Significant business lessons from my 40 year career? It is tough to name just one as I have done much learning over the years and I will never be done.
Being such a business manager is a lifelong learning process. You are never done learning and renewing lessons you have learned. Every great manager always looks for ways to improve their ability to improve their leadership qualities and attributes.
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If you read ten books on business management, you could easily build a checklist of 50 or more management lessons for future business managers. But more is not necessarily better for the best lessons to study and apply.
The following lessons represent my favorite lessons on business management I have learned over my 40 years. They are the ones that have made the biggest impact on my success:
I have been in management and leadership positions in the military and business world for forty years and I often get asked what the best lessons I have found. Surprisingly (or not) my list of lessons probably have varied to a degree, depending on when in my career it was constructed.
The following lessons represent my favorite lessons on business management that I believe could make the biggest impact. If I was starting my career over and could take what I learned back in time with me, these are the lessons I would choose:
Create an environment of continuous learning
It is absolutely necessary that business people be good learners. They need to instill this in all their team. They must learn from their mistakes. To be most successful, managers must acknowledge, understand, and improve on their shortcomings. And they must encourage their team to also focus on continuous learning.
Be a multiplier
Multiplier business managers know that at the apex of the intelligence hierarchy is NOT the lone genius. Rather, it is the genius who knows the importance of bringing out the smarts and capabilities in everyone in the team.
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Build connections
Both managers and leaders know their job with their teams is about building lots of connections. They make people feel they have a stake in common problems.
Encourage feedback
It is vital that you let your team know you are interested and will listen to their concerns and ideas and contribute to solutions to any and all problems.
Embrace change
Change is the only constant in business, so make it your competitive advantage. Initiate change rather than react to it, and give clear instructions to help the team understand why the change is necessary, and how it will make the situation better.
Manage risk
After my first 3 years as a business executive, the business I ran was going great guns … we seemingly couldn’t lose. So I continued to ‘double down’, so to speak. The game finally caught up with me, as we got far ahead of our talent. Not a good place to be, believe me. Learn not to be greedy.
Offer recognition and always share success
Focus on building team confidence by publicly recognizing their efforts and achievements. Think of it this way; anything is possible if you share the glory. Giving others a chance to claim credit is an easy, and effective, way to magnify results.
Foster teamwork
Peter Drucker is a silent mentor for our small agency. We are big fans. He once made an interesting point when he said that leaders don’t train themselves not to say ‘I’ He’s implying that leaders innately work with others and let the team get the credit. They don’t force themselves to say ‘we’. ‘We’ is natural for them, and it’s the way they’ve always thought.
You work as a team when you don’t care who gets the credit.
So the next time you interview someone with a resume that states, ‘I accomplished x’ or ‘I did x’, it should send up a few warning signals.
Be decisive
One of the key jobs of a manager is to be an effective decision maker. Employees are never comfortable with managers who make slow decisions and the frequently change their minds. Quality managers make decisions quickly and stick with them.
Building and maintaining trust
Always do what you say and set good examples. Demand from yourself the same level of professionalism and dedication that you expect from others. Trust, once broken, is seldom restored to its original state. It is the most fragile yet essential attribute of leadership and management.
Doing the right thing
Always listen to your inner voice. If it “feels wrong” it is. It is never wrong to do the right thing. It is never right to do the wrong thing. The ends DO NOT justify the means
Take care of employees
Love your people. If your end users are viewed as people who are “clicks” or just customers you will fail. If you care about them, you will make the product that will actually make their life better or easier. You both win. Most companies are upside down.
Trust people
Don’t be precious and protective of things. Let people showcase their expertise and benefit collectively. Welcome people into the team with open arms, don’t be suspicious of their intentions. Ultimately you and the team are the beneficiary. You will meet lone superstars so find ways to connect whereby the partnership is mutually beneficial.
Keep learning
Don’t be afraid to ask stupid questions especially when you are new and fresh, its the best time to do it anyways.
When choosing work, don’t focus on what you CAN do, focus on what you WANT to learn to do.
Focus on results
You will encounter barriers, blockers but you must focus on getting results. Many instances in your process, you will be told “No” often but it is up to you to respond to it by taking whatever action possible to keep driving your project forward.
Do you need to ask for help? Do it. Can you re-negotiate by bringing certain people together in a room? Set it up. Do you need more time to make a decision? Ask for it.
Everyone is expendable
I have seen many people, whom I thought were indispensable, asked to let go. One failed initiative, an altercation with the boss, a year of under-performance is enough to undermine years of your contributions.
So don’t be complacent. If you are not evolving constantly to maintain your competitive edge, someone will catch up to you and make you redundant.
The bottom line
The moral of this story is that the best business lessons should have a great influence on team development and teamwork. If these different thoughts are possessed by your current management or leadership team, or your emerging leaders, you will be in a good position for the road ahead.
More leadership material from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
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