This short article was written from my own experience. From what I’ve seen. And from what I’ve been. I’m not a manager nor leader in any company. Just an ordinary employee. So take it as-is.

Understanding the Company
Company is built from the employee. As a trader that will give respect and best service for his/her customer, a company should maintain a good relationship with their employee. Off course, not all of the owner of the company are directly involved in daily basis. So, that’s why we need a “boss” or supervisor, to lead the lower positioned employees.

It is clear enough that the supervisor or the “boss” is very crucial in every company. They will run the company, they will manage all of the things in daily basis, and they performance will affect the whole company performance.

So, a good company needs a good “boss”.

Ok, You Are the Boss. So, What Should You Do?

First rule, you have to know and understand all of you employee. Especially the key person. You have to know their activities, their behaviors, their attitude, their performance, their goods, and off course, their bads. So, if you can easily detect the problem when something bad happens before it will ruin all of your structure.

Second, never looked arrogant. Sure, you are the boss. They should have respect on you. But that doesn’t mean that you should consider yourself higher than them in your social life. Be involved in social activity. Talk to your employee frequently. Ask whether they have problems with their job. This is very easy to do and the effect should be tremendous. They will feel appreciated and this kind of emotional approach can’t be bought with high salary.

Third, never humiliate your employee in front of the others. Never and never. This will destroy all of his/her spirit and good faith with the company. For some people, they will choose to resign. For some other, they will stay but work like a robot. No more spirit, creativity, or intention to work harder for the company. I wonder if you can call this kind person as an “employee”. They will work for the money, but not for the company. If you have a problem with your employee, directly ask him/her with a good and appropriate manner. Invite him/her inside your room and ask why they don’t perform well or something. Never do that in front of other people, except if the case is related with criminal or similiar thing.

Four, try to trust the other. Ok, you are the boss, but you can’t handle all of the things. You only have two hands, ten fingers, two feet, two eyes, and one mouth. You can hear 10 voices simultaneously, but you can’t do 10 jobs at the same time, can’t see 10 views at the same time, can’t write 10 paper at the same time, etc. Got the point? You have to trust some people who you believe have the capability to do the job done for you. Off course you have to watch their job and make sure they will do the job within your requirement. Don’t get angry when the result is below your standard. Call them and teach them (except if they repeat the same mistake few times, this shows his/her incapability – and you may replace him/her). Showing them their mistake is a powerful way to make things better in the future, but hold your breathe as long as you can to not blaming them for simple mistake. Do this at least 2-3 times to make sure they remember and realize all of their mistake (like teaching an animal, sometime you have to do it repeatedly before they can understand your point). Off course your nerve is the limitation. If they still repeat the mistake over and over again, then they should be considered incapable for the position.

Five, reward and punishment. It’s no longer to consider the salary by the working period. A new employee, if he can prove his capability, then he deserves to have a higher salary than the older employee. Though your candidate for new employee is a fresh graduated, but he/she can show his/her skill, then he/she should be paid more than the others fresh graduated. A reward and punished should work here. An employee that works harder and achieve a good performance should get better income. I will point the 1st rule on the top: As a boss, you have to know your employees well. Without knowing them well, you simply can do this reward and punishment mechanism. With this mechanism, your employees will try harder to satisfy the company. No one will stay behind. And off course the result is a better performance for the company itself. Without this system, you employees will work as-is. If they can sell 100, they will try to get 100, and no more. Because they will not be rewarded anything if they can surpass the target. On the other side, with this reward mechanism, their limitation is no longer 100, but infinite. Who’s gonna be happy? The company off course. The reward and punishment also will bring a sense of ownership for the employees. They feel like owning their own company. If the company is success, they will gain the reward (like profit in trading), and vice versa.

Sample Case:
I’ve ever read a case about an employee and his boss. His boss complains about his performance on the annual meeting. His boss points him directly that he has no capability in handling the position. What’s the result next? Well, the employee feels depressed. He feels that he has been humiliated. He has no more confident to face his colleagues and the company’s clients. Actually, he is a good employee with good performance, but somehow this year, his performance is a little bit lower than his boss expectation. So the boss actually did nothing good by humiliating the employee, but destroying the employee’s spirit. One of the basic human instinct is they don’t like to be humiliated. So, don’t ever do that. When he doesn’t perform well, the company’s performance also will not be good. The boss has nothing to do than keep complaining about his employee performance.

I understand that the boss maybe not in a good mood (maybe the boss’s boss is pushing him to), but think twice before doing something crucial and never take out decision in a confused situation. Clear you mind, analyze the problem, the find the way. I know, speak is easy, tongue has no bone, but at least try to control yourself sometime. So, humiliating the employee is not a good answer. Do you think this will improve their performance? I don’t think so. You better choose the option to win his/her heart. By winning his/her heart, he/she most likely will perform better.

Remember, better result of your employees = better performance of your company.

The Commander on war most likely just ordering the soldier to fire, to attack, to retreat, and managing the strategies. If the soldier don’t fight with their true heart, even the best Commander in this world will not win the war!

Just a piece of me… read it as-is…

Added 14 December, afternoon:

Ok, You Are the Owner. So, What Should You Do?

First, a “boss” should be the one that has good reputation on both work and social life. He/she should be popular among others employees. Make sure he/she has no or at least, less  enemy. The less the enemy, the better his/her performance in the future because the others will be glad to help/support him/her.

Second, a “boss” should be rewarded more than others lower positioned employee. Simply to say: He/she should be paid enough. A boss can’t give support and can’t convince the employee if he/she isn’t rewarded well by his/her own company. By rewarded well, he/she can give motivation to his/her employees. This can be a good example for his/her employees to work harder so they can be rewarded well to (or perhaps getting a raise in terms of salary or position).

Third, always ask for feedback from lower positioned employees about their supervisor performance, behaviour, etc. So you can evaluate the “boss” performance. This just to make sure that everything is going in the right track. If all student got bad marks, then there’s something wrong with the teacher, not with the student. Got my point?

I think that’s all for now 🙂