It takes a village to build an economy, and we have an astonishing village here.
Our winners treat employees with respect, use a high moral compass and provide the necessities of career advancement. They make employees feel like family and give them a sense of purpose.
Cheryl Hall, Dallas Morning News, Workers rule in our heated up new economy

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A week ago, Cheryl Hall and the Dallas Morning News published their annual Top 100 Places to Work list, with plenty of description and detail. (This is one of the times where you really need to get hold of the physical copy. There is nothing quite like flipping back and forth in such a physical format).

Her main observation: “treat your people like…people.” (My words). Her paragraph is this (yes, repeated from above):

Our winners treat employees with respect, use a high moral compass and provide the necessities of career advancement. They make employees feel like family and give them a sense of purpose.

I think she is right. The best business books say the same. From Uncontaniable by Kip Tindell, the CEO of The Container Store (yes, The Container Store is on the list, again); to Encouraging the Heart by Kouzes and Posner, the first and most important “must-read” for any person leading others, the message is repeated and repeated, shouted from the mountaintops and written about in books about servant leadership and authentic leadership – treat your people well! Encourage them by how you treat them.

But, alas, I read the Top 100 issue just after I had been to a session on the way hedge funds finance, and then quickly seek to sell, companies. I left with a sadness – a sadness that building the kind of corporate culture that Cheryl Hall was writing about is rare in such high-turnover-of-owners companies.

So… maybe one thing we need more of is companies that are started, and then continue, under the same leadership – leadership that “treats employees with respect,” over the long haul.

My concern is this: distant investors probably do not have the same concern for the people as these kinds of leaders…