Meir Ezra: Leading to Serve

I believe that life is what I make it to be, always has been and always will be… Some people look and try to understand… try to understand why… I, on the other hand, love to dream, dream of new things, things that have never before been tried or realized and ask why not – this is Meir Ezra

After working for five years as a car salesman, Jim was promoted to the sales manager position. During his first week as manager, he decided he needed to show everyone who was boss.

Jim cracked the whip. He held a meeting and told the other sales people, "I want 10 cars sold today or someone will get fired!"

Jim was pushy, demanding and angry. The sales people ran around looking busy and avoiding Jim. Everyone tried to force customers to buy cars, but car sales dropped.

Jim yelled even louder. "You can't sells cars by pressuring customers, you idiots! Now get out there and sell these stupid cars!"

After a month of this, his two best sales people quit. Sales dropped even further. The car dealership owner said, "Jim, if you can't turn sales around, I'm afraid I'll need to get another sales manager."

Jim said, "I can't believe this! What am I doing wrong?"

Five Bad Leadership Attitudes

Like many new managers, Jim did not really understand his role as a leader. He and many other managers have these wrong ideas about managing people.

1. "Because I'm the manager, you better respect me . . . or else!"

2. "People are lazy and so I need to force them to work."

3. "I am superior to everyone here which is why I can do anything I want."

4. "If you work for me, you need to kiss my butt."

5. "If you don't like how I run things, you can leave."

Because of these attitudes, Jim's staff were selling fewer cars and looking for other jobs. If Jim did not change his attitude, he would also be looking for a new job soon.

Just in time, Jim learned this vital fact about management.