Management: The Critical Issue and Why it is Ignored

Recently, I have been watching episodes of The Profit.  Marcus Lemonis, a multimillionaire businessman seeks to invest in failing smaller businesses.  Each episode is similar; he meets the people (usually one or two partners), meets the staff, looks over the financials, assesses the process and then the product.  After all of this, he either walks or offers them a deal.

If they accept his deal, he usually wants from 25-51% of the company and to control things 100% for the first month to turn things around.  His focus is on three building blocks:  People, Process, Product.  

In each episode, the optimistic outlooks turns sour because change is hard.  This is very similar to the show The Dog Whisperer.  People want their dog fixed but rarely see how they are the main reason the animal is imbalanced and caught in destructive behaviors.  It is a show about transforming the adults in the room, not so much the dog!  Shock.  People just want their dog fixed and not change their behavior or outlook.  Same with The Profit.

In almost every episode of The Profit, we see how shockingly poor the financials are managed, how overstock of products either outdated or irrelevant is dumped in some back room, and how personal blocks to leadership keep the company strangled.  In short, the people, process and product needs significant adjustments.  Along the road, management got out of control and the business like any relationship is either moving forward or to a slow death.

If you watch many episodes, one glaring question rises to the surface:  Who is in control?  Leadership.  Humility.  Honesty.  Integrity.  Character issues.  When there is imbalance, someone or something has to take up this loose rope.  In some cases it is the business owner who never takes a salary in order to pay staff or the scapegoat employee who works seven days a week at minimum wage because they feel like they want to be the good trooper, placing their faith and hope in this company--their life has meaning!  Almost always, those staff members have some imbalance in their personal lives to over compensate and the leader takes advantage of this either consciously or unconsciously.

Whis most of these small businesses, basic knowledge of running a business is lacking.  For example, having a way to track inventory is essential to keeping your numbers accurate, but many wing it with gut feelings of product sold or have antiquated systems.  Marcus helps with these adjustments quickly by setting up technology to take accurate stock of inventory.  This however can never deal with the owner taking cash to supplement their lifestyle thinking they are entitled to money to buy a nice car to keep an image of success at the companies expense.  The longer Marcus is involved, the more the onion layers get peeled until there is a breakdown of some sort--the confrontation--and it always deals with character issues and deeper layers of why--why someone feels they can do what they do.  Until this shadow is unpacked, the company will repeat the failure.

One such shadow was clear when a co-owner of a clothing company lost his father at an early age.  He carried a lot of sadness about this life event and that sadness manifest in anger towards his mother, also a co-owner.  Sister, the third part of the ownership team played the role of moderator between mother and son.  Once this shadowed was unpacked, the son shifted his energy from anger to compassion for his mother.  He felt abandoned after his father died and overcompensated with control issues that almost always became anger outbursts when he lost control.  Character issues in real time!  His mother allowed her son to vent on her because she felt guilty over the death of her husband, leaving her son without a father.  

This family sadly reacted like most--they just got on with their lives rather than properly grieving the loss of father.  One clear sign of holding trauma is when someone speaks about a life event in the past like it happened yesterday.  To them, it did just happen yesterday which makes it difficult to remain free in the moment holding onto that pain.  When we deal with people, we deal with life and pain.  All of this impacts growth in a business, especially with leadership!  When it comes to an employee carrying similar personal weight, they usually get fired or play a role, many times the scapegoat or co-dependent that works sixty hours to the neglect of their own personal life, even sacrificing getting a fair wage because deep down they feel they don't deserve one.

A healthy business has healthy management.  This can become a great challenge to find this flow, but once it is tapped, the results are obvious to all.  People, process and product needs examination and the courage to ask "why" questions.  Once the plan is implemented, the next challenge is consistency.  Now we are back to management.  Getting the right manager is crucial.  This is someone who can balance the fine line of being approachable but also implementing control.  Few master this balance.  Boundaries become crossed and then the scramble to manipulate people to make things function plays out.  This can go on for years until a crash takes place.