As a young entrepreneur, I was under-qualified to manage. Truthfully, I was under-qualified in general, but I was self-directed and tenacious enough to make up for my massive list of inadequate skills. I learned accounting, IT, design, project management, and finance etc. Everything seemed intuitive enough to figure out.
I even took apart a computer because we were too broke to pay the extra fee for service. I could get new parts under our contract, but it was on me to install them. One time, I needed a new motherboard, the part at the very bottom of the computer, which required me to dismantle and reassemble the whole thing. I did this, if you are curious.
Building The Company
Over a 15 year career, I built a company from ground up and sold it to a 27,000 person, Fortune 500 company where I was an Executive for two years. And despite the challenges I faced day-to-day, when I look back, I found management to be the most difficult, most stressful, and least obvious component of the company. Despite how complicated management was, ignoring it or doing less than a great job at it was devastating to our success.
Fail In Management And You Will Fail In Business.
I wish I could say management was as intuitive. I learned everything about management by doing it wrong.
Management is not intuitive, but when you follow some simple rules or guidelines that no one teaches you in business school, when you learn to manage properly, it will be the most valuable asset for your company. Let’s face the truth, you cannot build anything alone.
Your employees are your biggest asset, so being great at your job is not as valuable as helping hundreds of other people be great at their jobs. Many people working together can get more done in a day than only one person alone.
Here is my best advice from my experience, talking with fellow CEOs, and helping mentor and coach new entrepreneurs:
Actually Manage
I cannot tell you how many business leaders complain about managing. “Employees are being paid. They shouldn't need to be managed. I am not a babysitter.” Guess what? You are! You may find 1 percent of your staff is self-directed enough to ignore them completely, but the reality is that your employees need your input.
Plus, you do their review. You determine if they have employment or not. They care what you think because they want you to be happy with their work so they can get paid, pay their bills, keep their home, and sleep at night knowing they are safe from your wrath.
So, yes, you have to manage when you are a manager. By the way, that extra salary you get by being higher up than your staff is so that you will take the time TO MANAGE them.
Be Nice - Really Nice
You have the upper hand. You can fire them; they cannot fire you. You can be nice and be respected, too. Do you know your teams first and last names? Do you know who they are in a relationship with? Do you know anything about them? No? Spend your time learning about your staff, getting invested, be available as a mentor and you will get much further and you won’t need botox for your tightened furrowed brow in 10 years.
One hour of time spent being nice will translate into 100 hours of goodwill - that means they will get more done. This is not a waste of time.
Track Projects
Don’t run after your staff looking for problems or screaming about deadlines. Get out a sheet of paper and write down all the active projects in your company. I like Asana as a tracking tool, but there are several out there.
Assign the project to someone. Ask them for weekly reports on each project with details about where things stand. Read the report. Talk to them as needed. It is not that hard, but you have to do your job first before you yell at them about where everything stands.
Learn To Delegate
Delegation is the scariest idea because most successful people are perfectionists and control freaks. Wait. Stop. Admit the truth about yourself first. Control freak or perfectionist? Both? Delegation means that you have to give up control - see previous point and track projects - and accepting that people do things differently than you do.
Ever heard the phrase, “there are many roads to God?” People do things differently than you might. Different than you does not always mean wrong. Learn the skill-sets of your team and let them offer another road to the promised land.
Suck It Up And Give Bad News - And Be Nice
It is the worst: giving feedback, criticism, concerns, or firing someone. I mean awful like stomach in knots, hands shaking, head pounding awful. Sadly, there is no alternative to talking to your team about failures and problems. You can make it WAY easier with a couple quick steps:
1. Remember it is worse for them to hear than for you to say.
2. If you have set clear expectations in the past, the conversation should be expected and less of a blow to the employee.
3. You don’t have to hate them. Just keep it about the job. It’s not personal; it’s just business really works and is true.
Be Available
Does this need an explanation. You asked for work. You want it done. You have to be available. You are the leader and you have to give direction. It may be obvious to you when there is a fork in the road and a decision needs to be made because you set the course for the vision. That vision is yours and it is not obvious how it all comes together for each person. Be available.
Be Clear And Be Even Clearer
Do you feel like you were clear and it is still wrong? Be clearer. Maybe you are not clear enough. Maybe the person can’t see the vision. Maybe they are the wrong person for the job. The only way to find out is to be clear. Again.
NEVER Email A Problem
You have had it and the job is not done the way you want. It is late. You are pissed. Solution: fire off an email filled with all your feelings or you couch your real feelings and become passive aggressive. I have been there, typing out an angry email feels sooooo good. The outrage, the injustice, the moment of truth is coming in one click of a button. And there it goes.
An email written out of an emotional response, and not the business needs. Now this employee will read that email over and over and over. This employee will sit on this email and analyze each word because it is written down. They will spend all night or all day - on your dollar - drafting a response, a response that you will read into what may or may not be there or of any benefit to the company, as well.
You emailed out of frustration not what makes sense for the business or employee. You emailed because it was easier than facing them. You emailed because you were impulsive.
It is never ok to email a problem.
Hold Out Final Judgment Until You Hear What They Have To Say
Something went wrong and you need to talk to your employee. You hopefully have spoken with one other objective person about the problem and you have a clear agenda. Reserve 5 percent of yourself for the possibility that you are misinformed. It is rare, but possible.
Mainly, the facts speak for themselves, but just ask what happened before you come to a final judgment. People can surprise you with their side of the story.
If It Walks Like A Duck
Rule of thumb - if you see a problem: excessive internet usage, personal calls, late arrival, office gossip, etc, multiply the problem by 100. One day it hit me. If I walked by an employee on the internet over and over, I have to assume the behavior is happening way more than I am seeing because I rarely walk by. Depending on the size of the company, I may only walk by someone a couple times a day.
Therefore, if I see it, it is happening a lot more. Plus, in general, employees don’t want you to see problems. So worse, I see it, despite their efforts to keep it from me. Don't question this kind of problem - address it head on.
Set Rules
I think this is the most consistent mistake made by nice employers. The vision is to create a mini google: lots of community spirit, happy employees, freedom, autonomy. The only thing I can say is MOVE ON quickly from this vision. Google’s employee handbook is probably 1000 pages written and edited by top lawyers nationally. There is no such thing as a rule free/happy company.
Set rules. Lots of rules. The great employees won’t care because they never break the rules. The problem employees will complain because you are destroying their ability to take advantage of you. Download a handbook today and start making it your own.
Hire People Who Are Better Than You
Seriously, you are not excellent at everything. Get out a pen and write down what you love the most about your job, what you hate, what you do well and what you struggle with: Sales, Strategy, HR, Legal, Accounting, IT, Design, Sales, Marketing. Hire someone who loves what you suck at or don't love and let them teach you.
You don’t have to be better than your team. You just have to make good decisions so let them explain their area of expertise to you so you can make the hard calls needed to build your business. In other words, let go of your ego. You don't have to be the best at everything.
I hope this list helps you. Give something a try and let me know how it goes. I promise that you will get the results you are looking for because everyone wants the same outcome - a successful company that is fun to work in.