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When working as an employee of a business — we live with L-I-E-S.
This is what I hated most about working for a large company. Sitting in meeting after meeting BS’ing each other. Avoiding real issues. Making things up that justify the reasoning behind poor products, poor processes or poor customer service.
It’s kind of sick really. Full grown adults sitting around in a room making things up to cope with the reality of the workplace.
What Is That Reality?
When you are working for an organization there tends to be certain indisputable realities. The larger the organization, the more flagrant these tend to be:
- The organization moves slow
- Sometimes the organization doesn’t move at all
- There is great distance between executives and customers
Tiny Businesses Don’t Have To Lie, But Some Do
One of the most refreshing aspects of running your own [tiny] business is that you DO NOT HAVE TO LIVE WITH LIES.
This doesn’t mean that tiny businesses don’t live live with lies.
As an owner of a very small business — ensure that you are not lying to yourself. Make sure your products are top notch. Make sure you are putting the customer first. Fix your processes. Fix your customer service.
Don’t BS yourself.
Realize that this is one of the critical advantages you have over larger companies. Realize that larger companies have trouble telling the truth but you can be Honest Abe.
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I completely agree with you on this one Russ. Ensuring that your products and services are top notch is one of your top concerns. Setting aside your personal likings and catering to your targeted audience should be an important strategy that will win new customers. Hear what the client wants or needs and aim to meet their expectations.
Good Post.
@Ivan — and it’s much easier to do this in a small organization than a large one — less layers to cut through — but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t lots of tiny businesses lying to themselves —- just don’t let it happen to you!
The truth never changes.
In this day and age, the truth WILL come out. It’s much better to be in front, speaking the truth yourself rather than have others expose your lies.
David Letterman did a bad thing and exemplified poor judgement with his affairs. However, he told the world BEFORE the potential blackmailers did.
What if others had done this?
Bill Clinton
Eliot Spitzer
John Edwards
Tiger Woods
The list goes on and on and on and on and on . . .
Good Post, Russ.
Far better to say things like:
“I don’t know, but I’ll find out and get back to you with an answer as soon as I know something.”
“My fault. My responsibility. I’ll take care of it. I’ll make it right at my expense.”
“That’s not an area I have expertise in. Let me find and refer you to someone who can solve that problem.
We all have to look in the mirror every day. Be sure you’re always looking at a person who speaks the truth and takes responsibility for his actions.
@Fred — thanks for that great comment —
Unfortunately an honest man often doesn’t last long in a corporate environment — you have to be able to live with some level of lies — and I think we all have a different level of tolerance for this kind of thing.
This rings SO true. Work unfortunately mimics real life in that it truly is a collection of knuckleheads. What I mean…. you are gathered together by your employer to complete tasks and achieve goals, but so often, no attention has been paid to the makeup of the personalities on the team. Hence, you get “the unhappy and unlucky,” as author Robert Greene calls them. The paranoid and the weak. The little Napoleons and the brainiacs. It is extremely difficult to gel and work together when you’re so diverse. My #1 goal in hiring is bringing in the right personalities. Everything else is just gravy
@Chris — Thanks for stopping by my blog and for the awesome comment!
It was a real “eye opener” for me when I graduated college and got out into the “real world” — I realized that the adults were just as big (maybe bigger) screw ups than us college/high school kids — LOL. It really is funny some of the stuff that goes on at work — and other times it is not so funny.