Management Doggie Style

A couple weeks ago, our Jack Russell Terrier, Sidney, suffered a stroke and scared the hell out of us.  If I had the choice between saving Sidney’s life or say, Afghanistan, I’d take Sidney every time.   She’s a far better person than they are.  She’s stone cold deaf now, but up until a year ago, every day after work, she listened to my woes and provided a sympathetic ear.  She’s doing much better now, but her illness made me think about the lessons I have learned from her.  Here are three management lessons, we can learn from dogs.

First, the best managers don’t look like managers at all.  In fact, their staffs believe they are the real managers.  Dogs give us the illusion that we own them.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Dogs manage us.  We don’t manage them.

Our dog, Sidney used to dine almost exclusively on steak, chicken, fish, or whatever we were having for dinner.  She scoffed at normal dog food.  She trained us to feed her what she wanted.  Every night, the following events happened.

My mother-in-law yelled, “Sidney, why are you always bothering me during dinner?  I never get to sit in peace and eat.  You’ll just have to wait until I’m done!”

Sidney stared at her and yipped happily.  Why happily?  Because she understood that after the yelling came food from our dinner table.  My mother-in-law dutifully stood and put some of whatever was on our dinner menu in Sidney’s dish.  Of course, she always cooked enough food so that Sidney got her share.  Pavlov was a moron – a well trained one.  So are we.

Second, dogs set priorities and enforce them.  When it’s time to rub Sidney’s belly, you had damn well better rub her belly or there’s hell to pay.  She might hold a shoe hostage, and make you play an exciting game of chase the doggie for half an hour.  Great managers set priorities and hold their staffs accountable.  Noncompliance has consequences.

Finally, training is essential.  With Sidney, 7:30PM is treat time.  No, we didn’t get to set the time.  She did by sitting at my feet and barking every night at 7:30.  Training is all about perseverance and repetition.  Sidney would bark for hours at my feet until I got up and fetched a delicious dried chicken treat.  Eventually, I got the message that 7:30 was treat time.  She only had to bark once, and I sprinted to the pantry to get her treat.

Perseverance and repetition work with employees as well.  Don’t expect lessons to take hold the first time.  Sidney spent nearly a week training me.

Thanks for reading!  As always for real tax and accounting advice, visit the main S&K web site at www.skcpas.com.  Also, please like the “How to Screw Up Your Small Business” Facebook page.  I post business tips there several times daily.  Some of the tips are even useful.

Until next time, let’s do it to them before they do it to us.