6/13/09

Are You A Control Freak?

ARE YOU A CONTROL FREAK?

Time to face facts; you won’t be good at everything! In fact, at some things you will be downright terrible. However the bottom line is……”that’s okay.”

Take it from someone who knows. If you don’t do something well, don’t hide it or defend it. Early on in my management career, I learned this simple truth about myself….”I could be a control addict!”

When I got out of the military, (well over 40+ years ago) I managed a fast food restaurant in Rochester, NY and it was staffed with mostly high school boys. When they acted in a manner that I didn’t like, I had a certain pose and standard verbiage ready and waiting. I used to put my hand on my hip and state in a loud voice for all to hear, “SCREW IT, YOU’RE FIRED!” (And you thought Donald Trump coined that phrase.)

The difficulty was that every time I did this, I ended up working that person’s shift. And one day I realized I was the one working 18 hour days because that decent employee was no longer there and probably not deserving of being terminated. In one of my many long and on my feet 18 hour days I did a self inventory trying to find answers to my control freak attitude.

Why did I do that? One word described it nicely. FEAR!

Fear of losing control, fear of trusting others, fear of failure and fear enough that I wasn’t doing well enough and that I wouldn’t make a difference. Needless to say, these ill-fated inner feelings didn’t last long and I learned quickly from my mistakes.

A long time business associate who recently passed away, said to me a few years back, “I wished someone would have told me all this before I accepted the reins as the CEO. In looking back, I was truly a star performer, but I burned myself out in the process. And what’s worse is that I burned out or burned off many good people in the run for excellence.”

So I ask you to take an HONEST inventory of YOU;

Are you a leader or a follower?
Are you a team player or just on the team?
Are you a marketer of ideas or developer of concepts?
Are you a sales professional or a bean counter?
Do you make a difference or happy to just get through the day?
Do you relate to others because you care or what they can do for you?
Are you a know it all one stop decision maker or do you take the advice of people around you?

As you can see the list could go on and on. Where do you fall short? How can you fill in those gaps? Put your thoughts in writing as they will become more meaningful to you and then act on them. Fix you and you’ll help fix the scene around you.

May the sun shine brightly on you this week. If we at Gman Business Resources can be of assistance to you, please call or write and we will respond immediately!