I witnessed an
unusual style of management and advised my friend
according to the e-mail as follows:
Yesterday, I was at your office and saw your style of
leadership. It reminded me of a newspaper report in
which the boss (father) of a big company has a habit of
scolding his staff. His son was made managing director
and could not get along well with some senior staff who
resigned. From what I read in the newspapers, I assumed
that the father must have had scolded and shouted at the
son in front of the staff, as this is his usual
management practice. The son who is well qualified and
experienced in working for other big companies had
returned to his father's business. The son resigned
immediately. "Scolding and shouting at staff" is an old
management practice which is not well accepted by the
younger generation in Singapore and in other countries,
from what I know.
It is not going to help you be successful in business if
you continue with a similar style of management I
described above. I saw you intervening during your
Operations Manager's interview with an applicant,
"scolding" the applicant in front of everybody saying
you prefer not to accept her as she would cause trouble
later to the agency.
For that particular "too smart" applicant asking a lot
of questions, I will consider her a good prospective
employee. It is best for a prospective employee to ask
many questions from the employment agent before getting
a suitable employer. This means she will not want to
keep changing employers and that is good for the
employment agency too.
It is common for an applicant to ask for the highest
salary especially when they have Master's degree and a
few years of work experience. So they become
time-consuming pests, taking up much of the employment
agency's time during the interview qualification.
As to whether the "too smart" applicant will cause
trouble to the agency later, I don't agree with you as
we cannot foresee the future. If you do a good job and
follow the laws of the Ministry Of Manpower, knowing
what to do in the processes, there will be little
trouble. I will say that a "too-smart" applicant, if
well serviced will provide more good quality referrals
to you as that is her circle of friends.
Referrals are what most business survive on in the long
term. And what a business want is high quality
clientele. As a vet, I will wish to have high quality
clientele who ask me a lot of questions about her pet
rather than one who wants the lowest price in town and a
service that cause me to lose money via underpricing.
As a start up, if you keep on "scolding" applicants and
staff, you will find that your business will not grow as
staff do not stay long and applicants prefer not to do
business with your company. You can blame every staff
who resigns as not good staff. But in the end, it is the
quality of leadership that makes or breaks a business.
And that means retaining experienced staff.
I hope this e-mail will not make you angry. Staff
management is a big headache for all companies but you
can't do a business without staff.
TOA
PAYOH VETS
