Is there a possibility that business is a sport, each company is a team? Each industry is like a different sport, football, soccer, hockey, etc. Each industry has rules as such and ‘best business practices’, as each team has a different strategy and a different outcome and goal. The management decides the players they want, looking at skills and experience, what they can contribute to their team. The goal for management is to have the best team of players to compete. The reality is in business we are competing, all companies want the business from a client and we have sales teams who strategize on the best bid for the client’s work. They work out what their team can do to improve their business, how they can get a win for that company.
So how does a manager select their team? Well I am sure we have all experienced applying for a job and going to an interview, this as well as internal promotion in a company they see your performance, what skills and experience you have; similar to junior or reserve teams in a club. They work out how well you might work in their team with existing team members. Then negotiating remuneration for your time, now I understand we all don’t sign long contracts like most sports players. I once heard a saying ‘everything is negotiable’ and it is true, more often than not we under-price our value or we over price ourselves. There are many tools, apps and websites that can help you to gauge what a similar position would be worth and then look at your skillset and experience and negotiate your pay.
Always remember to deliver though, if you go for a higher end of the price range for the position make sure you know the reasons for why. Back yourself but know that you need to prove you were worth them paying to accordingly. Players come and go, they often get an offer from another team (company) to go play for them. Remember cheap isn’t always the best. Many managers under value their staff, they use a ‘everyone is replaceable’ and this is true, but is the replacement as good?
Make sure you position yourself in a company so you are secured, give management no reasons to get rid of you, even if things are tight. Become invaluable, those who are so critical always get what they want. Pay rises, benefits, training, support all these are often given to those that the company knows they need that staff member for whatever reason that is (speciality, knowledge). The point of this is many managers learn that if they don’t value that important staff member another team will, and they will offer them a better package and likely lose that staff member at a small cost to them.
Each day is a new game, and effective managers review the previous match and work out what happened. Same as a coach, they work out what gameplay cost them the contract or why a number of staff have resigned. You cannot change people, but a good manager corrects things and changes a gameplay and eventually gets the win. For managers you want the win and you want it regularly. Remember club games there are many winners, in the big picture there is a ladder, and companies are all ranked on a ladder so to speak.