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🫀 Humans Are Loyal to Humans
Every so often, I stumble across the following type of activity on my LinkedIn feed:
Person X has liked Post Y. Post Y goes something like: “people don’t leave bad companies, they leave bad managers.”
I always imagine person X hitting ‘like’ on Post Y at 11pm at night (and in a resentful mood no less); they’re making sure that their old boss (and every other shared contact) knows exactly how they feel .
When I initially see this type of activity, I always roll my eyes (we get it, you want everyone to know how bad your old boss was). But, not too long after, I’m reminded of an incredibly important point: people do, in fact, leave companies with bad leadership. Likewise, people join other companies purely for the people that invite them there.
It’s all about people.
In The Dolphin, I’ve talked a lot about Jony Ive, one of the world’s most talented industrial designers known for his work at Apple.
In 2019, Jony left Apple to start his own private studio. Instead of designing iPhones and AirPods, he now designs…anything he wants: jackets, AirBnB’s website, holiday trees and even Ferraris.
Now, you might be wondering: when Jony left Apple in 2019 after almost 30 years at the company, what happened to the 20+ designers that worked for him?
With the exception of 3, they all left.
Where did they go?
(Drumroll please): to work for Jony.
Ultimately, I believe that people have greater pull than products or missions.
And I don’t believe that this is a secret, either.
There’s a reason people are forced to sign iron-clad non-compete/anti-poaching agreements. There’s a reason why we see entire executive teams shift from one company to another when the CEO moves.
So how does this impact us, the business owner?
In many ways for sure, but in two ways in particular that I want to highlight:
For smaller organizations, your customers are not just doing business with your company; they are doing business with you and your staff. Unless your product/service is without competition, people will happily jump ship to a similar provider if they form a strong bond with the people behind it. Forced to choose between three coffee shops in my neighbourhood with similarly watered-down decaf Americanos, I always go with the one whose baristas are friendly and positive. We like doing business with the people that we like. Never forget this.
The same is true of our employees and partners. Yes, we can try and exercise our leverage in the form of competitive payroll and benefits and even the brand name we allow someone to put on their CV, but when the going gets tough, they’ll stick with those that they respect and work well with.
It’s all about people.
Products matter, operations matter, pricing matters, brand matters. But people matter most. It’s what keeps us around. It’s what drives us to leave.
👋 for now, and keep an eye out for an email next week!
Best,
Jeffrey