Work Performance and the Milit6

Saw this interesting post that took off when some manager tried telling an employee that people who rig parachutes had to give 100% or people would die, and it sparked a discussion on what exactly the work requirements are for riggers. 

I read it mostly because I remember having a lot of riggers in my class at Airborne school, and I already knew that they had to be prepared to jump with any of the parachutes they rig. 

The additional points about how they are required to take breaks (as it is known the quality degrades after a certain amount of time), about not wanting them rigging parachutes if they're sick or otherwise compromised, and of course that there's quality control in place so that you're not dependent on one person always getting it perfect are... 

Actually pretty basic common sense. 

And yet ... 

Things that are fairly obvious in a job where people die if you get it wrong, are somehow not understood or accepted by business leaders today. 

Maybe it's the lack of true leadership experience? 

I don't really know the cause, but I am sometimes actually grateful for the things I learned about leadership from my time in the army. 

Somewhat related, I was talking to someone about that a few weeks ago and remembered a few other points I feel are often forgotten. 

Namely that, as a leader, the first question for when my people fail at something is 'did I set them up for success?'

Did I give them the training they needed? Were my expectations clear? Did they h6the resources to do the job? If it required coordination with another team or department, were there issues I needed to resolve? 

Sure, people are diverse and you might have some slackers or troublemakers, but in my experience over 90% of any issues can be resolved if you make sure you set them up for success. 

And if you did all that and they still aren't cutting it? You have the documentation you need to say they're a poor performer. (For that specific job, at least. People have different talents and some are not suited for the task at hand. It doesn't mean they're lazy or a bad employee, they're just not in the right spot).

I heard a famous coach say something similar, and I wish I remembered who it was and where.

Anyways, thinking of that reminded me of yet another issue with the 'whale' fallacy that seems to have grown big in tech.

Which is that really, if you think 10% of your people are 'whales' who do 90% of the work, then you need to figure out what you are doing that's blocking the other 90%.

Because there's nothing innately special about your 'whales'.