Management 101 - Oxygen for your Company

Many employees intuitively will agree with their superiors in order to please and possibly feel they need to for protecting their jobs and career prospects. A manager should recognise this phenomenon and encourage his or her team to open up and voice their opinions. Open debate is healthy, it leads to better solutions by considering all options and even more so if lateral thinking is applied.

I draw a parallel with an air filter on an engine. A clean filter will allow oxygen to flow to the motor for better performance. A dirty filter will do the opposite, ultimately negatively impacting on performance and shutting the engine down.

So promote healthy debate, draw opinions out of colleagues (especially those who tend to be quiet) and appreciate the contributions. It will lead to better business results!