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• Boss or Leader? Which Management Style Is Best for Your Company By Bill Lee
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Boss or Leader? Which Management Style Is Best for Your Company
By Bill Lee

Manages must continually ask themselves these questions: Is my management style working as well as I would like? Am I willing to make changes in the way I manage my people in order to gain increased productivity?

It's not easy to change, especially if you grew up under the tutorage of a boss-management style. After all, barking orders and directives may be the only way you have ever known to manage. It's your business and it's your prerogative to manage any way you choose, so why not examine your own management style and select the most productive management style for you.

The anemic gross margins many businesses experience (often unnecessarily) have forced even the most change-resistant managers to consider any suggestions that will allow them to operate at lower costs of doing business.

Owners and managers that take the time to hire the best employees and then hone their own management skills will be the same managers who will most typically put optimal profits on the bottom line. I have read many management theories over the 40 plus years I have worked as a manager and consultant, but never have I found management principles any more solid as those I will describe in this article.

(Chapter 13 in my new book, 30 Ways Managers Shoot Themselves in the Foot, for more information on the value of gaining exposure outside your own business. See Shopping Cart at www.BillLeeOnLine.com)

In just 124 pages of brilliance, William Glasser, M.D., has outlined a management theory that no progressive manager can afford not to at least consider. In his book, The Control Theory Manager, Glasser is extremely convincing. (Available from www.Amazon.com for $10.36 plus S&H.)

Boss-Management:

1. The boss sets the task and the standards for what employees will do, usually without consulting the employees.

2. The boss tells rather than shows employees how the work is to be done and rarely asks their input as to how it might possibly be done better.

3. The boss, or someone the boss designates, inspects the work. The employees are not involved in the evaluation process.

4. Coercion is the primary technique used to make employees do the job they are expected to do. Employees and management often end up operating in an "us versus them" environment.

Lead-Management:

1. Managers engage employees in ongoing discussions. They not only listen, but encourage any input that will improve the system or reduce costs.

2. Managers show or model the job so employees can see exactly what management expects. The lead-manager works to increase the employees' sense of control over the work they do.

3. Managers teach employees to inspect or to evaluate the quality of their own work.

4. Managers promote continuous improvement. The manager's job is more that of a facilitator. Managers do everything possible to provide both the best tools and a work environment that is friendly, non-coercive and non-adversarial.

Lead-managers realize that friends will do more for each other than strangers or adversaries.

Control theory identifies three management behaviors that are destructive to a manager/employee relationship:

1. Expressing too much criticism of employees.

2. Asking more of employees than is practical for them to accomplish.

3. Attempting to coerce employees to do what they don't want to do.

Lead-Management Rule Number One: You cannot force employees to do what they don't want to do. You can only teach employees a better way and encourage them to try it. If it works, there's a good chance they will continue.

Lead-Manager Rule Number Two: All human behavior is caused by what goes on inside the heads of each employee.

Lead-Manager Rule Number Three: You cannot give employees need-satisfying information unless you understand what their needs are.

The Five Basic Human Needs

1. Survival: This need is satisfied for virtually everyone in first-world countries.

2. Love & Belonging: The more a manager can foster a sense of friendship in the workplace, the higher the quality of the employees' work. Workers who do not believe that anyone cares about them personally tend to work only for survival, which is hardly a motivation for quality work.

3. Power: This need is satisfied in the workplace only when employees are asked for their input, given useful work and encouraged to evaluate what they do.

We all want to have a sense of control over what we choose to do.

4. Freedom: Workers who are dominated by management will spend too much of their energy struggling to gain a sense of freedom, which is energy that could be better spent in pursuit of higher levels of performance and quality.

5. Fun: When employees enjoy their work, the amount and quality of the work they do will increase.

You and Your Management Skills

As companies reach the "next level," bottom line profitability can take a quantum leap when managers avoid resting on their laurels and continue to develop their management skills. Exposure to more effective ways of managing people and productivity almost always leads to a more level of robust profitability. Be cautious about breathing too much of your own exhaust. No matter what challenges you face in your business, someone out there has solved the very same problems you are facing today. Sometimes you find these solutions in management books and other times you find solutions by visiting with managers who are substantially more profitable than you are.

I encourage you not to let these opportunities pass you by. So many companies I work with earn 6% to 8% before taxes (with more and more reaching double digit levels of profitability) that I believe an optimal level of bottom line profit is a realistic objective for all businesses.

About The Author:
Bill Lee is president of Lee Resources, Inc., a consulting and training firm that works with owners and general managers who want to earn optimal bottom line profits and with salespeople who want to increase their sales and improve their gross margin.

Bill’s national clients include: Ace Hardware, Amarok, American Wholesale, Andersen Window Corporation, BMA, BMC-West, BSC Corp., Budget Car Rental, Blue Tarp Financial, Building Suppliers Corp., CALPLY, ENAP, Stock Lumber, Datastream Corporation, Diamond Hill Plywood, Do-It Best Corporation, Drake Group, Home Depot, Equipment Resources, Lanoga Corp., LMC, Lowe’s Companies, Lumberman’s Merchandising Corporation, National Gypsum Company, National Lumber and Building Material Dealers Association, Nextel, Owens Corning Fiberglas, True Value Hardware, and Zep Manufacturing.

Bill can be reached at 800-277-7888 or at blee3paris@aol.com.
Website: http://www.BillLeeOnline.com

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