Running a business can be a challenging process, rom controlling the finances, to driving sales to chasing payments to maintaining creativity and developing the business strategies, to managing staff and client requirements and so on. In order to draw all of the strands together and make the business cohesive and effective, I would argue that one of the most crucial pre-requisits of a business owner is to have the strength to drive the business, and the confidence to make quick and effective decisions in often difficult and pressurised situations. This may sound obvious, but personally I feel that it can be one of the biggest challenges to any business owner. Let us take a hypothetical situation. You are running a business and you discover that a staff member, who you had considerable confidence in, has been commiting fraud against both your business and your clients. Obviously this is unacceptable, and there can be no question that this warrants instant dismissal for gross misconduct.
However, this employee has been with the company for 10 years and apart from this one lapse in standards has been the rock around which the company has grown. The implications of his or her actions have not changed, the decision should also not have changed, but the decision is not such an easy one. Now lets add in the information received from the employee that the reason for the fraud was because they felt so under pressure from you as an owner that they felt they had no other choice but to act in that manner. In fact they felt that they had your implicit approval for the fraud even though you know that they didn't. Already the complexities become much more difficult to weave between. It should be noted that this is not an uncommon situation by any means, and is one that can become much more complicated still. The employee could be desperately trying to support a dying relative, the stress of that situation clouding their judgement at work, just as an example.
In terms of a business decision this person has still acted in a way that could leave the company liable to legal consequences, and has also breached trust to such an extent that their position is not tenable, but you can see that the decision is not going to be necessarily a straight forward one. The decision must still be made however, and the original decision is still the correct one, probably.....
Business is a part of life, it is subject to the same complexities, the same challenges, the same ethical considerations as any other part of life, and this is where developing ones confidence and strength to make the tough decisions is absolutely crucial....
However, this employee has been with the company for 10 years and apart from this one lapse in standards has been the rock around which the company has grown. The implications of his or her actions have not changed, the decision should also not have changed, but the decision is not such an easy one. Now lets add in the information received from the employee that the reason for the fraud was because they felt so under pressure from you as an owner that they felt they had no other choice but to act in that manner. In fact they felt that they had your implicit approval for the fraud even though you know that they didn't. Already the complexities become much more difficult to weave between. It should be noted that this is not an uncommon situation by any means, and is one that can become much more complicated still. The employee could be desperately trying to support a dying relative, the stress of that situation clouding their judgement at work, just as an example.
In terms of a business decision this person has still acted in a way that could leave the company liable to legal consequences, and has also breached trust to such an extent that their position is not tenable, but you can see that the decision is not going to be necessarily a straight forward one. The decision must still be made however, and the original decision is still the correct one, probably.....
Business is a part of life, it is subject to the same complexities, the same challenges, the same ethical considerations as any other part of life, and this is where developing ones confidence and strength to make the tough decisions is absolutely crucial....
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