5 Quotes On Managing In A Small Business

The first things that newly promoted managers and startup owners realize is that no matter how good of a producer you are, things can still be difficult when you become responsible for an entire department or company. There is always a huge amount of new things to learn when it comes to managing a small business. Here are 5 quotes containing important lessons on how to manage your small business.

1. The first rule of management is delegation. Don’t try and do everything yourself because you can’t. – Anthea Turner

English TV presenter and media personality Anthea Turner’s statement should be heeded by managers who constantly try to do everything. If your company is big enough to require employees, it means there’s work that cannot be done efficiently by a single person.

You need to learn to delegate tasks to the right employees. If you’re still going to do everything yourself, then you’re both wasting resources and doing subpar work that your employees could do more efficiently.

2. Management is all about managing in the short term, while developing the plans for the long term. – Jack Welch

American businessman and chemical engineer Jack Welch’s quote outlines that a manager or business owner must have the ability to look at both the small and big picture. Managing a business means you have to be able to steer the company in order to maximize ROI for the short term, while still keeping a watchful eye on its effects years or even decades down the line.

3. Management manages by making decisions and by seeing that those decisions are implemented. – Harold S. Geneen

Former ITT Corporation CEO Harold S. Geneen’s quote emphasizes that managing a company means you have to be proactive. Management isn’t just telling people what to do. You also need to follow up on the status of tasks and if needed, and be available to guide people on how to implement the tasks that you have assigned. Don’t take this to mean that you have to constantly breathe down people’s necks; you just have to keep a watchful eye on things and ensure that your decisions are being implemented.

4. We try to make jobs fit around people rather than make people fit around jobs. – Sheryl Sandberg

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg’s quote shows why the social network is one of the best places to work in for IT people. They management approach relies not on finding people who can be forced to adapt to tasks, but rather merely hiring the best people and tailoring tasks around their specific strengths and weaknesses. It achieves the same thing as just honing people to be good at predefined tasks, but the main difference is that Facebook’s employees are happy, content, and loyal.

5. I think that the best training a top manager can be engaged in is management by example. – Carlos Ghosn

Chairman of Renault and Nissan Carlos Ghosn’s quote makes it plain that if you want to manage a company effectively, you have to show your employees that you manage by example. The worst thing you can do is show people that rules and policies don’t apply to you. If you do that, people will never respect you and the decisions you make, and they will most likely do their job only to avoid getting caught. If you’re not around, don’t expect anyone to follow through.

What about you? Do you have any additional quotes on being a manager?