I wanted to talk about something I learned very quickly, something which I'm still shocked isn't applied anywhere near as often as it should.
Almost everything I write about is based on a very important business principle: Every organization is made of many, many components.
Countless employees work together to make the machine function with quality and efficiency.
A major role of the employer is to do everything in his or her power to ensure that those components work at their peak capacities.
Some choose to do so through fear and intimidation.
Ultimately it fails.
Others try and accomplish this through simply setting expectations.
But nothing in the world will work as effectively as gaining the respect of each and every employee.
And what's the most important factor in ensuring their respect? Your hands need to get dirty.
Very dirty.
And very frequently.
It's so easy to be the man on the floor, tired and stressed, who looks up at a closed office door and thinks to himself, "It must be so nice to sit in a nice air-conditioned office collecting an enormous paycheck while we slave down here tirelessly so you can be rich.
" Under those circumstances the boss will never be respected, even if he's in that office working countless thankless and trying hours.
I used to work at a kitchen where the manager/head-chef had a very peculiar role.
He was not allowed to cook.
In fact, it was illegal.
Why? The employees were part of a union, and if the manager approached the grill, it was considered as if he was stealing from a potential union employee.
Have you ever worked in a kitchen before? They're generally very stressful circumstances, and sometimes go over the top.
What do you do when you're watching your workers literally dripping with sweat, moving way too fast with fire and sharp knives all around them, and then all of a sudden twice the amount of customers as were expected show up? Well, I know what this chef did.
He tied on his apron and hit the grill, and sweated and grunted along with all his workers.
And he did so with his job on the line if he were caught.
And they all knew what was at risk for him.
Now that's respect! The boss needs to not just stand in front of his employees, but he needs to stand by their sides.
He needs to show that he's a worker, and he works just as hard if not harder than anybody else.
This is how one gains respect.
And the dividends from such an approach are immeasurable.