Volume 4: Managing a Company
Managing a company is the all-encompassing process of guiding or directing people and things within the company. This volume offers a key techniques from the vast field of management. Articles in this volume provide helpful guidance across all facets of managing a company.
Browse the articles below.
← PREVIOUS VOLUME
NEXT VOLUME →
Plan how to address activities as demand significantly increases. Explaining why a task needs to be performed is as important as explaining what has to be done. Culture develops on its own over time but takes its direction and nurturing by the CEO. Hiring someone to help shoulder the load of the CEO in a new company is critical to its success. Showing others you appreciate their efforts will return significant rewards for everyone involved. Near-instant access to events causes many of us to react to it instead of responding. Company and business expansion invariably leads to growing pains and uneasiness at all levels. Focus on vision, strategy, and tone to move the organization in the desired direction. Does your company run on cruise control, or do you have to constantly be behind the wheel? Leading and managing are two different activities that the CEO must perform simultaneously. Spending the right amount of time on the right things must be every CEO’s top priority. Every manager in every organization is responsible for properly managing all employees. As organizations grow, more specialization occurs, and communications can become ineffective. Change is constant, often moving us out of our comfort zone, we all must get used to it. New employees, without the benefit of past experiences, can quickly become rules based. Changes cause disruptions and can result in negative attitudes that, left unchecked, can spread. Individual and department goals vary which causes a seemingly purposeful non-cooperation. Open individual and group two-way dialogue is the most effective way to combat growing pains. CEOs must provide a “brain drain” to new employees, especially sales reps. We often react without considering factors; when we do, we are more likely to respond. Taking a deep breath implies stopping for a moment to think, not filling up the lungs to scream. Many times, speedy responses are made without reasonable deliberation of facts. Practice makes permanent; consistent reactive behaviors can become the norm. When the answer is clearly known, in most cases it should be delivered quickly. Take the time to ask a few others to help you develop a reasonable response. Slow and deliberate may be much faster than quick if it avoids false starts. Providing a non-threatening, open environment to identify business impediments is easy. Open-door policies only work if employees truly feel that managers are approachable. There are advantages and pitfalls in recruiting individuals with vastly different work experiences. Use newly available tools to identify qualified candidates that fit into the organization. Positive events happen every day; take the time to capture and share them. Address disappointing results with others nonconfrontationally to help resolve the issue. Discussing disagreements leads to effective decisions, while contrarian views can be destructive. Reacting can become addictive and inappropriate; can you ignore your cell phone for an hour? Find the route that led to the root cause and eliminate it. Changing expectations by the company or the employee is a major cause of employee turnover. Only a select number of people in business get the opportunity to run an organization. An audience is always present, filled with supporters and critics that interpret your every action.