Foundations

Head to the local Barnes and Noble and you are sure to trip over the “Business and Management” section. There you will find hundreds of titles detailing how to best manage a business. This one praises “collegiality” (whatever the hell that is) and this one reads “… befriending your employees is the key to success.” This one here says I should “Win Friends and Influence People” while my old boss simply believed in hiring someone for every task, sitting in his office all day and picking his teeth (dental hygiene is important in the business world after all!) while raking in the big bucks. Every concept has its’ strong points and its’ weak points, but one thing is clear, no two people can agree on what it takes to manage a business or the people you hire. I of course do have the answer, right? Well kind of… maybe…

I strongly believe that businesses can thrive with a wide variety of management techniques. My personal technique is a sort of laissez faire technique. Do your job, do it well, I’m happy, let’s all go out for coffee. For me, that works. Contrast that to say… the military and you’ll see how they are vastly different. All the same, both management styles suit the needs of the organizations and, therefore, both styles work. Trying to conform to the latest managerial style can do more harm than good. In my case, if I did conform to collegiality (discussing nothing personal at work etc.) I would personally be miserable. My employees would be miserable because I was cranky and I would therefore have a high employee turn over rate which is good for some companies, bad for me. If, however, you feel that collegiality is the way to go then you will be a happy boss and that will make for happy workers.

Now, this is true in many cases. There is something else that may be harder to admit sadly. Not everyone is management material. If you are great at managing people but have no clue about how to manage the business itself it may be time to hire some help. If you are great with the business aspects but don’t deal well with people, you may consider promoting someone to manage your staff. One very important thing to understand, if you want to run a successful business, is that sometimes you can’t do it all. If you know the right time to spend the money on human resources you will have a great little venture on your hands.  

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