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Knowledge Workers Defined
Peter Drucker invented the term "knowledge
workers" in 1959. He says knowledge workers believe they are paid to be
effective, not to work 9 to 5, and that smart businesses will "strip away
everything that gets in their knowledge workers' way."
Those that succeed
will attract the best performers, securing "the single biggest factor for
competitive advantage in the next 25 years."
Practicing New Approaches
You cannot lead knowledge workers
by telling them what to do. You must treat them with respect and dignity,
and provide opportunities that they would not be able to have on their own.
To lead knowledge workers
effectively and unlock their true potential, you need to define:
Balanced
Manager
To manage knowledge workers effectively in
the modern
knowledge-driven
enterprise,
modern
manager should
balance
management with
leadership and
coaching...
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Evoking People's Passions
"The
passion to go well beyond the
extra mile is what drives people to create insanely great products and
services." says
Christopher Meyer.1
You need to shift your people management practices – if you haven't done so
yet – to accommodate or support knowledge work and help your people express
passion of their own.
Inspiring
Culture: 5 Elements
Working the Peer Network
As a leader, you must work the
peer network of your knowledge workers actively. For example, if you have to
manage a difficult employee, don't try to do it on your own. "Reframing the
problem from a boss-employee situation to a workgroup issue can be
surprisingly effective. Get their peers involved, since letting them down
often has a much faster and stronger impact on the employee than letting the
boss down".1
Let Them All Be Power Users
Enterprises may provide employees with the
latest information and communication technology (ICT) but little or no
guidance on using it. The result? Knowledge workers are not as productive as
they could be.4
Case Study
Silicon Valley Firms
How do Silicon Valley firms attract people to
opportunities, challenges, and
growth?
Around the globe, leading
organizations declare in their corporate value statements that people are
their most important asset. In many cases, these statements are just words
however. In the Silicon Valley, people really do come first. One of the main
tasks of top management is to provide an environment where work is rewarding
and fun. In turn, the legacy of managing knowledge workers keeps the focus
on people, and illustrates why
innovation in the Silicon Valley extends far
beyond the technology itself.1...
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Best
Practices
Google: 10 Golden
Rules
By: Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, and Hal Varian,
Consultant with Google
Getting the most out of knowledge workers will
be the key to business success for the next quarter century. Here's how we
do it at Google.
At Google, we think business guru Peter Drucker well understood
how to manage the new breed of "knowledge workers." After all, Drucker
invented the term in 1959. He says knowledge workers believe they are paid
to be effective, not to work 9 to 5, and that smart businesses will "strip
away everything that gets in their knowledge workers' way." Those that
succeed will attract the best performers, securing "the single biggest
factor for
competitive advantage
in the next 25 years."
At Google, we seek that advantage.
The ongoing debate about whether big
corporations are mismanaging knowledge workers is one we take very
seriously, because those who don't get it right will be gone. We've drawn on
good ideas we've seen elsewhere and come up with a few of our own. What
follows are ten key principles we use to make knowledge workers most
effective. As in most technology companies, many of our employees are
engineers, so we will focus on that particular group, but many of the
policies apply to all sorts of knowledge workers...
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How To Lead Creative People
By: Max DePree
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