Impact Players: Liz Wiseman

I'm writing this in 2023. Companies are now starting to use the Impact Player 'system' and I think, for the most part, this system is garbage. Impact Players comes from a leadership mindset. Of course, managers are grabbing on because it's the latest 'fad' to increase productivity. What the first problem is, the book craps on contributes. It says they are good, but not great, and won't get ahead as fast as Impact Players. The book more or less guilt trips people who are doing their job into taking on more responsibility when none may not be needed.

You can't force loyalty to a company. I know managers would love if every employee would give 110% and not get paid for it, but they won't. What management always forgets is the wage gap. How much are people being paid for the job they are supposed to be doing? People learn differently. People approach difficulties differently. But many workers are living paycheck to paycheck. That matters. Always has. Always will. Most managers don't even know when they get paid because they know they have enough money to do what they want in life. Why is this critical? It's critical because I'd bet that the people who are being identified as 'Impact Players' are the employees who are getting paid more than the 'Contributors' who are getting paid less or not enough to do the job they are assigned. The 'Impact Players' are the employees who are getting paid more than the 'Contributors' who are getting paid less or not enough to do the job they are assigned.

Yes, contributors could quit. But then it's like you're putting them in a lesser category already, isn't it? Companies who implement 'Impact Players' will overall hurt the company? If everyone is trying to be leaders, then that isn't going to leave many contributors to do the work that needs to be done. Too many chiefs, not enough Indians. If people who are doing the work don't feel appreciated they will quit, walk or worse, could go the other way and try to rob the company. Liz isn't building leaders, she's building people who are going to skirt rules or just go off agenda trying to impress their managers. If chaos is a ladder, 'Impact Players' might also try to sabotage Contributors to stay ahead.

Impact Players looks ok, to a manager, on paper, but only if the group who follows these practices are ethical. This book doesn't take into account how the corporate world works; it takes into account how managers who want the quick fix in their company works. Companies need to cultivate their employees without the guilt trip. Managers need to stop being bosses and learn to inspire to get loyalty, not force it by putting a split between team members. If employees don't feel like a cohesive team, they won't grow, neither will the company.

Good book but it’s Chapter 2 of Richard Koch’s 80/20 book. In fact most books unknowingly have taken Koch’s 80/20 lines and oblivious to it.

It seems to me that conditions/environments, to which the author is throwing a life jacket or a bullet vest in a form of a book, continue to trudge in their present (complacent) form is because no-one tipped them on a need to think about, then define and agree on a set of principles relevant to their cause, purpose, meaning, values and so on. They seem to fear a revolution that would replace the traditional, pecking order driven, incompetency based business world where rewards and punishments are the only way to base your self-esteem on. The "messy world" follows a path of least resistance sustained by the lack of principles, lack of acumen, lack of transparency, lack of clarity etc that cause prolonged stress and mental damage. As a temporary solution, to become an impact player create a body of knowledge on different project management approaches then scale it up to the whole business. At the same time businesses should study and practice Open Book Management to promote transparency and business acumen. Over time things will balance themselves as your world redefines itself based on mutual trust, respect, competence and confidence.

I appreciate this so much. "I'm really quick to fill a leadership vacuum." Me too! I have come to learn that it is my psychology type AND I have to be aware because I also don't want people to think that I have some needy issue and have to run the show because I really don't.

Amazing insights as always!