What is success? This might be a question that recent college graduates are very curious about. I have always held the view that among all those who can be called successful, only a very few succeed actively; over 90% are forced to succeed. By active success, I mean people who persistently pursue something with firm beliefs and goals. There may be many such people, but only a small fraction succeed, because it requires not only perseverance but also a bit of talent and a bit of opportunity. Forced success, as the name implies, can be described as hitching a ride, clinging to someone's coattails, or going with the flow. This doesn't mean such people lack perseverance, but rather that they lack grander goals and firmer beliefs.
Active achievers are only a small minority among successful people; most are forced to succeed. As the ancients said, "Those who follow the trend thrive, those who go against it perish." In fact, most people succeed by following the crowd and catching a good opportunity. At the beginning of reform and opening up, many people went into business and became the first to get rich. Most of them were forced to succeed. If you analyze it, how many were laid off and had to find alternative livelihoods, and how many actively left government positions to go into business?
As managers, motivating employees is a headache. I have always held the view that humans are lazy, and precisely because of this, human society can continuously progress. The fundamental reason behind our various inventions and creations is laziness; we constantly liberate and develop labor because we are lazy.
Some employees show different attitudes in different positions. In a good position, they may not need to put in much effort to earn a decent salary, and over time, they inevitably become lazy. But once they are placed in a new field or tasked with developing a new market, the busy work overwhelms them, disrupting even their personal lives. A simple truth: busy work drives them to keep moving forward.
You must constantly push your employees to work so that they can grow and improve. Some managers are extremely capable, able to hold the fort alone, and prefer to do everything themselves, dissatisfied with their employees' abilities. Management is actually simple: fully trust your employees and constantly push them to work hard. That's all.
To make your employees forced to succeed, there are three key points: moderation, elevation, and delegation.
- Moderation
Forced success means constantly giving your employees new challenges and tasks, pushing them to strive and challenge their potential. However, poor management can backfire. Management itself is an art, not as logical as mathematics. The boundaries of management are very blurred; it's hard to gauge what intensity is good and what is too much. Let me give an example of over-management. Our company had a branch manager who was particularly diligent and liked to hold meetings at night. But one thing he seemed to overlook was employee feelings. In summer, everyone needs a midday nap, but to prevent them from sleeping too long in the dormitory and delaying work, he didn't allow them to go back to the dormitory to sleep. As a result, everyone resented it, feeling the management was too strict and inhumane. Eventually, they stopped visiting stores and went to hotels to play Dou Dizhu every day. You must make your employees feel happiness and hope, so they have the motivation and mood to work.
- Elevation
I once worked as an assistant to a general manager. During a position adjustment, a regional manager came to our GM asking for personnel, saying there were vacancies and not enough managers, and needed headquarters to send people. Our GM replied, "Promote from within." The regional manager said, "I've considered all internal candidates, but their abilities are really inadequate." Our GM, bluntly, said, "Do you think you were capable when you were promoted?"
This example illustrates that often it's not because you're capable that you become a leader; more often, it's because the company is growing rapidly, many positions become vacant, and you have to accept new challenges. And we also find that in new positions, they indeed perform differently. This might be the logic of "the seat determines the mind." Sometimes a person has to accept a position, and in that role, new challenges and work force them to improve their abilities. Experience itself represents a kind of capability, and more work opportunities and experiences make people grow faster. This is perhaps another endorsement of environmental determinism.
- Delegation
I once worked under two leaders with completely different styles. Both started from the grassroots, but different experiences shaped their leadership styles. One was taciturn and thoughtful, the other outgoing and sociable. I can't judge which leader is more capable, but from my personal feeling, I prefer the outgoing leader's style. He liked to delegate everything to you and then give feedback. He often said, "If I did everything myself, you'd lose motivation." That's the truth. Some leaders are certainly more capable than employees, but if they do everything themselves, the result is only to extinguish employee enthusiasm. Power can be a temptation, and most leaders don't like to delegate. Whether to delegate or not is also an art. If everything requires the leader's approval, efficiency will be too low, and the leader will be overwhelmed. Appropriate delegation increases employee motivation. For example, in business negotiations, if the leader personally contacts clients for everything, clients will not respect the salespeople or subordinate managers. Our company had a regional manager who liked to handle everything personally and directly contact clients. The advantage was high efficiency and direct communication. But the managers under him were very dissatisfied because the regional manager's excessive involvement made them lose credibility in front of clients. Appropriate delegation makes your employees more motivated. Letting your employees do what you can do doesn't mean you're lazy; rather, it's this delegation that gives employees a sense of achievement in their work, thereby stimulating greater work enthusiasm.
Finally, I want to talk about the case of "walking straight toward the goal." I strongly oppose such examples. Some consulting firms love to talk about vision, as if to say you can walk straight only by aiming at the goal. But theory is theory; it doesn't hold up in practice. No one's life has been without detours. Everyone takes various detours before finally achieving their goals. The reason is that humans are greedy and short-sighted; most people will give up the future for immediate benefits.
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