Business Strategy – Being a Good (if not great) Boss:  Put in the effort to treat individuals as individuals.

An article in HBR The Working Future got me thinking.  The premise is that successful institutions gain competitive advantage by adopting leadership strategies that 1.) recognize that individual people have different motivators and values, and 2.) customizing leadership, work assignments, development, and incentives to individuals.  Presumably, competitive advantage is gained by attracting and retaining a disproportionate share of the very best people.

Seems obvious.  If so obvious, why is it not put into widespread practice? 

Perhaps because we are lazy.  Perhaps because we assume the cost/benefit of putting in the effort isn’t worth it. 

But perhaps it’s because we are stuck in the (outdated?) mass production business paradigm of people management.  (Mass production paradigm = a few standardized products … sold in big volumes … to homogenous mass markets … in order to lower unit cost.)

Thanks to advances in manufacturing and the substitution of software for hardware, the mass production paradigm has given way to mass customization of products and at least a seemingly endless menu of product and feature choices.  Consumers can likely find exactly what they want, tailored to their individual needs.

So, apply mass customization thinking to people management.  Treat others … one by one … like they want to be treated.  Start with a little good ol’ market research:  a conversation to discover what turns them on and what they value. 

Alternatively, treat others as you would like to be treated.

PS. Not sure I regularly practiced this … but wish I had.