When it comes to basic people principles, I believe entrepreneurs should write down how they view their employee (people) relationships and how they want to be viewed by their employees.
Early on in my career as a manager I relied on some basic employee rules that I still use to this day. The following rules have served me well and keep personal things out of the business:
Friendly NOT friends – Time and time again I hear the horror stories around this one. To create a culture of teamwork and drive toward common goals with our employees, I believe I must be friendly. To create a situation of absolute chaos within our company, I believe everyone must be friends.
In Control NOT Controlling – As I have mentioned before, all entrepreneurs are control freaks to some degree. Employees know when they are being micromanaged, and although this is a great technique for getting people to quit, it is no way to build a passionate and aligned team.
Delegating NOT Dumping – The easiest thing I could have done as I built my business was dump a bunch of to do’s and responsibilities on my team. That would NOT have worked! To delegate I had to make sure I had the right people doing the right things and give them the tools to be successful. Once that was taken care of, delegating was a simple task.
Firm BUT Fair – For me, there was no bigger compliment than when one of my employees would describe my management style as firm BUT fair. When asked what it was like to work for me if that was the response, I knew I had nailed the other three rules!
Scott Fritz
Earn.com Expert Advisor
Tags: employee management, employer employee relationship, management, manager