Page 82 - Everything I Know About Business I Learned

Everything I Know About Business I Learned at McDonald’s

Lesson Learned

Companies, organizations, and the workplace are social units.
The ability to create a culture of mutual respect and enjoyment
within the environment of the organization can only enhance
the overall success of the group.

Relationship Power
One of the basic tenets of managing people came fairly quickly
in my short time working in the store. I was “in charge” of the
floor at the time, sometimes referred to as a “swing manager,”
someone who “swung” from shift to shift between the night
manager and the general manager who worked during the day.
While I was barely older than most of the crew, and many of us
had been friends for a while, I saw the need to balance a posi-
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tion of authority (commonly referred to as position power)
within the ranks if I was going to manage effectively. But I also
needed to earn the relationship power, one that is gained by
acquiring the trust and respect of the group. It was a delicate
balancing game for any young manager.
On this particular day I entered the back-room area, where
I’d posted on a bulletin board the next week’s schedule. A crowd
had gathered, and as I moved toward them, I overheard one
individual mouthing off about the “stupid managers” and the
“unfair schedule,” threatening to quit if it weren’t fixed. He was
actually one of our better workers, and a friend of mine to boot.
Just as the group noticed I was there, he proceeded to rip the
schedule off the board and toss it into the wastebasket nearby.
This now became one of those moments when the entire group
uniformly waited for my response to this act of anger. I needed
to do “the right thing,” which instinctively I realized would pro-
duce a response that would trigger long-term ramifications