“The magic formula that successful businesses have discovered is to treat customers like guests and employees like people” – Thomas J. Peters
I have major difficulty doing the OGA or BIG MAN thing. In paid employment it was so. As an entrepreneur, this “affliction” of mine has gotten worse. Owning things (which some use to SHOW they are OGA), also bores me. I guess I’m some kind of incurable minimalist!
But I LIKE being the way I am – because I find it helps me to stay grounded. To keep my head from getting swollen, so I can stay focussed on what really matters.
That’s why I WALK so often, and LOVE travelling by road….LOL!
And no where will you see me refer to myself as MD or CEO of anything. Plus, I plan to NEVER EVER have employees (cause I don’t want the hassle), but I WILL continue to encourage and empower people to start their own businesses (In fact, I’m working with my own kids towards launching a home based farm based business in Benin Republic).
It’s also why I dress simply and informally, often African style outfits sometimes mixed with Western elements.
No suits, blazers, ties etc for me. I did “them” a lot, back in those days in Guinness Nigeria: but not anymore. If you’re planning to invite me to give a talk, please keep this in mind 
As Ben Bruce said, “I want to be free.”
So I adhere to no one’s rules, and I do not try to force others to fit any particular mould.
And I absolutely refuse to go on EGO trips of any sort: No airs of superiority for me in relating with others.
Make no mistake however, that’s not to say that I suffer from an inferiority complex either. Indeed, I do NOT suffer fools gladly!
But I love to be myself, and to relate in a manner that does NOT depend on weighing people’s importance according to their status or wealth.
Example 1: Even while functioning as a Senior Manager during my time in Guinness Nigeria, Benin Brewery, Nigeria, and I NEVER owned a car and often took a N10 bus or walked to work, from my Ikpoba Hill home to the brewery.
It was only after I got attacked and robbed at 11p.m one night I was returning home on foot while acting as Production Manager that I agreed to let the driver take me home.
That night I got about 6 stitches (at Edi Ale hospital) on my wrist, where I’d been stabbed with a broken Malta Guinness bottle by 3 young men who wanted the laptop bag I was carrying.
I tried to explain that there was no laptop in it, and only company papers, but they would not listen and got impatient, when I kept trying to convince them. One then cut me with the bottle and I dropped the bag, which they then ran off with.
It might interest you to know I still did not buy a car despite that nasty experience in 2001!
I recall one colleague pestered me so much saying I was miserly, since I could afford it. For him, the car was a status statement of what one was: a GUINESS manager. For me, it was an encumbrance. If I had it, I had to worry about where to park it, and what would happen to it etc.
It was only few months to my leaving the company, just before I put in my resignation (in line with an exit plan I’d been working for 2 years), that I applied for a car loan – the bulk of which was then deducted from the money I was paid by the company when I left.
Back then I was simply too driven, too focused to readily allow anything to get in the way of the attention I wanted to give the work I was doing in the brewery.
As I have said in past articles, I often spent as much as 14 to 18 hours in the brewery most days.
Indeed, while still a shift brewer, I would stay back after closing morning or afternoon shifts to work on a PC in the laboratory department, building custom apps to solve data handling and reporting problems I identified.
Yes, I did it all in my free time!
No one asked me to do it, and I never got paid for it. But eventually, with the adoption of several solutions I developed, the recognition and rewards later came.
Example 2: Another thing I did a lot was to spend quality time getting to know my subordinates…
You see, I was a VERY high flyer in Guinness Nigeria (click here to read my resume). At a point, due to my exploits developing custom spreadsheet software adopted for formal reporting by the company, I heard through the grapevine that I was being called “Super Brewer”.
Apart from developing apps in my spare time, I also came up with creative solutions for improving operations e.g. an Operator Training Assessment module I developed as a Best Practice Facilitator, which got adopted by the Training Department for use in Operator Competency Assessment towards formal Certification.
My reputation got me noticed and I eventually got rapid career advancement opportunities – secondments, followed by promotion and then more secondments.
But despite rubbing shoulders, attending meetings with the brewery top brass, and even HQ big boys and girls, I never failed to find time to stop over at the process areas to chat and crack jokes with the junior staff/operatives.
Some were twice my age and had introduced me to their own kids who were as old as I was!
Yet these men had humbly trained me, when I was a newly recruited management trainee, sharing with me the wisdom from their MANY years of hard won experience, doing the toughest most physically demanding jobs in the brewery.
They did this knowing that I would eventually move on to assume my position as Brewer, when they would report to me as their boss.
For me, that was something that triggered a deep sense of reflection that I refused to ignore. I realized that the advantage I had of a higher education was what had given me the edge over most of them. Otherwise, their years on the job would NEVER have put them where they were.
So I resolved to ALWAYS treat them with the utmost respect and consideration and to find ways to make the feel good about working with me, my colleagues and for the company.
That led me to begin spending a lot of my time with process hands across the company.
Wherever I met them on site or off the premises, I made a point of relating with them as equals. Never did I talk down to them, and rarely did I find need to scold them.
Not because they did not make mistakes or were not sometimes rude, but because I discovered most readily acknowledged when they were wrong and they valued their relationship with me.
When I was wrong, I never hesitated to apologize and that endeared me to them even more.
As a result, when – during my shift – problems or breakdowns occurred, these men would come to reassure me that they would do everything possible to get the plant up and running. I mean both the production and engineering hands. They were my pals, but they also never failed to acknowledge my authority.
In the end my shift duty performance frequently reflected the fact that I had a good rapport with the men.
No matter which group of staff I worked with while on duty, I often got the best out of them without having to shout or exchange harsh words with them.
My expatriate boss, during one of my acting assignments, noted as much in a form he filled for me, when I was considering pursuing a Masters Degree in USA’s Pepperdine University (I later changed my mind and never submitted the forms).
But my habit of being “friendly” with the junior staff did not go down well with a few of my colleagues.
Some accused me of “reducing myself to the level of junior staff”. Others went further to say I was embarrassing other managers by being so close and chummy with shop floor operatives.
I never let what they said bother me however…
Since leaving paid employment, I have continued with the same attitude.
And it has earned me ready acceptance in the various communities I have lived in Nigeria’s Lagos, as well as in Benin Republic’s Cotonou and Calavi (so far).
In Ben Murray Bruce’s wonderful speech about change needed in Nigeria, which seems to be trending at the moment, he said we MUST pay attention to the needs of those not as fortunate as we are.
That we must look out for their interests.
I believe the first step towards doing that is to befriend them. That will help us get familiar enough with them to know what their true situation is.
We cannot stand aloof or adopt snobbish superior postures towards them. If we do, we will ignite their resentment not just against ourselves, but also against those who are ours (our families) and all that which is ours (our businesses, properties etc).
One day, when the opportunity presents itself, those of them who are most bitter about the way we treat them will act it out either by attacking what belongs to us, or REFUSING to help us protect what is ours, when others attack us.
Think about it. People you snub or mistreat can simply choose to stand by, instead of helping to call the police if they see you getting robbed after you had a flat tyre in the middle of the night, at the Estate gate!!!
That’s why I recommend that you slow down, and learn to treat others right, from today, so they can also treat you right, now or anytime in the future.
“Treat people as what they were what they ought to be, and you help them become what they’re capable of being” – Johann Von Goethe