Top Ten Tips for Giving the Big Kiss-Off to Theory!
Published by Bob Prosen November 22nd, 2006 in Leadership and Business Management.1. Face reality; never rationalize
2. Be hard on performance and easy on people
3. Know your unique selling proposition.
4. Remove the obstacles and let your people perform
5. Fire unprofitable customers
6. Hire people who are smarter than you
7. Be a healthy skeptic
8. Ask, “How may I help you Win?”
9. Know that you can never have too much good information
10. Keep an extra pen handy for the next hundred bonus checks
This is an outstanding list! Most espescially #5!
Ann- Many thanks for your comment. How true it is. We all know what we should do; however, many find it hard to take action. Wonder why?
Dear Bob, Your list is right on the point. Hire people smarter than you is so important and it has been my instruction to my managers every time they hire. The result is a team that is not the easiest to manage because they have ideas for improvement and are always trying to set better targets. Of course we could have followed the safe way and chosen losers.
Anyway the business has prospered, growth has been fourfold over 5 years and although I did finish an MBA the real lessons in management I learnt long before that and they were all of yours except fire the unprofitable customer because they are the barometer of performance. If there were some customers that caused us high costs it was because there were problems in our supply chain, product quality etc. It seemed to me (and still the case) that the more trouble the sweeter the solution.
You book came to us via TEC here in Australia. Thanks for putting in writing what I am sure a lot of managers know but rarely say.
Regards
John
I love the point about firing unprofitable customers. I work for a company that contracts to pharmaceuticals and this is the first place that I’ve worked that is really willing to fire a client. When we work with organizations that have difficult communication problems, an unstable, fluctuating management and attitudes that contractors are not partners but grunts, we lose money and cannot satisfy them. Our CEO is willing to refuse to bid on some subsequent projects with that company if we had a very difficult time working with them in the past. As a result, the employees feel that their sanity is more respected and valued than a dollar earned with bloodshed!
Ginger
John- Hello Australia! Many thanks for your comments. Sounds like you have a lot of great things going on. Stay the course. Your hard work is definitely paying off. - Bob
Ginger- You’re working for a strong leader capable of making tough choices. I know everyone appreciates the opportunity to be part of a company that does it right and where employees are respected. I have a feeling there are many more good lessons to be learned there. All the best. - Bob