Is your team working hard enough?

Do you dictate fixed working hours? How do you compare work ethics? What can you do if you are behind?

Every company I have ever been in has worried that the development teams were not working hard enough.

The first thing you must do is decide what kind of work ethic you want in your team or company. Do not think this will happen by magic. Actually sit down and discuss it. Write it down.

Next you need to communicate it to your team. If you have a team in place, expect some fallout. Face it honestly "I know up until now we have had a different set of rules, but now we need to set down some new rules. I understand if this is not what you signed up for and we will help you transition if it is not right for you ..." Having disgruntled employees is worse than replacing some. Obviously job markets, critical company timing and other factor must be taken into account.

You need to be clear to anyone you interview about what the team's rules are.

I have known some companies to dictate 12 hour days, 6-7 day working weeks or fixed hours. There are lots of great examples of successful companies that have aggressive rules and demands. I am not saying one is right or wrong. The important thing is that you make it clear what you want from your employees.

Personally, I like to build teams for the long run. I want to set goals that are aggressive but accomplishable. I want my teams to only work the 60+ hour weeks 2-4 times a year for periods of no longer than a month at a time.

I find that the average age in the industry is a little higher than when I started out and I find that more people have families. I want employees to have balance. I want them fresh the next time I need them for a crisis. I want them to have enough outside interests so that if the company is having issues, the company is not the only thing of importance in their worlds.

When I run an organization, it is schedule driven. For me, the important thing is that we accomplish our tasks in an aggressive and predictable fashion. I care more about function than form. I expect employees to develop their own schedules. From there it is a means test. If a developer is running behind I expect them to work harder. During integration times I expect them to work harder. It is good for employees to know when they can go home at the end of the week. See My blog entries on schedules and what "Done" means.

My final words here are about accountability. Make sure your employees understand how they will be held accountable. Make sure consequences are in fact applied.

By being clear you can get the team you want.

More later ...

Live to work or work to live?

This is a question that many people ask implicitly or explicitly. It is a value that changes during a lifetime. Teenagers might feel work minimally to live only to become twenty-something work-aholics to become burned-out forty-somethings trying to reconnect with their families. The lucky among us find balance. But let's go back to the question, what should you do? How should you think about work?

I have the pleasure of being the dad to a wonderful teenage girl who is starting to be interested in the inevitability of work. She wants to earn enough to do stuff. She doesn't feel like she needs to live my lifestyle (yet:-). She is getting pressure from her school to think about careers. So I will lean on what I tell her as I write this entry.

I tell her she has to do two things: find something she enjoys doing a lot and be passionate about and find something that will pay the bills for the lifestyle she chooses.

In reading the first item, I think the keyword is passion. When I started working a colleague of mine said "If you are not willing to put in more than eight hours in a job, why are you willing to put in eight?" The upshot of his statement was that when we work we invest our most alert and most valuable hours of our day and we should use those hours doing something we love and are passionate about. I agree with him.

If you only work to meet your financial needs, you will be miserable. Sometimes we have to do things we would otherwise choose not to do. You need to understand this aspect of your life. However, I suspect that most of us can figure out how to do something we are passionate about and still pay the bills.

When I hire people, I look for people who have that passion. I do not want someone just paying the bills or putting in time.

So how do I answer this for myself? I live to be passionate and excited about all aspects of my life and today that includes work.

More later ...