Recently, I caught an episode of “The Profit” with Marcus Lemonis where he was helping an auto dealer business get back to profitability.

For those who might not know about the profit, here is a quick summary of the show.

Mr. Lemonis goes into business and try to save them from going under.

Whether it is the Barbecue Business, companies within the Sports Industry, the automotive industry, etc., he always comes up with great ideas that will allow these companies to gain profitability.

The catch is that he would be 100% in charge when he does agree to work with these companies even if he has a 51% ownership, 49% ownership, etc. after investing his own money into them.

And it is fair that he is 100% in charge because he has a proven track record of fixing failing businesses.

And his philosophy for running successful businesses are:

1. People
2. Process
3. Profitability

If either of these are not in alignment, you will have a failing business.

This show is really awesome because you learn about the different industries that many people are in.

Also, you learn about how to balance your expenses and revenues in order to be sustainable.

It is really cool that Mr. Lemonis is very open minded to learning about the different industries and coming up with solutions.

Back to this particular episode, the owner of the dealership was micro-managing the general manager on a particular issue.

During this time, the company was in the process of rebranding the store and relaunching the company.

The general manager, who was great friends with the owner, spent about 25 years in the industry and was the glue of the company.

When the general manager confronted the owner, he was very tired of the fact that the owner was micro-managing him and was ready to quit.

The owner was trying to keep him at the company and wanted him to reconsider.

So he called in Mr. Lemonis, who was 100% in charge of the company, to try to help him to convince his general manager and friend to stay.

Despite the plea, the general manager left.

Mr. Lemonis chatted with the owner and let him know that he let a great person leave the company because of his micromanaging style. #paraphrased.

In the end, they were able to relaunch the company successfully and are on their way to profitability.

According to this article by Linda Ray in the Houston Chronicle, hospitality businesses always suffer with high turnover margins.

Though the article point out that economic conditions played a part in high turnover, it also pointed out that poor working conditions and a less chance for anyone to gain promotion leads to companies suffering turnover.

I really believe that the latter part is the real reason why hospitality businesses suffer high turnover.

Many of these conmpanies especially in the hospitality business have micro-managers who want to be in control of everything.

They don’t really understand that they are sending a message that they don’t trust the person to do the work that they assigned them to do.

They also undermine them on their decisions that would have helped the company to succeed because they did not come up with the ideas themselves.

In a lot of ways, they are very insecure of themselves because they feel that someone might be better than them and they will put someone in a position who is not smarter than them so that they will feel great about themselves.

That is always a recipe for disaster because the company will always suffer because of their insecurity.

And many of the people who feel like their bosses are always micro-managing them will leave the company because they don’t feel valued.

Plus, it will always cost the company money because they have to invest in new hires courtesy of printing paper for applications, training materials, etc.

That is why many retail stores, fast food restaurants, etc., always have high turnovers because they are surrounded by people who are micro-managers.

And the fact they refuse to acknowledge the problem is why they will always continue to suffer from the high turnovers.

But hey, they feel that they can handle it because they are a large company and have all the money in the world.

However, if you are a small business and you have micro-managers, your company will eventually fall to the ground overtime because people will be chatting about your company in a negative light.

And even if it is not the right etiquette for people to chat bad about your company especially on social media, many don’t care.

Those are the people you should really worry about if you are treating them bad.

For some, broadcasting the resignation from the company will work for some.

While for others, it will end up backfiring.

Either way, you should find a way to keep your company free of micromanagers because they will run your company to the ground.

photo credit: Considering the matter closely via photopin (license)