My Lessons From Dell

The last four years at Dell were an amazing learning opportunity.  I worked alongside some of the smartest, most talented people I have met professionally, through Baylor or Military Child.  The many re-organizations we afflicted upon ourselves were also interesting opportunities to compare two different executives approach to the same opportunities.  The random thoughts below were some of the lessons that stood out for me.  Each have long stories behind them, some positive and some I would not want to go through again.  But they were all learning opportunities. 

• Human resources should be treated like people.  Or at least an asset to be developed.  Definitely not a headcount.  Processes and business models are only as good as the people who execute them.
• Keep expectations low, but always over deliver.  Good luck finding that balance.
  
• Layoffs should be done quickly and thoroughly in as few rounds as possible.  When the cloud hangs over too long it becomes a distraction from creating value and changes people's behavior.
• Don't stay in one role for too long.  When things start to get comfortable it's time to move.  You are more valuable in a company with broad experience, understanding how different groups work, and a large contact list to call on to help move things forward.
• People generate better results with some tenure in their role.  I don't know how to reconcile that with the previous point, because both are true. 
• When you make a decision that impacts someone in your organization negatively, communicate directly, not through someone else.  People respect candor and direct conversation and will accept bad news if they understand the reasons, even if they do not agree.
• If you ever have to communicate bad news that is someone else's decision, pretend it was yours.  People need to believe their leader has influence in the organization and are not just ambassadors for the real decision makers.
• You have a lot more power and authority than you think. The most effective people make of lot of decisions, sometimes beyond their scope. Senior leaders in the organizations do not want to have to weigh in on every question, they want people they can trust to achieve objectives the right way.
• You build power and influence by exercising it.
• Over-hire on talent and experience. One smart results-oriented person will generate more results for a business than three mediocre performers.
• Re-orgs rarely solve business challenges. They usually destroy more value than they create by distracting the team from the mission of the business and creating churn for customers and suppliers who have to learn how to navigate a different org structure.
• Hiring decisions are the most important decisions a manager makes.  They are the hardest mistakes to undo, and have the biggest impact when you get them right.
• Build a strong direct sales channel before an indirect one.  Its much harder to do it the other way around.
• Pay as a meritocracy, not on seniority.  Your best people should be rewarded for their work.  It sends a signal to the rest of the organization and makes it less likely they will leave.
• Highly effective individual contributors should only be made into managers if they have the basic leadership skills.  Not everyone should be a manager.
• A large piece of outsourced work should be handled by two vendors who compete for more share in a transparent, structured way.  One vendor who thinks they have a lock on the business develops a sense of entitlement, and forgets they had to earn it in the first place.
• Marketing has many definitions, structures and practices.  Pick the ones that make the most sense for accomplishing the mission of your business. But if it starts to look so much like sales, finance or operations your marketing team could report into those organizations -- you're doing it wrong.
• The key to success is getting the right plan.

Comments

[(the) Michael Schneider]

Matt,

This was a great read. You could do a series of leadership posts based on these points and your experiences around them. In fact, you could probably write a good book.

With regard to the reconcilation of:
# Don't stay in one role for too long. When things start to get comfortable it's time to move. You are more valuable in a company with broad experience, understanding how different groups work, and a large contact list to call on to help move things forward.
# People generate better results with some tenure in their role. I don't know how to reconcile that with the previous point, because both are true.

The way to have both is to have people take interesting, growth-oriented roles. In other words, if you only take a role because you already know that you can do everything, you are bound to hit the ceiling of that role quickly and get really comfortable. If the role is broad and challenging and gives a person a chance to be something different nearly every day, then there is a chance that a person will not truly master the role without some seasoning.

[Tracy Neitsch]

Wow. Great thoughts. Makes me all the more sad to see you go. Feel like I have so much that I could be learning from you. Keep posting; keep inspiring...