Joined: 15 May 2007 Posts: 774 Location: Baton Rouge, LA
Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2007 9:16 pm Post subject: Teaching By Example?
Many, many years ago I worked for a manager who would intentionally drop things on the floor. He would then wait to see who would pick them up and how long it would take before someone did. Having done this, he would rate people from best to worst, depending on his “test.”
There was also a daily meeting. The normal topic was the low profits of the company. It seems all of these problems were created by the staff. Further, they might also be solved if we would just “put our backs into it.” Like the majority of the folks there, I did not stay long. A few years later, I heard the company went out of business.
My next employer was 180' from the first. He had started with a small grocery store and built a regional chain of very large stores. With fifteen stores, he still spent time in each, at least once a week. I remember being taken back the first time I saw him picking up trash in the parking lot. If he felt a floor was not clean enough, he might locate the porter and demonstrate by moping the isles himself, how he wanted it done.
I worked there for five years and only left to start my career in the auto service trade. Many years later, I still reflect on the styles of these two men. I cannot say what became of the first, but the second worked until he no longer cared to and then sold the chain of stores for several million dollars. Looking back, I think both of these managers taught me a great deal about running a business.
Wasn't he the one that was building super large grocery stores that also sold appliances, and had pharmacies and banks inside them, years before the 'big name' store chains were doing that?
Joined: 15 May 2007 Posts: 146 Location: Garden City, KS
Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2007 7:47 pm Post subject:
Quote:
I remember being taken back the first time I saw him picking up trash in the parking lot. If he felt a floor was not clean enough, he might locate the porter and demonstrate by moping the isles himself, how he wanted it done.
I once attended a "management" seminar by a very well-known company. They TEACH you to rate your employees! They taught you to NOT be involved with your business to that extent. You were to be in your office and worried about fixing all the short-term problems that were occuring and fix them with, believe it or not, short-term repairs.
Joined: 15 May 2007 Posts: 774 Location: Baton Rouge, LA
Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2007 9:06 pm Post subject:
Hi Bud,
Bud wrote:
Your second employer's name was Elmo, right?
I need some new stories
Bud wrote:
Wasn't he the one that was building super large grocery stores that also sold appliances, and had pharmacies and banks inside them, years before the 'big name' store chains were doing that?
Yes he was; Quite a bit ahead of his time. As a startling contrast, he sold the stores to a group, for several million. Within a year, most of the store managers had left, in five years all of the stores were closed.
Sort of like, "How did they build a small forture?" They started with a large fortune.
Joined: 15 May 2007 Posts: 774 Location: Baton Rouge, LA
Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2007 9:22 pm Post subject:
Hi Matt,
MattFMN wrote:
Quote:
I remember being taken back the first time I saw him picking up trash in the parking lot. If he felt a floor was not clean enough, he might locate the porter and demonstrate by moping the isles himself, how he wanted it done.
I once attended a "management" seminar by a very well-known company. They TEACH you to rate your employees! They taught you to NOT be involved with your business to that extent. You were to be in your office and worried about fixing all the short-term problems that were occuring and fix them with, believe it or not, short-term repairs.
You were to be in your office and worried about fixing all the short-term problems that [you] were occuring[causing] and fix them with, believe it or not, short-term repairs.
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