Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Humility in business is essential to success. I have found that rather than being "the boss" and slinging orders,  listening to those who work for you are more likely to work with you and get a tough task completed.

The micro-manager style may work for some. But treating one`s team as a family has worked for me and others I know. Realizing that simply because we`re the boss doesn`t mean we have all of the answers by any stretch of the imagination.

When someone has an idea I listen. When they have a complaint or a concern I listen. I have learned to listen and to judge the input and then make a decision. The greatest asset of any business is the team that keeps it going. No matter how large or small your business, the people who surround you is the fuel to make the engine of that business running smooth. Humility is the key to keeping it that way.

Alysyn Bourque, CEO



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Alysyn Bourque
CEO, THE GRIFFITH CENTER

I agree. The company I work for is very small, and we all know our roles. When you hire good people that have motivation and responsibility, micro management isn`t needed. And all opinions are welcome in our shop; no idea is worth ignoring, regardless of who it comes from.


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M Hall
Website Critique Community
International Society of Curmudgeons

I agree too. If you`re in the position to sling out orders, you`re in the position to hire the right people for the job in the first place, and let them do it. If you can`t do the latter, you probably shouldn`t be doing the former. If you give your staff autonomy, they`ll feel more connected to the business. I think the hiring process is the most important task a manager will ever have. It`s like making a clock. Hiring is selecting the gears. If you do a good job, you can have humility and become just a gear in the works, spinning with all your fellow gears.

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Making limitless possibilities much more limited.

I have a question I like to use: What`s the difference between a grandiose scheme and an ambitious project?

At a philosophic level, the separation rests on the concept of ideas themselves. Do ideas form out of the biochemical soup making up an individual brain? Or do ideas arrive through a multi-part communication system.

Many people fundamentally believe that if they have an idea, it`s totally unique to their own brain. Nobody else has ever had that idea, never will anyone else have exactly that idea, and so control comes into play.

If one person has an idea, and the idea only becomes "visible" when that person acts or speaks, then secrecy, protection---control---are very important. That`s a grandiose scheme.

But what if ideas are "built" through a series of events? What if many minds add bits and pieces, and previous words, thoughts and actions by other people all go into making an idea?

At that point, an ambitious project assumes that many people will have to act together for the idea to come into being.

Regardless of the method of management, someone has to be a final decision-maker. But a grandiose scheme requires no external input at all. The person with the brain that makes the idea is all that matters. It`s rather an ambitious project where ongoing thought, ideas, advice, and analysis is important. I think.

In my day job, i work at a company where we have had four production managers in the past year. These guys keep going back into the production area with a very "top-down" mentality.

There are some people who have been doing those jobs for 10+ years, and have great ideas, yet they won`t listen. Then, they wonder why it is so hard to get people motivated.

*shakes head*

Silly managers!