By Lois Lane
It was reported today that Keith Lee, the owner of American Retail Supply, which was named the Best Small Business to Work for in Washington State by Washington CEO Magazine is a Ruthless Manager.
How is that? How can the owner of the company named “The Best Small Business to Work for in Washington State” now be revealed as the co-author of the New Edition of No B.S. Ruthless Management of People & Profits?
It was reported today that Dan Kennedy, the author of numerous No B.S. books, chose Keith Lee as the co-author for his newest edition of No B.S. Ruthless Management of People & Profits.
Our Lois Lane caught up with Mr. Lee as he was sneaking into his office today and asked him how he could head the Best Business to Work for in Washington State and be a Ruthless Manager.
Mr. Lee replied… “I don’t choose the names for Mr. Kennedy’s books, and Dan and I don’t
agree on everything, but when it comes to managing a business and the people in it; we agree much more than we disagree.”
Keith pointed to page 14 in the No B.S. book where Dan Kennedy writes about business owners, “And one thing they all have in common: gripes, complaints, disappointments, frustrations, pain and agony with regard to their employees. Much of this has to do with unreasonable expectations and a misunderstanding of the actual nature of employer-employee relationships. Some of it lies squarely at the fault of the business owner for failing in one or more of the Three Requirements for Having Employees: Leadership, Management, Supervision.”
Mr. Lee continued, “While I don’t think the nature of the employer-employee relationship need be as adversarial as Dan, the expectations and the nature of the relationship needs to be addressed during the employees’ first day of employment. With our DVD training business owners who use our Make-You-Happy Management System set those expectations during the first hour of employment.”
Mr. Lee agrees wholeheartedly with Mr. Kennedy’s statement that business owners failing in one or more of the Three Requirements For Having Employees is the cause of many of their headaches.
Mr. Lee says, “Business owners usually lead, manage and supervise as they were led, managed and supervised, or how they learned in business school; neither of which work very well.”
Performance Reviews Suck
Mr. Lee pointed to Performance Management. Every business owner knows that they need a Performance Management System but the only type of system they know about is Performance Reviews and they know that Performance Reviews Suck. With this the business owner continues with Performance Reviews knowing that they suck, or they stop them altogether, and are left with no Performance Management System.
Mr. Lee informed this reporter than Dan Kennedy agrees that Performance Reviews are “like looking in your rearview mirror to drive your car.” Mr. Kennedy’s tells the story of how the late Mike Vance, who worked personally with Walt Disney on the original Disney University and other projects, laughed and scoffed at standardized annual or quarterly ‘performance reviews.”
Mr. Lee’s management system replaces Performance Reviews with Personal Development Interviews.
Mr. Lee went on to explain. “Just listen to what they’re called. Which would you rather give… a Performance Review or a Personal Development Interview? Would you rather review someone’s performance, or develop someone?
What if you’re on the receiving end? Would you like your performance reviewed or would you rather have someone work proactively to develop you?
Which do you think gets better results, developing people and coaching them or reviewing their performance after the fact?
Traditional management focuses on catching people doing things wrong. If every time I do something wrong the boss catches me, but he doesn’t catch me when I do things right, my creativity is stymied and I stop using my creativity, stop stepping out front, and stop helping the organization grow by using my creativity.
Conversely, when we start catching people doing things right, we encourage empowerment. People start to do things in the organization. Productivity improves on an ongoing basis. Improvement doesn’t just come from management but from the whole organization interacting with each other and picking each other up. The organization is permeated with a motivating environment.
Another benefit of this type of management is you create a learning organization. Researchers tell us that as we move forward, people are going to stay with organizations where they have an opportunity to grow and learn. There are going to be many more skilled positions than there are people to fill them. And if there are a lot of skilled positions and not enough people to fill them, money isn’t going to make the difference. Money is going to be a given. You’re going to have to pay in the competitive market to get good people.
But they want to work in a place where they can grow, where they can enjoy themselves, where they can use their creativity to help the organization grow, and that happens in a learning organization. That’s exactly why my company, American Retail Supply was named the Best Company to Work for in Washington, by Washington CEO Magazine.”
