Do Business Well

Set the Example

Your attitudes, priorities (or lack thereof), and business practices will have a way of trickling down. You shouldn’t be surprised to learn that the negative ones will trickle down in torrents, while the positive ones will try to defy gravity.

If. you feel that managers should not be clock watchers, then you can’t work nine to four-thirty with a two-hour lunch and every other Wednesday off. If you’re the first to arrive and the last to leave, it becomes embarrassing for a top manager to see your car in the lot when he comes and when he goes.

Do you want others to turn in reports on time? You’ll need to do likewise. Do you want your people to answer the phone professionally and cheerfully? Make certain you do. Is quality or service important? Can those in your organization tell that by seeing your reactions to quality or service issues? Ask yourself these questions on an ongoing basis.

Leadership

A manager’s success is primarily dependent on whether or not he has the respect of his peers and his subordinates. That respect will come from three areas: 1) attitude about himself, the company, and its products; 2) work ethic; and 3) ability to direct others with authority, empathy, and respect.

My partner says that having a manager in your organization with a bad attitude is “like a cancer.” A person with an ax to grind will very likely talk to anyone who’ll listen about how rotten things are. These bad cells will begin to infect the healthy ones, and soon your company morale will be in need of radical treatment.

If you have someone in a position of leadership who has an attitude problem, I’d heartily recommend a single warning to shape up. If there’s no improvement, cut out this cancer before it spreads.

A common trap into which new managers fall is the idea that they can hand off all the distasteful jobs to their staff and keep the easy or fun stuff for themselves. Even the perception that this is happening can destroy the manager’s credibility quickly.

When I first went to work for ABUS Security Locks, it was a five- person company. I was still in law school, which resulted in my having irregular hours. ABUS received shipments every ten days from the factory. These shipments consisted of wooden crates full of steel padlocks (they were heavy and unwieldy). Until I joined the operation, the shipping clerk and the president would usually wrestle these crates off the truck and into the warehouse.

I’d been there a few months when a shipment arrived on a day when neither the president nor the shipping clerk was around. To make matters worse, it was during a light rain. There was no choice but to go out there and unload that truck myself.

I’d noticed during my stay that the executive secretary and I weren’t getting along that well. I concluded that she was just jealous of the salary I was earning, given my age.

I later learned that the executive secretary felt that I was manipulating my school schedule to ensure that I was never on the premises when a shipment came in. She’d noticed my wages, but it wasn’tmy youth she compared them to, but rather, my willingness to work hard . . . and dirty.

The day that I emptied the truck in the rain, the executive secretary decided I was okay!

Explain to your managers that they must be willing to wade in the muck, block the 350-pound lineman, and deal with an angry vendor if they hope to have their underlings’ respect.

For those who direct others, the final link in the chain that determines how well they can manage their troops is the manner in which they issue orders. The three keys to success in that effort are authority, empathy, and respect.

You must make it clear that this individual has the necessary authority to hand out the orders he’s giving. Once that’s clear, the manager himself must be able to convey the attitude of authority. Others will not follow if directives are unclear, impossible, or issued without confidence.

Furthermore, those in authority must possess empathy. If you want a soldier to be the first to move into the line of fire, you’d better give him that order in a way that conveys appreciation, an understanding of the fear he must feel, and evidence that you believe everything will be okay.

Finally, there must be respect. If the supervisor conveys superiority or lack of civility, he will invite revolt. The fastest way to earn the respect of others is to show that you respect them.

Get out of the way

Once you’ve defined for your managers what their specific duties are, and encouraged them to get their hands dirty when the situation requires it, it’s time to let them do their job. If you have any interest in their becoming something more than mindless robots, you’ll want to provide them with an environment conducive to innovation and experimentation.

Don’t hang over your manager’s shoulder ready to attack each small detail that you might have done differently. If the work must be reviewed, do so after it’s complete. Then only evaluate those aspects that might likely cause harm, and do so in a constructive way. Once a manager has shown that he can be trusted to do the work, let him do so without review. This will build his confidence and make him a better all-around producer.

Make it clear to your people that you encourage risk taking. Remind them frequently that you want them to try new ideas and approaches. You recognize that mistakes will be made, and that’s all right. My feeling is that people who aren’t making mistakes, aren’t making anything happen. Clearly, the mistakes should not be stupid or repetitive, but it’s amazing how many fortunes have been made due to mistakes that opened the door to new possibilities.

Be careful not to discourage those who bring you new ideas. You may have tried it before and it didn’t work, but maybe it will now under someone else’s direction. If every idea that comes your way is met by, “That won’t work, it’s been done before,” you can be sure that the supply of new ideas will soon dwindle.

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)
Managing Managers part 2

• E-commerce Branding as part of Integrated Marketing Communication Strategy
• Mobile commerce & Internal communications
• Internet Marketing, as the voice of all customer communication, Ecommerce the power of Networking
• The Power of Self-Awareness part
• Business Financial Thumb Up rules, don’t Break the Bank
• If Employed by a Corporation, Be Realistic
• Electronic Money and Online Transactions
• Kissing cousin to advertising: Promotions
• Maintain a competitive edge continue…
• Internet Banking Strategies
• Online Brand Creation

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