Dead-end job? Or dead-end company?

We often talk about dead-end jobs, those jobs that offer no hope for advancement, but if you work for a company with the right kind of culture, then none of the positions there are necessarily dead-ends. At a dead-end company, however, all of the jobs are dead-ends too. Just what is a dead-end company? How do you know if your company is really just a dead-end? Below, I’ve listed a handful of traits that I think to be indicative of a dead-end company. Use the comment form to add yours.

Dead-end companies…

have lots of managers, but not many leaders.
In Tribes, Seth Godin, draws out a wonderful distinction between managers and leaders. Managers, Seth tells us, are listened to because employees who don’t listen to their managers are fired. Leaders are listened to because they inspire passion in people, passion to get behind great ideas. Managers are paid to ensure a certain set of well-established tasks are completed in a timely fashion. Leaders are looking for new ways to accomplish new goals. Managers are there to maintain the status quo. Leaders are there to change it. The reality is that the status quo isn’t working any more; the reality is that business needs fewer managers and more leaders.

don’t seek input from the lower ranks.
Leaders needn’t come from the top floor. In fact, it’s not even really fair to expect a small group of managers to generate all of the ideas and vision needed to carry a company through the changing landscape. But dead-end companies don’t know that. Dead-end companies are filled with managers who have become adept at not knowing what it is they don’t know. Instead of empowering conversation within the organization and enabling more voices and ideas, they are Social Darwinists, convinced by their positions that those below them can’t possibly generate the great ideas that will carry their company forward.

pay the highest salaries to those stuck on status quo.
Let’s face it. Salary is a company’s valuation of the work you do. While salaries are generally not common knowledge, it’s usually not difficult to estimate where your colleagues fall within the pay scale. Take a look at the salary structure. What does your company value? If the old guard — those resisting change, who dismiss new ways of doing things, new ideas and new tools — are the highest paid employees in your organization, then the status quo is what’s most valued. And the status quo isn’t in need of leaders. After all, the status quo means going nowhere, and you don’t need any leaders if you’re just staying put.

are busy developing five and ten year plans.
You know what didn’t exist five years ago? Here’s a just a few: YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Flickr, and Digg. Ten years ago there weren’t any hybrid cars. Ten years ago, Google wasn’t a part of our daily lives. Have these tools changed how business is done? You bet. And who knows what tools will emerge in the next five or ten years. Trying to see that far down the road with a rigid corporate plan is a good sign of a company that’s remained oblivious to the changing world around them. What will you be doing in five years? You probably won’t be doing what you’re doing today, and you certainly won’t be doing it the same way.

don’t see how social media has changed their business.
The Internet, or social media in particular, has empowered consumers like never before. Tools like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter have given everyone of your customers their own little soap box from which they can praise your product or let everyone in their social network know just how bad they think it is. The wonderful thing about this for business is that we can seek out our customers on these platforms and engage them in conversation. Dead-end companies simply wait by the phone or occassionally check their inboxes.