“The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.” – Teddy Roosevelt

At times it is wise and profitable to revisit the basics and the obvious. There is a huge difference between knowing what to do and actually doing what we know. So let’s look at some basics regarding People Management.

You cannot reach your vision and goals without the help of others. Your greatest asset is people – the “right” people. People that share your company’s values, ethics, personality, culture and vision. Our primary objective is to get the right people on our bus, those people in the right seats on the bus and the wrong people off, and then direct the course of the bus yourself. Therefore, recruiting, training/coaching, developing and retaining your competent employees are critical success factors for your company and some of your primary responsibilities as a leader. Our focus should be to develop others and create the right conditions for their success. In short, unleash the full human potential of your organization.

We should challenge our employees and then hold them accountable. Without adequate accountability, we are making a deadly mistake. Countless times business owners, executives, managers, etc. hold meetings, have great interaction and conversation, decisions are made, and then there is no follow through. Everyone gets up and walks out of the meeting and things just don’t get done.

In addition, we should be very careful about letting your employees become your social friends. We need to remain objective to make decisions in the best interest of the company. Trying to please or be liked by everyone is a sure bet for disaster. Instead, strive to be respected.

Our leadership and other strengths are not worth much if we are not able to achieve leverage and results through other people. Keep reminding yourself and your management team that the greatest assets of your business are your people!

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“If you allow staff to own a project, you must trust in their capacity and avoid micromanagement. Be there to provide support when needed, but don’t force yourself into the picture.”-Barbara Moses

Are you still battling the temptation to micromanage?

Real leadership is rare; micro-management is all too common. We need to stop trying to play every instrument ourselves and start conducting the orchestra. If we don’t conduct, who will?

Let’s review some key concepts regarding a Strategic Business Owner: As a Strategic Business Owner, our primary aim should be to develop a self-managing and systems-oriented business that still runs consistently, predictably, smoothly, and profitably while we are not there. We should shape and own the business system and employ competent and caring employees to operate the system. We should document the work of our business so that we can effectively train others to execute the work. We must make ourselves replaceable in the technical trenches of our business. To repeat, define and document the specific work to be done and then train and delegate.

Stop the “I’ll do it myself” and “No one does it as well as I do” attitudes. Learn to delegate. If someone else can do something 80-90% as well as you, give it up! Do not spend a dollar’s worth of time on a dime task. Know your areas of brilliance and delegate most everything else. Do those things that only you can do as CEO and delegate the rest. You need to free up time to do CEO activities that make the vision a reality.

To help with delegation, you must have the work to be done well defined. You cannot delegate non-specifics. Next, you must adopt the attitude that your time is valuable and learn to discriminate between various activities. Before doing a task, ask, “Does this task lead directly to increased profits, significantly reduced costs, improved customer satisfaction, or to me building a better business?” If it doesn’t, dismiss the task or delegate it. Or ask, “Is this task worth $200 per hour?” If not, find someone else internally or externally to do this task at a cheaper rate. You must realize that your CEO thoughts and actions (building systems, leading, planning, holding people accountable, coaching other leaders, etc.) are worth at least $200 per hour. If not, you will never learn to be effective at delegation.

By all means, get out of the way of your managers and workers.   Don’t meddle. Instead of doing their jobs, help them to clarify their roles, responsibilities, goals, and tasks and then simply hold them accountable for getting things done. Be sure to monitor your employees’ performance but don’t try to control them. Coach more and play less in the game.

Once they demonstrate competency and character, give your employees the authority to make things happen. Let them do their jobs. Let them tackle stuff on their own and come to you only when they need further guidance. Instead of micro-managing the process, manage by results. If you set up your systems correctly and train properly, you will be able to manage by numbers and on an exception-only basis.

Leadership is less about doing, more about thinking, planning, and overseeing what others do. You are to create jobs, not work a job!

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“Creative ideas flourish best in a shop which preserves some spirit of fun. Nobody is in business for fun, but that does not mean there cannot be fun in business.”-Leo Burnett

 A business leader is responsible for establishing the VISION and the FOCUS of the organization. HAVING FUN is a critical focus area. Focus on making business fun. Celebrate worthwhile progress toward your goals. Celebrate your company’s successes often and reward your employees for superior performance.

Come up with excuses to praise your team and recognize success. Share the joy. Make coming to work a meaningful and fulfilling event. In fact, appoint a CFO (Chief Fun Officer). Empower this person to come up with clever ideas, based on employee feedback, which will put some excitement and fun into the work environment.

Never forget, often as important as a paycheck, good employees want to learn and grow, be challenged and rewarded, and fulfill their cravings to be social beings. Make your culture an enjoyable place to work! How are you doing keeping yourself and employees focused on having fun?

Never lose sight of the fact that your primary responsibility as a Strategic Business Owner is LEADING!

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