Entrepreneurs are human too

“Are you still okay?”, “What’s that all about, they’re crazy!”, “Can’t they decide up there?”, “They really have no idea what they’re doing there!” Well, who knows ? Who has heard these and similar sentences waft through the corridors of their company? I’m sure everyone knows such statements. Just how justified are they?

error culture

I am for an error culture in which everyone is allowed to make mistakes. In which one learns from mistakes and these learnings are seen as something positive. And in which a mistake does not require immediate termination.

On this point, probably 100 percent of the employees would agree with me and I am sure – also a large part of the managers. Rightly so. But what does the whole thing look like if you change your perspective? What happens when the boss makes a wrong decision?

When the boss fails to formulate an innovation in the company in a politically correct manner, or when not everyone really gets picked up? Then approval suddenly drops from 100 percent to 10 percent or 20 percent. I know that from myself as well as from other entrepreneurs – people like to shoot hard.

From the workforce to the manager. is that fair Shouldn’t the error culture described above apply in both directions? I think so. Because everyone who works together to advance a company is a human being. And people do make mistakes. No matter what title is under an email signature.

course change

An important quality of a manager is to recognize wrong decisions and then make the decision to change direction. Nothing is worse than sticking to wrong decisions just to avoid having to admit that a previous one was wrong.

This may have been made under different conditions than those that apply today. Go through with it – no matter what the cost? That’s just selfish. Such a decision is certainly not easy. Employees have possibly already invested several hours of work and a lot of passion.

You’ve gotten involved and maybe put in a lot of overtime. And suddenly the boss comes and says we’re going to do everything differently now. Yes, you have to put up with questions. And talk in the hallway. But I am appealing for a change of perspective here. Course changes usually make sense. But trust in the manager is necessary here.

She may have information that not everyone has. She probably didn’t make the decision lightly. And above all, she does everything in the interests of the company, the employees and the economy and thus job security. Course changes can only be implemented well if the team believes in it.

Error culture: create new images

But how do you create this trust? We have to establish new images in people’s minds. Not “those up there” and “those down there”, but a team. A company. We must not allow ourselves to be played off against one another and gossip about one another, but must pursue our goals together.

If the boss expects trust from his employees, he must, conversely, also show this trust. If the employees expect transparency and open communication, they must also communicate openly and transparently.

Human interaction is not a one-way street. Only if we accept each other as people with all our strengths and weaknesses and act together can we create a working environment in which everyone can do their best.

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