A Major Mistake Made By Business Owners

Posted on May 8, 2010 | 3 comments

There’s a big mistake that affects businesses of all sizes. The issue is prevalent in sole proprietorship organizations as well as billion dollar corporations and it stems from actions (or lack thereof) of the leaders of the company.

As a business leader or manager, there is a tendency to err on the side of dictatorship. You know what’s best for the company, right? Not so fast there Mr. or Mrs. CXO. Let’s check your ego for a minute.

Depending on the size of your company, you may very well be sitting behind a mahogany desk and responsible for thousands of employees. Or maybe you’re in a home office with only a few team members to manage. In either case, it is extremely easy for you to think that know what is best for the operations of a company.

Let’s take a quick peek at something that happened to me recently involving my favorite teaching company: Delta Airlines (thanks for the continued material, Delta!).

In the Detroit airport, Delta operates a specialized bag check area that exists separate from the main ticketing and terminal area. This is a convenient area for checking in your luggage for a flight.

A few weeks back, I walked up to the counter as I had done hundreds of times previously. This time, however, a frantic Delta employee scolded me about how I had skipped a grouping of four or five check-in kiosks located near the entrance of the line. The employee proceeded to explain to me that a new system had been put in place. No longer is a customer allowed to approach the luggage drop counter without first having checked in at one of the kiosks.

At this point, the new check-in system seemed a bit cumbersome but I was willing to keep an open mind to the fact that there may be reasons for it that are not readily apparent to me. Upon approaching the counter, I made small talk with another Delta employee behind the counter. With a roll of her eyes, she uttered, “Yeah, management has put in this new system. I have no idea why they changed it. You’d think that they would talk to us about what might work the best as we deal with it every day”.

Uh oh. There’s the mistake. Business systems changed without soliciting input from those who know the daily operations of your business the best. Who knows the airline check-in process better than terminal and gate agents? Who knows the automobile assembly line better? Is it the CEO of the company or an hourly worker who is actually assembling cars and trucks each day of their life?

Try to avoid this mistake as the leader or manager of your organization. Check your ego at the door. If you are going to err on a side, let it be on the side of absorbing too much input from your team. You may just stumble upon a more fully devoted team and increased performance.