I have been in management and leadership positions in the military and business world for forty years, and I often get asked about my corporate culture experience and my best business lessons. Surprisingly (or not) my list of business culture lessons probably have varied to a degree, depending on when in my career it was constructed.
The list of lessons is based on real world experiences as well as managers and leaders I studied (including many bosses). For example, Dwight Eisenhower was only one of many I studied over those many years.
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.
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:
Corporate culture … people first
No matter what the job is, leaders always want to look for the best people and then take care of them. A business is just a group of people working on various creations and inventions. People are your business. It is as simple as that. It’s all about the people. They are the lifeblood of the business.
When you’re leading a business or an organization, you’re leading people. It makes sense that leaders need to take care of their people. Many leaders work to have relationships with their employees. Taking them out for coffee and getting to know them better is common among leaders. Putting people first is an important element in being a leader.
Competency
Whatever you do, be competent in your current job. It’s the only true currency you have. That being said, no amount of competence will protect you when the next re-organization comes.
Corporate culture examples … relationships
Never forget that relationships in business should be business relationships. You may have a friend or lover at work, but the relationship will end the moment the opportunity to advance in the business is placed between you and your friend or lover. By the way, I strongly recommend keeping romance outside of the workplace.
Always be a multiplier.
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.
Corporate politics
Understand that politics is a fact of corporate life, and learn to deal with it. That means you take time to understand the views of the people involved in corporate conflicts, as well as the conflicts themselves. There will be times when you have to choose between being in the right or being employed. It’s your choice.
Establish clear direction
Getting people on board, aligned and pointed in the right direction is vital for an organization. If each person is going in a different direction, it can be chaos in an organization.
Keeping people coordinated and aimed is a continual process. You’re the luckiest leader in the world if this happens by default. Two ways to ensure people are coordinated and aimed is setting milestones and having multiple coaches and promoters for your employees.
Do what you can to make sure people enjoy what they’re doing. If people aren’t passionate about the business and love what they’re doing, they are more likely to be going in a different direction and susceptible to becoming disengaged. Certainly not a good thing.
Types of corporate culture … 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.
Pay attention to culture
Understand the culture of the organization, especially their expectations of what makes a good employee. They all say they believe in teamwork, dedication, hard work, etc. But look at the employees who are successful, who get the recognition, who rise quickly – they represent what the company is looking for. What do they do that you can do?
Build and maintain trust
Trust is a key element we all need to set aside vulnerability, but it is hard to build, and easy to lose. It is not built on words, but through actions and evidence. Only when it works can a team address the necessary issues to win.
Corporate experience meaning … conflict and consensus
Conflicts and fights are not the same thing. Conflicts are normal and required factual push backs in business, whereas fights are emotional, often personal, disagreements which do not lead forward to consensus.
Corporate environment.
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.
Establish a level of structure and control
The challenge of structure and control is to strike the right balance. With none, things fall into chaos, but too much can have the effect of stifling innovation and creativity.
Make decisions
In general, any decision is better than no decision. Usually, a blended approach is the best, between independent decisions, and collaborative decisions factoring in the best team input. Picking the best team members is a right starting decision.
Foster continuous communication
Communication is the glue that forms the bond between leaders and teams and holds great teams together. Credibility is a required base.
Corporate experience … provide recognition
Recognition drives motivation and human behavior, and human behavior drive results. Recognition validates people and their purpose. Intangible rewards can have an even greater impact than tangible ones, but they must be relevant.
Create learning experiences
We all have a desire to learn and grow. The best learning opportunities are experience and sharing.
Make your boss look good
Understand what your boss regards as a priority, and help him or she accomplishes it. Make sure that you document what you’ve done. Your boss needs the accomplishment, but shouldn’t get the credit for the work you’ve done.
Train your replacement. You won’t be able to get a promotion if there’s no one else to take your job.
Corporate environment … 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.
Staff development
Many companies follow the motto: “Hire for the character, train for skill.” You hire people that are eager to learn. They don’t have a ton of skills; but as a leader, you teach them, and they become better. They grow with your company and contribute to its success.
You see this with football coaches. In football coaching, it’s almost unheard of for someone with no experience to be hired as the head coach of a team. Most people start in a low-level position and gradually move up.
The same occurs in business. George Bodenheimer is the former president of ESPN. He started out working in the mailroom of ESPN. It would have been very difficult for him to rise to the presidency if he hadn’t had a boss who wanted to help him grow and succeed in the company.
Everything communicates
How you dress, how you stand, how you speak, etc. If you want to succeed in a corporate environment, you have to communicate that you are the kind of employee that represents the corporate success story.
Do not rest on past successes
There is nothing more dangerous to life’s success than a last great result, is there? We are ‘only as good as our next result’. Stay paranoid.
Make yourself a project
Hairdressing icon Vidal Sassoon was famous for having said: “The only place you’ll find success coming before work is in a dictionary.” We have to work on ourselves. Put pressure on ourselves. Critique our days. Give back to society. Be our very best coaches and cheering squads. All of this applies as much to our personal lives as for our business lives.
Continue to add to your connections and be a continuous learner
Woody Allen said: “85% of the secret of success is just turning up.” Turn up to events. Make that phone call. Read that book. Do that training? Have the courage to ask that question. Make the effort. Stay connected to what’s happening around you.
Be a priority ‘ninja.’
Getting more of the important things done every day. Be obsessed with getting priorities rights, on what’s really important, every day, and make sure you spend the majority of your day on these priorities.
Embrace change
Darwin said it was not the strongest of the species that survived, but the ablest to adapt to change. There will be more change in the next five years than we’ve seen in the past 50. Get excited by change. Be part of the most movements that you can. Help shake things up.
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.
Provide sound guidance
Be available for your staff members and show interest in their career development within the business. Don’t hesitate to offer guidance along the way.
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.
Present the big picture
Consistently show the team how their projects fit into the larger goals and objectives of the business. You can never be too detailed on communicating the big picture.
Be patient but persistent
Delivering strong managerial skills takes time and practice. Seek guidance from mentors, colleagues, your boss, and your network.
Deliver confidence
Having and being able to deliver confidence counts. Most managers are self-confident. The real skill and ability are to extend faith to others. You must be good at recognizing and believing in the talents of others.
Accept learning is never done
You have worked hard to get to this point. Rely on your experience but accept there is still much to learn. Learn from everywhere you can, including your team.
What a business represents
For all of the reputation that corporations are soul-sucking, back stabbing, political jungles where you can only rise by stepping on the heads of others, they also provide employment, benefits and a bit of security that support millions of people and their families worldwide.
Related post: Competitive Growth Strategy … the Story of In-N-Out Burger
They are not democracies, not charities, and not therapy centers. They exist to make money, and they hired you to help them make money. That’s the deal.
Keep that in mind every day, keep your emotions in check, do your job, and if you find you don’t like working there anymore, don’t complain – just keep it professional, and move on.
The bottom line
The moral of this story is that the best leadership 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.
Which of these management lessons stand out to you like the most critical? Do you have any other thoughts of effective managers worthy of mention? Leave a comment and share your insights with other readers and us. We would be most interested in your thoughts.
Need some help in capturing more improvements for your staff’s leadership, teamwork, and collaboration? Creative ideas in running or facilitating a team or leadership workshop?
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
So what’s the conclusion? The conclusion is there is no conclusion. There is only the next step. And that next step is completely up to you. But believe in the effectiveness of collaborative innovation. And put it to good use in adapting to changes in your business environment.
It’s up to you to keep improving your learning and experience with innovation and creativity efforts. Lessons are all around you. In this case, your competitor may be providing the ideas and or inspiration. But the key is in knowing that it is within you already.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new lessons.
When things go wrong, what’s most important is your next step.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Are you devoting enough energy to improving your continuous learning for yourself and your team?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed how reasonable we will be.
Check out these additional articles on business lessons from our library:
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
It’s been close to 50 years that I have been working in the corporate world. There were three years as a US Naval officer, 30 years at Lockheed Martin, seven years at Northrop Grumman, and seven years as a small business owner. So there have many remarkable business experiences that I can share.
There are many similar lessons in each of these businesses. Let’s examine these many remarkable business experiences.
Remarkable business experiences … stay ‘discreet’
This is the first rule to survive in the corporate world. To explain the meaning of the word ‘Discreet,’ this analogy will hold good
– If you are wearing a discreet gray suit, it is unlikely that anyone at that business meeting will notice you (Source Vocabulary.com).
No matter which profile you are in, always stay low-key. Use your words judiciously. If you do so, trust me, half of the battle is already won.
Let your results do the talking
It’s pretty simple – Either you know how to flatter people, or you don’t. All my corporate life, I have been fighting this bitch – ‘FLATTERY.’ I can’t learn it. It’s my handicap.
BUT, I learned one thing with the course of time – if you are good at what you do, if your work is good, you will survive. It will make you virtually ‘indispensable.’ But if you are neither, it’s time for some introspection.
Be a multiplier.
Remarkable business experiences … always keep your cool
This is a very important rule in the corporate world. There will be circumstances when you feel like ‘Enough is enough. Now, I cannot take it anymore’. In such circumstances, you need to tread your path very carefully.
Never lose your temper in front of anyone. Talk regarding only facts and figures. Get your emotions out of your way.
If you have a spat with your colleague or a subordinate or a person from a different team, jot down your points on a piece of paper and put these points politely in front of him/ her.
Try to get one more person with you in that meeting (especially your boss).
Now, here is the key – Stay polite and calm when you speak. It will irritate the other person even more. Then, it’s a cake walk.
No matter how much right a person is, if he/she loses his/her temper, everything will go against him/ her.
Therefore, stay polite and composed, and everything will fall in your stride. People should say that that person shouted at you or lost temper on you, not the other way around.
If someone does something for you which he/ she was supposed to do such as creating a report, sending an email to a client, etc., say thanks to him/ her.
That person will admire it and more importantly, will remember you as someone who values him/her. At the same time, don’t say ‘Sorry’ very often.
Remarkable business experiences … there is no meritocracy
Shakespeare once said, “All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players.” – and there was never a truer word.
Being very hard working or being very good/knowledgeable at your job is useful but only that.
What will matter more in the corporate world is where you are seen, what you are saying, and your ability to manipulate other people into doing what you want them to do.
The entire thing is ultimately one long psychological game. This was one of the very hardest lessons I’ve personally had to learn.
Create an environment of continuous learning
It is 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.
Remarkable business experiences … 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 of everyone in the team.
Related material: Lessons Learned in Life … Class Continues Daily
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.
Remarkable business experiences … 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 problems.
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.
Remarkable business experiences … 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 they 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.
Remarkable business experiences … know the expectations
It’s so easy to launch yourself into a project, to get straight to business when working with a new boss, and think that we’re productive.
Taking the time to clarify expectations upfront, however – whether that be regarding the work itself, i.e., which projects are the most important.
What’s the scope, and so on; or regarding the working relationship, i.e., how you can work most effectively together – can avoid a whole lot of time wasting.
At school, we had parents and teachers telling us to do our homework – at work, not so much (especially when we’re freelancers or business owners)!
Of course, we have our managers and clients, and if we don’t deliver our projects we’re going to hear about it; but what we’re not going to have is someone leading us by the hand and telling us exactly what to do.
We’re responsible for getting the job done in the time that we have and in whatever way we deem appropriate.
Even then, though, there are different levels of project delivery, and taking real ownership means going beyond just the bare minimum.
Remarkable business experiences … be responsible for your development
At IBM, we changed assignment every two years, giving us an opportunity to gain experience in different aspects of our function (in my case, what we called marketing “design” and “delivery”) as well as different business units.
In doing so, I looked for something that would challenge me and let me learn new things while exposing me to different people and giving me broader experience that would stand me in good stead for future roles.
Focus on strengths, not weaknesses
Training and development are great, but while it’s admirable to try to get good at everything this is not possible, and both you and the business will be better served if you learn to focus on your areas of strength.
Of course, when we first start in a company or a role, there will be certain things we need to learn to do – project management, time management, and so on – but beyond that, there will always be some freedom to discover what we’re good at and use that to our advantage.
IBM did this well: in our annual rating sessions we were asked to highlight our three biggest strengths and only one weakness, and even then we didn’t call it a weakness but an “opportunity.”
So you’re good at public speaking and delivering training workshops? Maybe you’re a number-crunching guru and a superstar at drawing up possible scenarios?
Or what about creative brainstorming, getting the team excited behind a common vision, or mentoring interns?
Find opportunities to use your strengths, and you will shine.
Remarkable business experiences … prioritize business communications
I was amazing at writing at school, in fact, I was so good that my English teacher would make copies of my essays and hand them out to the rest of the class.
On top of that, an international environment where most people were not native speakers meant that simple and unambiguous communication was crucial.
Effective business writing had a specific objective, used clear and concise language, active tense rather than passive; it wasn’t about sounding clever or being poetic.
Learning to write an effective business document – a recommendation, a report, or just an email for that matter – will allow you to get your message across quickly and effectively, to influence people with a more persuasive argument, and to impress people with your convincing business results.
The ability to distill complicated matters into a clear and well-thought-out message is a useful skill in all areas of life, above and beyond the corporate world.
Need some help in finding ways to grow your customers? Such as creative ideas to help the differentiation with potential customers? Or perhaps finding ways to work with other businesses?
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
So what’s the conclusion? The conclusion is there is no conclusion. There is only the next step. And that next step is completely up to you. But believe in the effectiveness of collaborative innovation. And put it to good use in adapting to changes in your business environment.
It’s up to you to keep improving your learning and experience with innovation and creativity efforts. Lessons are all around you. In this case, your competitor may be providing the ideas and or inspiration. But the key is in knowing that it is within you already.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new lessons.
When things go wrong, what’s most important is your next step.
Try. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Are you devoting enough energy to improving your continuous learning for yourself and your team?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed at how reasonable we will be.
Check out these additional articles on business and its performance from our library:
7 Surprising Things to Know About the Zillow Business Model
10 Lessons for Successful Entrepreneurs You Need to Know
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
