“What’s the most important skill you use in your business?” I ask the late 40-something guy sitting next to me on the plane. Normally, I put on headphones and zone out when I travel, but they were in the bag that the flight attendant whisked away when she couldn’t find a spot in the overhead compartment. So small talk with my seatmate led to business topics and my question.
The man, vice president of operations at a construction company specializing in large projects in the western U.S., laughed, “I know jack squat about construction. Literally, almost nothing! Not like I should after 20+ years of doing this stuff. I don’t know concrete mixes. I don’t mess with plumbing or electrical or HVAC. I barely understand technical soil reports and I can’t calculate the fill materials needed on a project. I don’t even know the conversion rate of cubic yards to tons for something we use all the time like gravel. But, what I do know is people. Clear communication. Clear standards and expectations. Clear correction. That is where I make my living.”
Sensing there was more wisdom coming after that windup, I asked him to go on. “I just have a few simple rules for dealing with people,” he said.
- “Always do the hard things face-to-face and follow up in writing if needed.” (More validation for this blog topic from a couple months ago….)
- “Before you cut someone loose, be it an employee or a soccer player, always give them the opportunity to correct course. Too many people are afraid to hurt someone’s feelings so they won’t have the hard conversation with specifics. But would you rather get the tough news so you can make corrections, or just press forward blindly, unsure of what you are doing wrong? Or worse, get fired when you hadn’t been told exactly what you were doing poorly.”
- “Course corrections should be both verbal and written so both parties clearly understand expectations.”
Clearly, this man’s success was largely due to communicating simply and powerfully. An interesting point of this conversation was how the particular business field mattered less and less as he gained responsibility through the years. Managing people was precisely where he added all his value. For many of my coaching clients, moving from “doing” the work to managing people who “do” the work is a difficult transition often requiring a new set of skills to master.
The other observation is this: while reading Covey, Drucker, Peters or Goleman is a great way to hone your business skills, sometimes great knowledge is sitting beside you. It’s always worth asking a successful person for their personal list of business tips. Oh, and take off your headphones!
What are one or two tips you would give a younger version of yourself for business success?