In 1651, Thomas
Hobbes wrote a great book on civil government entitled The
Leviathan.
The book's premise
seems very simple 350 years later: People come together to create a
government. The government consists of the people within it. Even
the king represents the collective will of the people.
If you look
carefully at the frontispiece of Hobbes' book you'll see that the
monarch is really made up of all the people. For a better graphic,
see
http://www.library.usyd.edu.au/libraries/rare/modernity/hobbes2.html
(This link is subject to the frailties of the internet.).
What Hobbes said of
governments is also true of all other social organizations. We come
together in hopes of doing things are a group that we cannot
accomplish on our own. And, in fact, the Industrial Revolution has
forced us to extend the analogy of the body even further. In Hobbes'
day there were only a few activities that required a large number of
people to accomplish.
Today, most people
work in jobs that require several people to be successful. No one
person can build an airliner, or a skyscraper. Nor can one person
run the billing department for a large corporation. Nor manage an
insurance company. And so forth.
We are each
individuals, but we work together to make things happen. My business
relies on editors and printers, layout people and staff supervisors.
I am not my business. No one person is my little business. My
business consists of many people working together to accomplish
individual goals, and together we accomplish great things. Many of
these people don't even work directly for my company!
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Businesses have the same needs as the
people who work there:
They need to stay focused on success.
They need to value relaxation and
personal growth.
They need regular evaluations.
They need instruction and direction.
-- Karl Palachuk
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Think of your
business like a person. What are the important things you do to
evaluate, manage, and encourage the greatest performance from your
employees? Well those are the same things you should be doing to
maintain your business.
To help employees
be
successful, you need to:
All the while, you
need to create an atmosphere of respect, appreciation, and fun.
These are the same
things you need to do to maintain your business. As you can see,
we've got quite a list of analogies between managing an employee and
managing a business. You should look for more.
The bottom line is
that you need to nurture your business
and give it the attention it deserves. Too often, as our
businesses grow and become successful, they also become filled with
stress. Some of this stress comes from the boss. After all, the boss
feels the stress first.
As the business
hires people, the boss turns over some vital functions to new
people. The boss feels freedom! But he also needs to check in
regularly, or the employee will feel abandoned. The employee needs
some attention and help. And that needs to continue if the employee
is to be productive.
When the boss just
hands things off and doesn't check back, the employee begins to
wander off from what the boss intended. Soon that position develops
in ways the boss didn't intend. The more the boss ignores it,
the more it becomes something other than what he intended.
Businesses are the
same way. As they become more successful, they need the same ongoing
attention as the employees within them.
We all know that
companies have "cultures" and norms. Some companies are stressful,
some are laid back. Some are friendly and some are not. Each of
these cultures develops over time. It may develop as the direct
result of plans and actions, or it may evolve on its own as the
result of no plan or action.
You should work to
make your business what you intend it to be. Here are two examples
from my own business.
First, I have
always tried to do business with nice people. When I first started,
I used to tell prospects "If you're the kind of person who yells and
screams at your employees, we don't need you as a client." As a
result of my intention, I accepted nice people as clients and rejected
jerks.
From time to time
we pare down our clients and re-focus our business. This criterion
plays an important role in that process.
One of the first
things people notice when they come to work for my company is that
our clients are really nice people.
Second, I work hard
to make my business as low-stress as possible. All businesses have
stress, deadlines, and problems. But we work to make sure that
employees know that their job is not on the line, that we're going
to be fine, etc. We put procedures in place to keep people from
feeling like the weight of a problem is on them.
The result is that
people agree that we have a very pleasant place to work. Employees
feel supported, too, as they know they can share problems (and
stress) with others.
Your employees are
each single organisms that need attention and nurturing. But don't
forget that your company as a whole is a larger, more complex
organism that also needs attention and nurturing. The analogy is
quite strong. The techniques for setting goals, evaluating
performance, and refining goals are also very analogous.
Give this new perspective a try.
