Interpersonal Business

Rather than make a bad decision, many managers choose the worst possible alternative: no decision at all. Managers must be decision makers, and encourage staff members to make decisions about their own areas of expertise, even if it differs from their own (the manager’s) conclusion. Delegate the $100 decisions to others. We must encourage the decision making process; no one intentionally makes a bad decision. Take pleasure in good decisions, and learn from those that aren’t.

Using a friend’s loss-of-job experience – he was a casualty of management’s jealousy over his success while the corporation as a whole was failing – the feelings, anxieties, and path to a successful and fulfilling resolution are discussed in three phases. Phase one’s most devastating emotion is “finding blame,” because it wastes creative potential in finding a solution to the problem. Phase two involves getting past thinking of our employment as how we are defined by society, then having confidence in “our own advice.” Phase three comes in accepting reality, then rebuilding by charting the future and sticking to the game plan.

While you can’t control the outside competition, you can control other more important areas of your business. Listed as the “competitors” that deserve most of management’s attention, and in order of most control to least control, are: Management staff, sales partners, retail customers and the consumer.

Don’t be so preoccupied with the “outside evil competitor” that you overlook the fact that your only competitor is YOU. Case studies of two different companies show how each ignored current market trends and changes within the industry, which led to their ultimate demise. Companies must focus on what they can control – not outside competition – by keeping themselves on top of the market and assessing their strengths now, and into the future.