Manage Your Business from the Rockies, not the Prairies

The day job as a manager is all about managing your people to deliver, to meet the needs of your customers or clients and generating success after success! Right? And you have consequences if that doesn't happen.

Worst case scenario is that you lose your job or your business, because your people haven't delivered. So the temptation is understandable. Get in there, dirty your hands and work your socks off making it happen.

Admirable, fulfilling even!

But how much energy have you got? How hard do your really want to work. Indeed, how long can you take the pace of keeping everyone else afloat. Before you fall apart, or it kills you?

Or, despite all your years of strife and giving your heart and soul for your business, you lose it, or your job, or both. It doesn't seem fair does it?

But there is another way - and it's easy.

Use your people better

Space ships sent off into the far universe, use the gravitational pull of planets to accelerate them onwards, just like gravity pulls us to earth. It's free energy!

The limited fuel that the rockets have, is used to ever-so-gently fine tune direction, so that as they approach the planet pulling them in, they alter their course to miss the planet and, with renewed energy, they carry on their mission. Clever stuff eh?

That's what you can do

If you play a bigger game than spending your whole life doing the job that others can and should be doing, in the false belief that you are 'helping out', then you aren't going to cut it. In fact, like I once realised, moving from one sized store to a bigger one - you cannot do it all - it's time to manage the business through the people - it's just too big for me now.

And that was a big and painful realisation for me

But I got it!

It came to me one Easter, when I was running a big store and I was filling up the Easter eggs. It was fun! But I wasn't doing what I was paid for - managing and even leading a great bunch of people, all of whom could do this better than me. It was time to do my job. The time had come to leverage their potential and create value using my unique skills and talents.

As it happened, my office was on the fourth floor (because it had a view!) and the business traded on the lowest two floors. And this became my metaphor for managing from high up. The Rockies, not the Prairies.

Even though I spent a lot of my time on the Prairies, I was, in my mind, way up high. I was managing the people from above. I was managing the great people I had.

I was able to step back from working 'in the business' to 'on the business', as Michael Gerber would say. And it made a great difference to me. I realised that part of it was showing my troops that I was working just as hard as they were, and, indeed, I could do their job pretty well.

Yet, I was also resisting where the stretch was for me - letting go of other people's jobs, and doing my own.

For me, it was a shift to the next level, Sure, I did my hands on stuff from time to time. But it was at my choice and to work with them to show soldarity and focus when the chips were down. But it was after the management stuff was done.

It was my way of bringing the Rockies down to the Prairies, yet enjoying the fruits of both.

Copyright 2005. Martin Haworth is a Business and Management Coach. He works worldwide, mainly by phone, with small business owners, managers and corporate leaders. He has hundreds of hints, tips and ideas at his website, http://www.coaching-businesses-to-success.com

(Note to editors. This article may be edited for use in your publication or newsletter. But please leave a live link to the website)

...helping you, to help your people, to help your business grow...

In The News:

---

Creativity and Innovation Management ? Motivation and Management Layers

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More

More Computer Consulting 101 Hiring Tips (Part 2 of 2)

Does your company need to retain the services of a... Read More

Change Management

"It is not the strongest species that survives, nor the... Read More

Knowing versus Doing - Execution In The Workplace

Have you ever worked with someone who always seemed to... Read More

How Businesses Can Stop Wallowing in Bad Debt and Prevent It in the Future

"Become the Squeaky Wheel", a new book just published, explains... Read More

Business Innovation ? Organizational Culture

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More

Stopping The Brain Drain: How To Capture Key Business Knowledge Before It Walks Out The Door

The verdict is in: More and more baby boomers will... Read More

Give Yourself a Boss? Day Gift

Become a better boss and reap the benefitsAnother interesting study... Read More

Empowering Others - Giving Them Some Control

It's been a pretty good weekend around the place -... Read More

Innovation Management ? the Root of the Problem

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More

Why I always Keep my Promises

Integrity is very important to me, and I try hard... Read More

Effective Meetings Begin With a Real Agenda

Everyone knows that an agenda is the key to an... Read More

What Makes a Good Appraisal Interview?

WHAT MAKES A GOOD APPRAISAL INTERVIEW?Here is a tip for... Read More

Coaching Champions at Work

I saw Brian Kerr (the Irish national football coach) on... Read More

Lone Rangers Suffer without Tonto

A lone ranger is someone who prefers working in solitude... Read More

Three Ways to Transmit Loud and Clear

The heart of a fool is in his mouth, but... Read More

The New Five Truths of Employee Motivation

Motivation is a term that is so widely used, yet... Read More

Why Free Agent Thinking Is Good For Your Company

It's no secret! Day after day the news is riddled... Read More

Poly Bags and Pallet Shrouds - Just Get it Right

For many companies, procuring the right packaging, such as Poly... Read More

New Job, New Culture: Do You Fit In?

It seemed like a good decision at the time. A... Read More

The Myth of the Management Team

Every business has problems. That is why the average life... Read More

A Tricky Supervision Challenge

Many managers believe that treating their team members as responsible... Read More

5 Interviewing Mistakes That Can Lead To Hiring The Wrong Person

Mistake #1: Going with the flowInexperienced interviewers sometimes fall into... Read More

Innovation Management ? Emotion, Habit, and Culture can be Hard to Change!

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More

Faith is the LIFE-blood of Your ACTIONS before the Benefit -

Nothing has changed. Your ancestors lived by faith. Some planted... Read More

Executives and Emotional Self Awareness

A major problem impairing an executive's performance is his Emotional... Read More

Character: Is It Necessary In Leadership? (Part Two)

In the first part of this two part article, I... Read More

Keeping Meetings On Track

We all have been in meetings with certain people who... Read More

Finding Proactive Solutions: A Key to Demonstrating Your Management Fitness

In my book Talking Points: 25 Tips for Clear, Credible... Read More

13 Comments on Bad Meetings

Bad meetings are a cultural malady that senior executives pass... Read More

How to use NLP for Business?

What is Neuro-Linguistic Programming?Neuro-Linguistic programme is nothing but the study... Read More

Doing More With Less

This is a bottom-line environment.Decreasing the downtime of revenue producing... Read More

How to Create a Positive Work Atmosphere

Positive versus Negative WorkplacesWe have all worked in places where... Read More