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One of the challenges of running a small business is getting the people who work in that business to all get along together well enough and for long enough for that business to function at its best.

This is difficult to do.

Because not everybody gets along well with everybody else.

We tend to “tolerate” people some time.

And it’s not the same as a barbeque or a cocktail party, where you can simply walk away from those you do not like and hang out with others.

In business it seems that every two person combination of employees is really like a mini arranged marriage, isn’t it?

For eight hours per day, four or five days per week, each combination of two employees need to behave and interact together in an optimal manner for the best results for our business and for our clients.

Yet the people we are “made” to work with are chosen for us, and often not chosen by us.

They are picked and selected for us by someone else, because of some “promise” of magnificent pedigree and outstanding future performance.

But who really knows what is going to happen until we actually get down to the nitty gritty of working together?

And just like with performance cars and drivers, some combinations work and others do not.

Sometimes a racing car driver will not perform well with one type of car, but put him behind the wheel of another marque, and watch that baby go!!

Sure, a great jockey should be able to extract the best out of each and every racehorse that he rides, but there are times where great football players blossom with a new team and a new coach, after they had previously struggled before with what seemed like a great club.

And it is the same in a small business.

Unlike a family, which grows up together, our working family is constructed for us.

And also, unlike a family, where we all have to get on for continued harmony, the work environment is easy to walk away from if someone so chooses.

So the conditions in a business are quite different.

In a large business, there is usually a well developed corporate culture in place, so a new employee is inducted into a mantra of “this is how things are done around here”.

In a small office sometimes we only have maybe three employees or not many more. And so there is potential for change and adaptation within the small firm each and every time a new employee comes on board.

If our small business has great leadership and specific systems, then the possibility of disruption caused by a new personality are far less than for a small business that simply just sails with the breeze.

Mutinous behaviours from disruptive team members that unsettle the status quo within a small business can be like a cancer eating away at the intended growth of that business in the marketplace.

Business owners need to be aware of these possibilities and need to be ready to act if they feel this sort of carcinogenic behavior is developing within their company.

I heard today about a dental practice where the office manager made it her sole goal for the day to find disruption and to undermine team harmony, even if it meant fabricating and/or magnifying the disruption.

In that office, when other team members felt that the day had been successful, this office manager would successfully rain on everyone’s parade.

This sort of behavior from the office manager can be considered a form of onboard terrorism.

Onboard terrorists are a cancerous blight on any business and need to be jettisoned immediately upon discovery.

Excision is the only cure for an onboard terrorist.

Similarly, we need to watch out as business owners that we do not develop our own seagull style of management.

Author Ken Blanchard described seagull management:

“Seagull managers fly in, make a lot of noise, dump on everyone, then fly out.”

This sort of behaviour from a manager has little or no upside. The seagull manager behaves this way to try to assume some form of importance for themselves, but they make very little contribution to the solution of the problem.

The seagull manager only interacts with employees when they deem a problem has arisen. This shows that the manager is untrained or inexperienced, in the main part.

A business supposedly led by a seagull is really going nowhere.

The common purpose of a business is to stay in business.

And make a profit.

And surprisingly, the bigger the profit, the better chance that business has of staying in business.

When everyone who works in this business comes to the realisation that the very best way to stay in business and the very best way to make the biggest profit is for all employees to work together harmoniously for the common good, on all occasions, then and only then will the business grow uncontrollably, in the manner that it should.

While ever there exists veins of disharmony and disunity between employees within a business, then that business will always be operating with some degree of handbrake on, continually holding it back from optimal and ultimate performance.

It’s like purposefully dropping dumbbells onto your own toes.

It’s not a very clever thing to do…

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My next public speaking presentation showing Dentists how to grow their Dental practices will be in Melbourne Australia on Saturday 1 April 2017 with Jayne Bandy and Wolfgang Hofbauer.

For more information and to secure your seat click this link here.

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Have you read my book , How To Build The Dental Practice of Your Dreams [Without Killing Yourself!] In Less Than Sixty Days.

You can order your copy here: Click Link To Order

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The Ultimate Patient Experience is a simple to build complete Customer Service system in itself that I developed that allowed me to create an extraordinary dental office in an ordinary Sydney suburb. If you’d like to know more, ask me about my free special report.

Email me at david@theupe.com

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