This new year, resolve to help all of your staff

Straight-talking, common sense from the front line of management

Q With people resolving to join a gym or take up a new hobby in the new year, what resolutions should British businesses set themselves for 2018?

A I recommend a single, game-changing objective: to be a better boss by helping every colleague to become the very best that they can be.

See everyone as an individual, not just a number on the payroll, and give them the freedom to use their initiative; being trusted with authority creates confidence and self-esteem. The result is a happier and more successful workplace.

The best bosses clear away the obstacles that get in the way of great people doing a great job. Many problems are caused by other colleagues who simply aren’t up to the mark. It’s unfair to expect people to work alongside someone who doesn’t love the business as much as they do.

That’s why a manager’s top two priorities are to pick new recruits with a personality that rates nine or 10 out of 10, and say goodbye to any passenger whose negative attitude saps the energy of their workmates.

The two other big obstacles faced by frontline colleagues are head office and life outside of work.

Make sure that everyone in your central office understands that they don’t run the business – they’re there to support people on the production line and colleagues who come face to face with customers. Too many organisations are severely hampered by processes put in by head office colleagues who know little or nothing about working on the shop floor.

A boss who truly looks after his or her team does a lot of listening. When a star colleague goes off the boil, there’s almost certainly something going wrong in their life outside of work.

Worries about money or a relationship; the stress of a severe illness in the family; the problem of a child who’s excluded from school; a bereavement; and the sadness caused by addiction to gambling, drugs or alcohol are all concerning enough for most people to take their mind away from the day job.

A boss should be happy to help. Some of our area managers spend more than half of their time listening to, and helping with, problems outside the workplace.

A good boss acts like a social worker or parish priest. Running a business brings a big responsibility and a magnificent privilege; entrepreneurs can have more influence on people’s lives than politicians or teachers, and much of the good is done simply by saying “thank you” or “well done” and celebrating success. A great boss never takes the team for granted; we all get a buzz out of being given a pat on the back.

My new year’s resolution isn’t just designed for businesses; you can be a great boss in any organisation – a charity, government department, local authority, school or the NHS.

One of my most memorable conversations of 2017 was with a surgeon, shortly after the NHS’S Wannacry hack, which disabled its computer systems.

“What was it like?” I asked. “Wonderful!” he said of his experience. “Just like the old days, we sailed through without being bothered by the systems put in by management.”

The aspiring great boss has to grasp that good management isn’t achieved by designing a process and issuing orders.

Schools come to life when teachers feel that they have the freedom to do what they went into the profession to do: use their initiative and

‘Entrepreneurs can have more influence on people’s lives than politicians or teachers’

treat each pupil as an individual.

Nurses are at their best when they can use their personality and experience to look beyond the pills, injections and bandages and become person-centred, catering for the patients’ psychological needs alongside their physical symptoms.

A business gets better whenever dictatorial management is replaced by true leadership, giving individual colleagues the opportunity to do their job in the best way that they know.

My new year’s resolution is game-changing, because it flies in the face of the traditional view of management, which expects executives to issue orders and make sure that everyone sticks to the rules.

It recognises that frontline colleagues run the day-to-day business. The role of head office and management is to help and support them.

I call it “upside down management”.