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74 SMT Magazine • November 2016 So I would suggest that the person at the top in your company, the one with supreme author- ity, has the most influence in creating the face of your organization. Why? The company over time will take on the character and priorities of this person. If product and service quality real- ly matter to her, the organization will begin to reflect this priority in hiring decisions. If quali- ty is just window dressing, well, that will be re- flected in the hiring policy, too. As employees who do not share these values leave the organi- zation they will be back-filled with people who are more closely aligned with the top person's philosophy. You and Your Company I like to think about the unwritten employ- er/employee business relationship in a very sto- ic fashion: 1. The employee does the absolute best she can do for the company for a minimum of 40 hours per week (or, whatever is the standard salaried work week agreement). 2. The employee agrees to perform his job in accordance with company policy. 3. The employer (company) agrees to pay the employee an agreed upon salary in full and on time. 4. In addition, the employer will provide any benefits consistent with company's written benefit policy (e.g., medical, gain sharing, etc.). 5. Finally, the company will provide the employee with periodic performance reviews. That's it! Here's a question that is rarely asked; a ques- tion whose answer may seem obvious. Let's ask it anyway: Why do you work? The answer that is probably the most com- mon is, "I work to earn money to provide finan- cial support for myself, or myself and my family." However, there is another answer that is rel- evant to our discussion on leadership. "I work to be part of something larger than myself—and maybe something that can have a net positive impact on the human condition—something that I could not do alone." I think this is true whether you work for a company or are self-employed. We all have a dual nature. Call it what you will, but it is basically the internal struggle we all feel between right and wrong, between light and dark, between good and evil, between self- less and selfish. It is the reason movies like Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia and Star Wars are so compelling: "Luke, come over to the dark side." And, in my opinion this is what leadership really is about—having the ability to persuade others to see the value in acting in the best interest of the project, the team, and the company. A New Organizational Model In many cases, the traditional hierarchal organizational model has had the opposite ef- fect. In that model I am compelled to assign my personal allegiance to my department and to my department manager (the person who will evaluate my performance). Department "silos" are put in competition with each other. Finger pointing is a common practice. As counterproductive as this model is, just as significant is the fact that it costs too much— it is burdened with indirect administrative cost that inflates the labor sell rate. In upcoming columns, we will discuss de- tails of a new model. This model is one that drastically flattens the organization. All depart- ments are replaced with just two groups: prod- uct teams and a leadership group. There are three checks and balances on the self-managed product team's performance: 1. Other product team members 2. The leadership group 3. The applicable labor laws the company is subject to. Since in the new organizational model, cross trained, multi-functional engineers will do ev- erything including running the production lines, there will be no hourly workers. Everyone on the product team is a direct employee. Most of the management for what can be termed the traditional general administration tasks will be done either by subcontractors or certain members of the leadership group. These LEADERSHIP IN YOUR COMPANY: SOMETHING TO WORRY ABOUT?