Tricks of the Trade

Not all of business is deep strategic thinking and disciplined execution. There are lots of lesser techniques and tricks that are more like the business analogy of the sports technique of drawing the foul. Not exactly “noble” or sportsmanlike, but such tricks have won many a game. And no math is needed. Below is a list of tricks that fall into the range of what is acceptable business behavior, but that get no points for sportsmanship.

You are thrown into a new job with a new team, none of whom you know. Want to know who you have working for you? Pull their expense reports for the last six months and read them like a mystery novel. You will learn a lot. By the way, you are not just looking for excessive charges; you are also looking at where people spend their time. For instance, a sales or marketing person who has too few expenses related to traveling to visit customers would also be a red flag.

An employee storms into your office and shouts their resignation. Before you do anything else, hand them a piece of paper and have them putting it in writing immediately. Take the signed paper and put it in your draw or pocket. Now you can have a conversation. If you don’t want to accept their resignation, you can do that at your leisure. It is easy to tear up a piece of paper. If, on the other hand, you decide that enough is enough, they are gone. You have all the cards.

You are managing a large group of people and you want to drive greater efficiency by squeezing headcount. That is, you are going to force the manager in charge of the group to do a reduction in force (RIF); but how much? You know that if you have hired great people, then if there is a way for them to be successful within their resource constraints, they will find it. For this reason, you don’t need to know exactly who and how, the great manager you have working for you will optimize that (and doesn’t particularly want your “help” doing it, either), but you do want to be careful not to cut