and how silly or unfair some of their company’s rules can be. And that is where the opportunity lies.
No doubt, it is a great idea to have managers – especially executives – spend time doing the jobs they are responsible for managing. At the very least, a close observation of those jobs would reveal policies, procedures, rules, or methods that should be addressed.
Trading Places (in reverse)
Interestingly enough, an article crossed my desk recently that discussed a completely opposite approach – having an employee go undercover as the CEO. Well, sort of. Here is the idea as suggested by Mark Pincus, founder and chief executive of Zynga:
I’d turn people into C.E.O.’s. One thing I did at my second company was to put white sticky sheets on the wall, and I put everyone’s name on one of the sheets, and I said, “By the end of the week, everybody needs to write what you’re C.E.O. of, and it needs to be something really meaningful.” And that way, everyone knows who’s C.E.O. of what, and they know whom to ask instead of me. And it was really effective. People liked it. And there was nowhere to hide.
This is an interesting idea, and works on a number of levels. First, people like to have some control over their own destiny; to have some say-so about something of consequence on the job. It is one of the reasons why certain employees can be guilty of hoarding information or resources, or carving out an area of responsibility and protecting it like an endangered species. In pursuing some meaning or purpose in their work, or, in some cases, just attempting to provide a level of job security for themselves, those employees try to create a layer of control and authority that may not exist.
Making an employee the “CEO” over something specific is one way to provide the purpose that employee is seeking. Certainly, she should be adequately trained to perform the role. She should understand the expectations for the role. She should comprehend the impact of her role on other people and departments. Ultimately, however, by passing the authority and responsibility (within defined limits) for a particular item or area of responsibility to the employee, and designating her as the “CEO” of that area, is an excellent way to create value for her as a person and an employee.
Second, people develop confidence in themselves and create satisfaction in their work when they have the ability to achieve something noteworthy. At the same time, employees vary in the level of talent they bring to a job, so in assuming the title of “CEO” over something that fits their skill-set and talent level, they have the opportunity to create personal success and directly observe their own contribution to the success of the team.
A word of caution: It is a good idea, but like so many ideas, proper execution is critical. An effective leader will prepare the employee to assume the role of “CEO” rather than simply apply the title. Promotion without preparation is the key to disaster.
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