Promotion to Director｜The difference from executive level to strategic level

Since I became a director, I have constantly looked back on the time when I just graduated. As a grassroots employee, I have captured my emotions in writing.

As a grassroots employee, the focus is on the execution level. As a director, the focus is on the strategic level. These are two different levels of thinking. Let me share below the differences in work focus between grassroots and directors. I will talk about it in two parts: the focus of grassroots employees on the executive level, and the focus of the director on the strategic level.

When I worked in a Japanese company, I was amazed at the beauty of Japanese people’s details. Regarding details, we often say that details need to be done right. For example, documents, emails, oral communication, words and deeds, work details, etc. However, I later discovered that it is not enough to pay attention to the details. The details need to be shocking, so that the personal image and corporate image can quickly rise to another level.

For example, when I was doing Ui design work, I not only produced a ppt on competitive product style research, but also a Ui visual style guide, and a communication snippet. There are ppts comparing different solutions, and there is even a high-fidelity interactive prototype diagram. If these details can be achieved, it will be more impressive than simply showing a few jpg design pictures to the leaders for review.

It is often found that students who have just graduated contradict their leaders’ demands and keep asking them, why are they doing this? For employees with this kind of mentality, my advice is: the leader's arrangement is reasonable and has been verified by practice. Do things according to the leader's arrangements. In the end, the leader will take the initiative to take responsibility for you and then take charge of the overall situation. After you become familiar with the company's existing habits, your boss will feel at ease if you continue to do things according to your own habits. In this way, grassroots employees have developed two sets of work habits. One set for the leader and one set for yourself.

Some grassroots employees keep gossiping about their leaders after dinner. For employees with this habit, my advice is: If you feel that your leadership is not good and the company is not good, you can still do well, and if you persist for more than 2 years, your xinxing will be able to quickly rise to another level. At that time, whether you continue to work in the original company or change to another company, you will be able to fly.

Grassroots employees always have many weaknesses when they first graduate. These leaders are mentally prepared and understandable. However, during the work process, you need to constantly practice your weak areas to improve work efficiency. At work, improving abilities while practicing is one thing, but the accumulation of work experience is only in depth. Within one year, although the work ability has been significantly improved. But one year later, working day after day could no longer meet the speed of self-improvement. Therefore, I signed up for 2-3 training courses every year to continuously maintain the speed of self-improvement.

I remember that when a senior came to our university campus for recruitment, he told a story about a time when a leader cultivated him:

He once had outstanding performance, but the general manager still suppressed him in meetings. , saying that his performance is worthless. At every meeting, the leader made him lose face. However, he persisted and was quickly promoted to vice president of the company a year later.

His leader recently said this to him: It was precisely because you could withstand beatings and grievances that you were worthy of my cultivation.

Therefore, it is very important to exercise your mental endurance and your ability to successfully complete your work despite being wronged.

I once went with the company leaders to Wuxi Jinyuan Golf Course to host the company’s annual international women’s golf competition. As a sponsor of golf equipment, I get up at 6 o'clock every morning and stay busy until 10 o'clock in the evening. However, because the leader set an example at the beginning, I didn’t have any resistance in my heart. After all, the leaders have done this, so it’s only right that you get up early.

However, because the leaders are proficient in a foreign language, after the golf game ended, the leaders sent Korean players, Japanese players, or Thai players. I was mainly responsible for organizing the golf clubs, golf bags, clothing bags, brochures, and hats that were left at the venue. When I first saw how everyone was gone, the competition items in these two large warehouses needed to be packed and inventoried. The workload was so huge, if I lost an item, I might have to be criticized or lose money.

I suddenly felt very angry.

However, later I remembered what I said when I took the career planning course: If you feel that the general environment is not good, there is a lot of pressure, and you have a lot of grievances, but you can still do well and persist for more than 2 years. , then after 2 years, whether you continue to work in the original company or change to another company, you will be flying.

So, I calmed down and carefully organized the items in the two warehouses, recording and filing them one by one. When loading the truck, I also took photos and sent them to the leader on WeChat. After returning home, I immediately sent the list of items to the leader’s email address.

The leader later said: Actually, I also know that this is a very stressful thing, because I have been here the same way. I will treat you to dinner tonight.

Grassroots employees will often find that their leaders have made the wrong decision or said the wrong thing. Therefore, he refutes and criticizes the leader in person, making the leader lose face. Grassroots employees also feel complacent that they are better than their leaders.

In this case, no matter whether the leader said something wrong or not, the goal or effect the leader wants is certain. As long as the goals and results desired by the leader are certain, grassroots employees can implement them.

The reason why leaders say wrong things is simply because they don’t know as much about the actual situation as the grassroots employees. Grassroots employees can directly agree to the leader's plan face to face. When the leader is there, they will make a plan based on the leader's ideas; when the leader is absent, they will make another plan based on their own ideas. In this way, the grassroots employees submit two plans to the leaders for review, thereby showing that they are the ones who came up with the plans and the leaders chose the plans.

When grassroots employees do not fight, they not only increase the probability of their plans being implemented, but also make their leaders feel very proud.

A problem of a grassroots employee can be solved by another employee. If a team has a problem, it is necessary to change a system or process solution. If the director can see that the team is about to encounter a problem, or the company's interests are about to be damaged, and based on the problem, he can propose a process or system plan that is highly practical, low-cost, and effective, then the problems in the team will be solved immediately. The haze is gone; the cooperation between work makes it happy.

Because this kind of institutional process is formulated when problems arise, this kind of institutional flow grows from the soil of the problem, and its implementation is quite strong.

According to Chinese people’s work habits, if leaders make decisions down to the smallest detail, then grassroots employees will not dare to do things better than the leaders. As a result, there was no general in Shu, and Liao Hua became the vanguard. Team morale is as low as it gets.

Therefore, as long as the team members are good at the module, the leader can do it poorly without restraint, so that the team members can do their best without any scruples.

If the leader wants to express himself, there are still opportunities. For example, point 3 below.

I often find that the efficiency of work among teams is greatly reduced. This is because some modules are broken during the work process.

Some of them are because no one knows how to make certain modules.

Sometimes it is because a certain employee is too busy or has taken leave recently.

Some of them are because no one is willing to do a certain module.

Some of it is because this is the director’s job.

At this time, the director can personally work between these modules and do his best without any scruples, so that there will be no gaps in the connection between different modules.

Employees worth cultivating mainly refer to those employees who improve themselves quickly and can endure grievances.

If such an employee is cultivated, he can naturally hit him wherever he wants, and he can be sure of his kindness towards his cultivation, and can quickly turn the grievances at work into a tacit understanding between each other.

In the Internet society, although flat management is popular. However, most companies still leave deep imprints of the era of hierarchical management.

Therefore, the handling of the relationship between superiors and subordinates is still very important in today's Internet era.

If a subordinate raises a problem and there is no corresponding plan, then management conflicts will arise.

When subordinates report problems, some people have no plan, while others have prepared 1-3 plans. Naturally, the latter understand hierarchical relationships better.

The basic process of hierarchical relationships is: the superior makes a request, the subordinate comes up with a plan, and then the superior selects a plan.

When Chinese people do things, face is always the first priority. That's why there is a saying about human nature.

Renqing refers to: two people have a good relationship, and they naturally get along well on the surface.

Sophistication means: two people have a very bad relationship, but on the surface they are still in harmony.

The formation of human skills requires social experience and life ups and downs, as well as a grasp of traditional Chinese culture.

I used to join a foreign-funded enterprise because of my good spoken English. During the few years I worked in a foreign company, I found that the Western way of thinking and habits of speech and behavior brought about by English learning were really a disadvantage. Therefore, I later focused on improving my foundation in traditional culture, especially studying "Effective Communication" by Yu Shiwei, "Charming Eloquence" by Lin Weixian, and "The Wisdom of the Book of Changes" by Zeng Shiqiang. I compared Japanese communication methods, English communication methods, and noon communication. In the process of using this method, you can quickly improve your processing capabilities on China Express.

As long as the team members can be happy in terms of face, then the work can be carried out happily.

The above is my understanding of moving from the executive level to the strategic level, and from the grassroots to the director since I was promoted to director.