Top Three Tips for Successful Managers

I was “the boss” in several positions, and like kids who vow they will never treat their own kids like their parents treated them, I vowed that I would never treat my staff like lousy managers had treated me.

Lousy management reduces productivity (which managers blame on staff laziness) causes high employee turnover (which managers blame on the sorry labor pool) and even sabotage (which managers blame on workers’ inherent evilness.) In the end, lousy managers will destroy the business they are running (which managers blame on anything besides their own lousy practices.)

Successful management Tip #1:

1). Treat your staff like human beings. You know that word “human” in “human resources?” Focus more on the human part than the resource part. A resource is something you use, like a pine tree, which you cut down and grind up to make paper. If you treat your staff like a pine tree, they will notice.

2). Treat your staff like human beings. Does this seem like a foreign concept? Why, are you not a human being? Do you like to eat three times a day? Do you like to have enough money to pay your bills? Do you work better when you are constantly threatened? Do you flourish under constant criticism?

3). Treat your staff like human beings. Human beings get tired, they get sick sometimes, they would like to think they are doing a good job sometimes. If you tell them when they are doing a good job, an amazing thing happens. They get happier and do even better. Try telling them that you appreciate them sometimes. If they are shocked, it is because you don’t do it often enough.

My staff was not paid terribly well, but I did treat them like human beings. They started getting new ideas for improvements and I told them to go for it. I pointed out what a great job they did when they did a great job. If they needed to change something, I talked to them in private with a goal of improvement, which I knew they could accomplish. They were the most productive, creative, hard-working people you ever saw.

Maybe you think I was just lucky that I happened to find these gold collar employees. But I assure you, they were just normal human beings-and that was enough reason to treat them with respect.