When talking to a large carrier earlier this week, we shared our thoughts on having to cut back staff,  work harder and do more with less. Our experiences were surprisingly similar though he had thousands of employees and I had just shy of a dozen. Today’s management is extremely hands on and the people that make up our trimmed down teams are communicating better and operating at higher efficiency levels. At some point, things could start falling through the cracks, but right now most companies, big and small are getting the job done right with fewer hands.

I think it’s great that big business can find their inner small enterprise…even if it took a recession to do it. Wouldn’t it be super if corporations could emulate these small business attributes as they add numbers to their ranks, in a recovering economy:

1. Keep politics and gossip out of the workplace
2. For the most part, have the left hand know what the right hand is doing
3. Don’t spend your day putting out fires by having the right people on board who can prevent them
4. Know people by name and  encourage a team atmosphere
5. Don’t waste time pointing fingers or placing blame
6. Initiate change swiftly and avoid a structure crippled by red tape and process
7. Spend less time “covering your ass” so you can “whoop-ass” instead
8. See lemons turn to lemonade daily… and at the end of each day stand proud (pun intended)

Lee’s quote for the day:

“The main reason I started my own business was at the time, I just didn’t know any better”