Treat Everyone Differently

If there is one tenent that I feel has made a lot of difference in my business success it is my concept that you should treat all employees differently. This would seem to fly in the face of time honored dictums that say you should treat everyone the same. Treating everyone the same really does not work that well first of all. It assumes everyone is the same. Not true. Each person is distinctly different from the other. God made us all originals. We surely know you would treat a grandmother differently than a teenager, a man different that a woman, a child differently than a parent and so on. So in business.

I think the 'treat everyone the same' concept originates from lazy business leaders. It is a lot more work to treat everyone individually. But you can do that effectively in a small business of say under 50 employees. It would not work well in a large business and probably turn it into some kind of chaos. Treating everyone differently can be a unique strength of a small business owner' s management style and you should adopt it.

I like to think of a small business as an organization that has unique abilitities to solve employees' problems, or at least mitigate them, for their well being and thus the better well being of the business itself. For example, when we were a younger, child bearing company I allowed mothers to leave work at the drop of a hat if their child was sick at school, or they had to take them to the doctor or simply had to be at a school play. This time was given gratis becuase children are such a valuable part of a parent's life you are a complete fool to stand in the doorway of anything important in this area. By supporting it, you have gained a much more motivated employee and new respect. Would you not rather have that than be seen as some rule enforcer?

Detractors will say this is not fair to non-mothers but it is just a matter of time before they have sutff come up that needs wiggle room. They may have a grueling commute and if it was me, I would give them a later starting time so they could miss that nightmare. This, in turn, would not have much meaning to someone who only lived a mile from the office but then one day they need something and so it goes....Become a sort of Employee Godfather and everyone benefits in my opionion. If you treat everyone differently then, in a sense, you are treating them the same! Everyone gets exceptional treatment.