The Top Management Lessons are how you should manage people, based on the most effective methods for doing it. These are fundamentals that are important to your success in CEO jobs, and many CFO jobs require them, too.
1. Create a company culture. Every company has a culture, whether you create it or not. If you don't control it, then the company will form a culture of its own that might not be the right one. Many big companies orient new employees immediately with explaining the company's beliefs, attitude and sense of teamwork or family. A culture that is fun, innovative and rewarding helps everybody work towards the same goal.
2. Make sure the employees know the company's goals and visions and knowing the mission statement is important, too. As part of your culture, it will help them to understand and work towards it.
3. Encourage an open door policy so that your employees will come to you with problems you need to know about or ideas that can make the company better. CEO jobs that don't allow open door policy are often the CEOs that find they are looking for another job. It is the best way to find out what is happening in your company.
4. Listen to your employees' ideas that can increase profitability or make a process easier. In dictatorship management, these people are shot down. In a teamwork management, your employees can be the ones that lead the company into an increased bottom line.
5. Build relationships with your employees and get to know them and care about them. An employee is much more willing to help those that they can trust.
6. Show respect for your employees because they are people, too and they like to feel like you respect their opinions and their hard work.
7. Offer them praise for a job well done. When your employees meet or exceed goals, it is important that you reward them with recognition, even if it is not monetary.
8. Share the wealth, if you can. Many employees that have stock ownership or 401K's seem to feel more a part of the company. It is a good way to positively motivate employees to be productive and bottom-line oriented.
9. Work with the employees or show them you work hard. It doesn't mean you have to scrub the floors in the break room, but they appreciate those that are in CEO jobs or CFO jobs that come in earlier than they do and stay later than they do, at least sometimes.
10. Have fun with your employees and don't be so serious all of the time. Humor and fun can make everybody's workday much easier. Some employees look forward to coming to work when they know it will be fun and they will accomplish something.
If you hope to succeed in CEO careers or CFO careers, you need to incorporate these lessons into your management style and use examples of them in your resume and cover letter, when looking for top management positions.
