#JobsMatter: Allow people to do their jobs!

Source: Strive Masiyiwa
Photo credit: Strive Masiyiwa

In a Facebook post, Strive Masiyiwa wrote about the importance of people in building businesses. Here is the piece as written by the business mogul:

#JobsMatter (Part 2)
__Allow people to do their jobs!

Over the years I have talked a lot about the importance of #People in building your business.  Now let me tell you something which should be obvious:  Allow them to do their jobs!  This can be very hard because most entrepreneurs are "control freaks."

They want to do everything themselves and find it difficult to let go.  If you cannot go away for several weeks and leave someone in charge who is not related to you, then you don't know how to allow others to do their job!

It all begins with trust.  You have to trust the skills of the people, and you have to trust the processes. It is maintained in respect.

My friend came by once and asked me to give his son a job.  "I don't know how to do it," I replied.

"But it's your company, you just need to issue an instruction."

"Out of respect for the people I put in charge, I can never issue such an instruction," I replied.

These things are so difficult to understand for ordinary people who do not appreciate how high performance businesses operate. If I appoint someone CEO, he really is the CEO. I cannot issue him or her instructions like a schoolboy.

Remember my teaching on the Volunteer Prince? Go back and review.

When you let people do their job, trust them and give them respect, you will have mastered how businesses grow big.

To be continued. . .