I’ve spent 2 decades in the professional world and I’ve seen a lot of great things and a lot of not so great things. I’d love to share some of those with other founders and leaders to help them avoid mistakes I’ve seen over the last 20 years. Here are 5 Things NOT to Do in Business.
Micro-management This seems so basic but unless you’re in a situation where a big customer is on the rails or thinking of leaving, let your team do their job. You hired them for a reason so don’t stand over them. We used to have a saying at Dell, Inc. If you can measure it, you can manage it. We have a scorecard for all employees and they have a weekly metric. There is no hiding. If you have accountability, then you don’t need to micro manage.
Not knowing your numbers I can’t even count the number of CEOs, CMOs and founders I’ve talked to over the years. At ROI Swift, the company I founded in 2015, our goal is to help 1000 emerging brands grow profitably through their digital advertising and marketplace sales. So far, we’ve helped 170 brands and I’ve have a lot more introductory calls than the 170 we’ve helped. I typically ask them a few questions and here they are. If they can’t answer these, I tell them to go back and figure it out.