Running a business is not easy. This is true of any business, but I think it is especially true in the advertising agency business. In our business you have many diverse creative specialists: art, public relations, web design, event planners and account executives and, well, you get the idea. Can you say herding cats? That’s what it is like if you try to micro-manage these folks. In this business, you hire them to be creative and successful; therefore, you must let them do their jobs.

Not easy you say? Of course it’s not, all of us who own businesses feel a certain need to control our product – and we should. But this need must be balanced with some trust. The worst thing you can do is be afraid to let a staffer make a mistake because it’s only by making mistakes that people learn. Trite old cliché you say? Damn right, but as true today as ever. Do a Google search on micro-management and you will come up with lots of articles like this one http://www.adams-hall.com/micwilstrany.html. As this article clearly articulates – micro-managing can be death for any firm.

I have a very young staff (well, yes, compared to me everyone is young) but with a bunch of 20-something’s who have all been empowered to think the world owes them something, you must handle with kid gloves. Hey get the analogy kid gloves? I learn every day that these folks can teach an old dog new tricks…now if they could only fix my golf game (but then again they think that game is for old people).

This entry was posted on Monday, July 2nd, 2007 at 10:18 am and is filed under Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.