Business management made simple is an oxymoron … or is it?

The logical question is can a subject as complicated as Business management ever truly be made simple? Let’s take a look at a couple of truisms:

1. A business (large or small) most often takes on the personality of its management i.e. if there is a conservative leader in charge the overall decisions of the company tend to reflect that ‘personality type’.
2. Employees will almost never work as hard as the owner of a business and the business owner should not expect them to do so. After all as a general rule an employee does not gain substantially if the company goes from moderately successful to substantially successful (just ask a bank employee). In addition the threat of job loss or an incentive reward system is equally useless as ‘Gen Y’ accepts that jobs come and jobs go (look at CD’s) and incentives are ‘bogus offerings from the man’. In these days of rapid changes in technology what else can they do?

So how does this help us simplify business management?

Look around at your staff. The ones that ‘fit in’ and that you imagine are doing the best job will generally be a partial reflection of the boss or senior management.

If you run an efficient, well oiled machine then punctual staff, who never take a sick day, have tidy desks will be the staff you identify with the most and therefore often perceive are doing the best job.

Those tardy, untidy members of staff will tend to be irritating for a whole variety of very justifiable reasons.

But are your ‘mini-me’s’ truly your best employees?

Humans as a general rule are a clever bunch either intentionally or through trial and error. As a general rule most humans are adaptable and will quickly ‘fit in’ as very few actually want to stand out. In fact studies show rejection can lead to some very serious health issues. So if all an employee is asked to do is turn up to work on time and keep a desk tidy they can very quickly adapt to the ‘group norm’ rather than risk becoming an outcast. The biggest single issue this creates is that whilst turning up to work on time is great and having a tidy desk implies an organised worker in truth neither ‘adaption’ is a true measure of worth or work output.

This becomes our first major management issue: How many bosses / senior managers actually measure the output of themselves or their employees? Very few companies actually have allocated time and tasks on a daily basis. In fact it is the ‘norm’ for an employee to arrive at work, do their job and go home. But what exactly is their job? If the manager is not keeping a record of what is getting don and what isn’t how can they allocate more time for tasks that need more time and take staff off tasks staff if that time is no longer required?

That the brings us to the second point: Humans will always do what they prefer to do. Think about this for a moment. If you ran head-on into a wall it would hurt so likely you would learn not to do that fairly quickly. Put that in the context of a work environment. If you have an employee who is rewarded for a tidy desk then they will take time to tidy the desk. Is that a useful allocation of time and is it productive for the company? Probably not. That then becomes the second thing employees are very good at: ‘Allocating time for the things they enjoy.’

Everyone has jobs they hate and as a result nearly everyone will find ‘justifiable’ reasons as to why they did not get that job done (i.e. avoid running head-on into the wall). In some cases this can be very serious e.g. often the accounts department staff hate ringing up late paying customers and that can be very serious when it comes to the cash flow of a business.

Knowing what we know now - Business management made simple becomes a process that uses human nature to our advantage:

1. Managers be aware you will tend to hire at least a partial reflection of yourself (the good and the bad). Hire people that fit the job and not necessarily a reflection of your personally. Rather look for those who hold the values you want your company to uphold. To do that you need a panel or use an agency.
2. Record what everyone does every day. This is very simple. Use a piece of paper and create a table for the day’s activities. Allocate 1 task for every hour of the day (e.g. call overdue accounts) and have the employee record how many calls they make and how many people actually pay. In a well run business this may be a task given to a receptionist who is given a list every day of 3-5 late accounts. Give the designated person a script to read. Something like: “Hi [Name of Customer] accounts has just asked me to call you to make sure you have received our account. Have you got it? No… well look I’ll have them send you out a new one can I please check we have the right email address? Thanks for that I will ring you again tomorrow for payment or would you rather just EFT the payment later today and send me an email confirming the receipt number?” Simple, non-agressive and repeatable. Better known as a system.
3. Organisation: it is a statement of fact that humans work best when working within a structure. The armed services are one of the most extreme examples. Think about it. If you are asked to find your way out of a maze would it be quicker with a plan of the maze or without a plan? Similarly humans are designed to do certain things without conscious thought (e.g. walking, breathing, heart beat etc.). Having a plan of set tasks for the day ensures even the ones that aren’t fun to do get done. It is the manager’s job to gather up these lists at day’s end and make sure everyone has done what was set.

Busness management then becomes much less complicated in that the manager knows what the employees are doing and the employees now what the manager expects. No nasty surprises for either party with the added benefit of both parties being able to discuss were and when more time and resources are needed and where and when too much has been allocated.