Why I Think We Should Trust More
A few days ago I was talking to an entrepreneur about his business when I realised that he was making a classic business mistake and I want to share it with you all in the hope that you won’t repeat it.
The entrepreneur had recently hired a new sales manager who was failing to improve sales, after talking around the problems I began to realise that instead of letting him sell the entrepreneur was micro managing the guy and giving him no freedom. The result was that they guy just couldn’t sell anything…he seemed like a pretty competent sales guy (I don’t know him but I know the kinds of people this particular entrepreneur hires) but the entrepreneur being an ex salesman had his way of doing things and was vetoing any changes the new sales manager tried to make, effectively throttling the poor employee.
This happens a lot, we [entrepreneurs] hire great people and then for one reason or another we don’t give them the freedom to be awesome…normally it’s when we have a vested interest in that area…I recognised this story because 5/6 years ago I made the same mistake in my own company; luckily for me I was just finishing my degree at the time and came across this wonderful book.
Maverick by Ricardo Semler is one of the greatest business stories ever written, in it Semler charts his inheritance of his father’s company and how he revolutionised it by giving trust, independence and responsibility to his employees, a philosophy he describes as management by active omission. I devoured this book on first reading, and have read it many times since, not only because Semler is a great writer, but because his way of communicating this message is so powerful! If we as entrepreneurs are going to hire great people we need to give them the space, time and trust to be great…no matter how difficult this might be, because if you’re not prepared to do that growing your company is going to be one hell of a job.
Peace
Matt
