My Life as a Jerk

I’ll admit it. I’m unemployable. I cannot work for anyone else. The only way I can survive and make a living is to run my own business. I’m just not good at answering to anyone.  I won’t even take on outside investors, won’t borrow money because I don’t want to answer to a bank, and won’t take on venture capital, either.

 

Of course I have worked for other people, have borrowed money in the past, have raised millions in venture capital, have worked for big and small corporations ‑ but I was just not very good at answering to others. In fact, I dislike it so much that I spent several years designing my life and business so that no one else could yank my chain.

 

The reason I’m in this position today is because I worked for and reported to some first-class jerks.

 

As a young business owner, I, too, was a first-class jerk. No one ever told me it was OK to be a nice boss. All the images I ever received about management involved being a bully. I used to believe that I was smarter than my employees, that I knew better, that they were just pawns in the game. I actually believed that if I showed them I was boss, they would respect me. I would yell at staff, berate them in front of others, criticize them till I brought them to tears, fire people on the spot, and continually remind them that it was my name on the manager’s door, not theirs.

 

I was a hotshot ‑ or so I thought. Then one day, following a tragedy in which one of our employees was killed in an auto accident, everyone on the staff realized that life is too short to work for a jerk like me. Within one 24-hour period I lost almost the entire sales and air staff at one station. “You’ll never work in this business again!” I shouted to one of the employees who resigned without notice. Just like a bad marriage in which we blame the other person, it took me a couple years to realize I was the problem.

 

Finally, the jerk left the building.

 

My father’s generation of managers was autocratic, but people with a choice simply won’t put up with it anymore. Perhaps in today’s economic climate people are fortunate to have a job and have to put up with management’s bad behavior because they have a mortgage to pay and no prospect of another job. But the second they find one, they will be gone.

 

Don’t misread this. Managers have to set the agenda, keep the pressure on to perform to meet deliverables and drive accountability, and sometimes enforce unpopular disciplinary actions. But those things can be done without being a jerk.

 

The most important lesson I’ve learned is that without employee loyalty I can’t grow my business. Without listening to their feedback I can’t capture the beat of the street. When things get tough, loyal employees will come through for you when nothing else will work. Like those classic words from the Bible: Treat others as you would want to be treated.

 

If you’re a jerk manager, you’re living in the dark ages. There is no excuse.

 

Young entrepreneurs like zappos.com CEO Tony Hsieh has created a multi-million-dollar company based on the principle of empowering and listening to his employees because he understands they are the front line to the customers. Tony sent me his employee manual, which is the size of the Manhattan phonebook. Unlike most companies that tell you what you can’t do, he focuses on how to build others, how to dazzle customers, how to build culture, and how to make sure you’re having fun in your job. His company grew from $1.6 million in 2000 to ending 2009 with $1.2 billion in sales in spite of the economy.  Last year the company sold to Amazon for $847 million in Amazon shares. Hsieh is writing a book titled  Delivering Happiness: The Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose, which will be released June 7. Tony does not manage by being a jerk.

 

I’m not proud of my early years as a jerk, but as Tony says, “You can’t change the past, but every day is an opportunity to rewrite your future.” I was able to change, and you can too.

 

Though I no longer have to work for jerks, I still have accountability to my customers, employees, readers, and advertisers. Like Tony, I’m thankful for all of them and try to focus my attention on serving them vigorously. After all, a manager’s job is to serve, not be served. Changing that single perspective can revolutionize any organization ‑ including yours.