Good points.

After I graduated from engineering college, I went back for degrees in history and political science. My problem with education has been that I love all subjects! I really believe that investing in and supporting employees is very important.

I have taken many tests about management style, and I fall in the category of 50% employee, 50% customer. The guys who ran the production lines were 10% employee, 90% customer. Including my military and civilian days, I always got outstanding results working with people. The people in charge would ask, “How did you get such good results”?

I told them I believe in the republican form of democracy. I represent the people. You have a problem, determine a solution, and then gather the people. Let the people know the problem and ask for solutions. If their solution agrees with yours then go for it. If not, then you are allowed to overrule. The funny thing is that I never had to overrule anyone. In the military this was a life or death situation. In civilian live it was dollars and cents, along with common sense.

There are many ways to approach a problem.

Perhaps education helps to a degree in solving problems, but I truly think that the makeup of the individual in charge is the most important ingredient, and then add the education and experience. It is essential to have everyone behind your approach.


>re: firing vs. investing in staff
>
>I believe that's the difference between an Engineering approach (with blinders on) and a Liberal Arts approach (with blinders on). You learn to see possibilities (but not necessarily probabilities) in a Liberal Arts education. You learn to focus on the problem at-hand in an engineering degree. That's actually a good mix, if they learn to listen to each other.
>
>>I was working for a company in 1991 and worked for a VP. Our President was a Stanford grad, and the CEO was a Harvard grad. The meetings were a “bit” formal!
>>
>>During one of the meetings, after listening to the usual bombardment of acronyms used by the electronics industry, our VP said: “Using TLA’s is not professional”! The room went quiet and then the President and CEO both exclaimed, “TLA’s”? The VP said, “Yes. It is not professional to use three letter acronyms”! That caused everyone to laugh.
>>
>>We had lots of TLA’s in the military. :)
>>
>>By the way I did not know that Stanford turned out ultra conservative business people, and Harvard ultra liberal. Our two top executives had very different philosophies. The President from Stanford would state at every meeting: “If you are not firing 25% of your crew, you are not doing your job”!
>>
>>Our CEO from Harvard would interrupt, “No you cannot do that. It costs $20,000 to train one employee, and if you are having problems it might be your fault. You have to invest time in your staff and nurture your team”.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>>The sad thing is I have had a number of health care clients or employers in the past few years, have taken the annual refresher course three times, and still didn't have HIPAA straight. Please join my new coalition, BAF -- Ban Acronyms Forever.
>>>
>>>>I made the same mistake until I had to start dealing with it every day.
>>>>
>>>>>My mistake. I knew there aren't two P's but there are two A's, not two I's -- Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. I forgot rule #1 of correcting someone: be sure the correction is correct ;-)