Lessons Learned Managing Employees

I’m not going to even pretend like I’ve got some good tips for managing employees here. I’m just going to share some of my own observations and lessons learned in the hopes it might help someone else out there. If you want a tip, skip to the end.

I’ve done my best over the last few years with my people and I think in general it’s gone fair enough. Where it hasn’t worked out I’ll chalk up to my own inadequacies as a business owner. I’ve come to realize that while I’ve done pretty well in the past managing people, it’s a whole different ball game when you’ve got to work with them as a “boss” and a “manager”.

The observations:

• Managing employees is difficult, even if you’ve got really good people.
• Managing people on projects and teams isn’t the same as managing your employees and when you try to do both things can get very complicated very fast. For example, I’m much better at managing people and projects than dealing with all that comes with employees. I think this is something a bunch of business owners struggle with.
• It’s really hard not to project failure onto yourself and want to take responsibility for any problems that come up with your people.
• You have to be very careful with your openness. Sometimes being too transparent can cause major problems.
• Being “a cool boss” isn’t a generally good idea, especially if you’re also the person doing the HR and such. Be friendly and honest and approachable, but don’t over do it.
• Finding time to have one-on-ones is important and if you don’t do it your relationships with your employees might erode over time.
• Having and managing employees means your success will always be tied to another’s, and sometimes that’s hard to deal with. I know control issues like that are probably my biggest issue with running a business.
• Always expect your people to put their own best interests in front of the company’s (and your own) interests. This might seem logical, but when you’re a business owner I think the tendency is to put the company first so it sometimes hard for business owners to relate to, even though it makes perfect sense.
• Expect to have unique issues with every single person you employ and do your best to develop multiple communication styles to best communicate with them.

The Bottom Line

If you can have someone dedicated to managing your employees, it’s probably a good idea. Running a business is tough; there is a reason why people have HR departments; they’re there to help you and your employees.