Managing a business, and managing
staff, are like managing your own personal relationships, says Wade
Oldham. It takes commonsense.
Much of managing a business,
be it from a manufacturing or service industry, is just plain commonsense.
It continues to amaze me how many businesses, large or small, have
significant failings in the area of commonsense.
It seems that one of the underlying problems is
that many business people, whether managing their own business,
or a public or other like company, think that there is a trick to
managing and motivating staff.
Well, there isn’t. Managing staff is the
same as managing your own personal relationships — those of
your partner, children or even mother-in-law.
The government of this country has contributed
to an underlying fear of employees by making it increasingly difficult
to get rid of an under-performer or even a workplace menace. This
has fl owed over into the relationships between owner/managers and
their subordinates. Too many of them ignore, pass off or pussy-foot
around their people so that the relationship suffers.
But it is within your charter to tell people that
they are not performing. To not do so would indeed be poor management,
and ultimately bad for business.
It seems to me, then, that the first step to stress-free
people management would be to set some rules. Imagine what a game
of football or a wrestling match would be like if no one knew the
rules. The same can be said of the workplace.
Make no assumptions about what your people need
to know. Start with the assumption of total ignorance and work from
there. If you do not have an induction manual, you should —
get one started.
The induction manual should cover such details
as organisational charts and relationships, business visions —
if you have one — and contracts. It should spell out what
is expected of each employee. If you tell your people upfront that,
for example, bad language will not be tolerated, it is much easier
to deal with any problem that arises than to improvise an explanation
about the matter on the go.
It goes without saying, there is no point in presenting
rules unless management is prepared to follow them with everyone
else. The worst mistake a business can make is to have one rule
for managers and another (or expectations) for their subordinates.
If long personal phone calls are not tolerated don’t spend
half an hour on the phone discussing your share portfolio with your
broker or your golf game with your mate.
In all instances, employees are square pegs in
round holes until the relationship between employer and employee
is established. When boundaries are established and employees are
given positive feedback on their performance they start to become
round pegs.
When no feedback is given usually one of two things
will happen. If the employee is passive, the square edges will be
worn down by the round hole and the peg will wither and shrink.
The job for which they have been employed becomes beyond them. If
the employee is aggressive and management is weak, the corners will
stretch the hole and deform it — both ineffective.
It’s no trick, but the answer to moulding
your people to the job is honesty. Come to think of it, so is everything
else in your business and life. Tell people what you think and feel.
Your business does not run by osmosis.
This is especially true for high level management
such as managing director or general manager. A major problem in
business today is communication (to and fro) with the frontline.
So many businesses fail (and I don’t necessarily mean go broke)
not from monetary issues but because the ideas are not communicated
in their entirety to employees, and in some cases management cannot
catch the ball when passed by the employee.
This can be a huge problem for businesses in which
the bulk of the workforce is blue-collar under a white collar management
team which has never done the work that is done on the shop floor.
Another mistake business owners or managers make
is to assume they know what their staff is thinking. An example
of this: management decides to have a party for employees, but no
partners are invited. The manager hopes to bask in the glory of
his generosity. Trouble is, there are the “in crowd”
and “the rest of them”. Some staff have difficulty
gaining approval from their spouses. The outcome is the managing
director may be seen in an unfavourable light as throwing comments
to the pack.
The cost of the party may have been better given
as a bonus or a gift voucher that would benefit all, not just those
who are able or choose to go. A $50 gesture to some of the workforce
is a pizza with the kids. The boss would have been more fondly remembered
by that.
It really is a matter of getting it all into perspective.
