And when we talk about different management styles, there are two popular ones among business owners. The first one is the hands-on approach, while the second one is the hands-off approach. Depending on the personality and the approach of the business owner, they can be completely hands-on or completely hands-off. Then there are some business owners who take the best parts from both management styles and create a hybrid management style which is a combination of both.

Today, we will take a closer look at these two management styles and how they differ from each other. Understanding the difference between hands-on and hands-off management styles will help you get a better understanding of what to expect from your employees, and more importantly, this will tell you what type of business owner you want to be.

Hands-on Management

Let’s take a look at the different aspects of hands-on management in detail:

Hiring Preferences

Business owners who follow the hands-on management style like to hire people who are willing to follow instructions and can be trained. For such business owners, hiring the perfect employee is not as important as having the right attitude to learn.

This type of business owner usually has to be more involved with their employees after the hiring procedure to ensure that they are properly trained. And if you have ever trained someone, you would know that it takes a lot of patience and consistency to create a team that is on the same speed as you.

So we can say that a business owner with a hands-on approach is all about hiring people with the right attitude under the assumption that they can be trained.

Active Involvement

A hands-on business owner is more actively involved in business management and can even do the same work as the employees. Such business owners remain at the centre of the day-to-day activities and operations of the business – As a result, everything goes through them (even the little things), which can be time-consuming, but it also ensures the highest level of quality for the customers and maximum productivity from the employees.

This active involvement also means that the employees have to deliver the same standard of work that is expected by the business owner. As a result of such expectations, it is common for the owners to coach and train their team on different aspects and processes of the business.

The hands-on approach type of business owner also brings forth more direct interaction between the employees and the projects. This means that the communication lines between the employees and the owner remain open, which in turn fosters a more healthy and honest environment in the workspace.

To give you an example of the active involvement of such business owners, you can think of them as the coach of a soccer team. A typical coach trains the team members by showing them the right way and then observes their gameplay. If required, the coach can call the players to give them advice on how to perform better on the ground – In short, the coach is committed to the success of the team, and the team’s success means that it is the success of the coach as well.

Open to Suggestions

Another integral quality of a hands-on owner is that they are open to suggestions and feedback. As mentioned earlier, pretty much everything in the business has to go through the owner/manager – This means all the decisions and even suggestions have to go through the owner for the final approval.

But how do the employees know what type of work or suggestions will be approved by the owner? That’s where the active involvement of the owner comes into play once again – The owner sets an example for the team by doing the same work as the rest of the team.

A major benefit of receiving feedback and suggestions from the employees is that it can effectively create a more employee-friendly environment and makes the employees heard. All of this leads to increased productivity and an honest environment in the workspace.

Hands-off management

Let’s take a look at the different aspects of hands-off management in detail:

Hiring Preferences

A hands-off type of business owner is not that interested in actively supervising their employees or spending a lot of time in their training. That’s why they only hire workers who possess the required skills to get the job done without the active involvement of the owner or the manager.

Such an owner works under the assumption that their workers are skilled to do the job on their own with minimum supervision. In a sense, this gives more trust to the employees in their ability to complete the work.

Due to such hiring preferences, only highly skilled workers who specialize in their field can become a part of the team. This also gives more freedom to the employees to test their strengths and to develop confidence that they can do things on their own.

Passive Involvement

As a hands-off owner, more focus is put on the results rather than on how it is being done. Such an owner cares less about being a part of the workflow and more about getting the results set forth by them. And since only the highly skilled workers are employed right from the start, it allows the owner to be less involved in the day-to-day activities.

In hands-off management, following the corporate structure and the role of each team member is important for maximum efficiency. Although less involvement gives more freedom to the workers, it also gives rise to potential error and performance issues. But once again, the right team means that there will be someone responsible for checking these errors and fixing them.

Just because an owner is not involved in the day-to-day activities doesn’t mean that they are not doing anything. Owners or managers with hands-off management tend to focus their time on coming up with new ideas and strategies for the business. Once again, the main focus is more geared towards coming up with streamlined processes and corporate structures that can keep the business running with minimum involvement.

Provide Suggestions/Ideas

Another quality of a hands-off manager is that they focus their energy and time on coming up with new ideas and strategies for the business. And once the inception stage of the ideas or suggestions has been completed, they pass it to their team to make it come to life.

In hands-off management, the ideas and the strategies are more important rather than spending time on tedious tasks that are not that important. And to ensure that the final product is indeed based on the original idea and is according to the specification, the owners also provide feedback and suggestions whenever required. But once again, the owners with a hands-off style usually try to let their workers charter their own path towards achieving the end goal.

When compared with the hands-on style, the back-and-forth communication between the owner/manager and the team is usually less, but that’s not to say that it is a bad thing. Considering how the hands-off management style focuses on the hiring of skilled workers, there is not that much need for ensuring that all the decisions must go through the owners or extensive communication.

Hands-on vs Hands-off – Which one is the best?

A common question that is asked by a lot of business owners is which management style is better than the other. In reality, both of these management styles are used successfully in the corporate world, and with a little research, you can easily find a lot of success stories for both.

If you follow the hands-on approach, you will need to hire people who are good listeners and can follow the instructions provided by you. And if you are someone who likes to be at the heart of everything and wants to make the final decisions, then the hands-on approach will be a good fit for you.

But if you want your workers to be more independent and to think like leaders, then you can follow the hands-off approach. But for this approach to be successful, you will need a team of highly skilled people who know what they are doing.

So we can conclude that both management styles are good, and you can choose the one which suits your personality and business structure.

Frequently Asked Questions

Let’s take a look at the frequently asked by the business owners:

What is the hands-on and hands-off approach?

The hands-on approach is a management style in which an owner or a manager is actively involved in the day-to-day activities and the decision-making of their team. On the other hand, hands-off is based on the assumption that the team is capable of doing the work by themselves as long as they are provided with clear instructions and ideas.

How do I know which management style is best for me?

If you are a team player and want to ensure that an error-free and nearly perfect product/service is provided to the customer, then you can follow the hands-on approach. This will require more active involvement, but you can do just fine even with a workforce that is not highly skilled.

On the other hand, hiring a highly skilled workforce allows you to focus more on brainstorming ideas. In this style, your team is responsible for bringing your ideas to life, and as long as a competent team is in place, the chance of error is very minimal as well.

Based on this information, you can choose a style that suits you the best.

Looking for help to grow your business?

At You Want Group, we know what it takes to grow your business the right way. Our wide range of services includes:

• Business Planning
• Business Consulting
• Organisational Structure
• Talent Services

If you are looking to maximise the result and grow the business you want, then check out our Grow the business you want

Thai Ngo

As a business, HR and career strategist, Thai Ngo has worked with some of the biggest businesses in Australia to help people fulfil their professional potential. Thai firmly believes that the biggest barrier to success is often ourselves, but with the right guidance and the right perspective, that barrier can be overcome. Now he works with businesses, leaders and individuals to tap into their existing talent to create the professional and personal life they desire.

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Effective decision making is integral to an organisation’s health and wellbeing.  A survey by McKinsey & Company of Fortune 500 companies showed on average, managers spent more than a third of their work time making decisions. This share of time increases with seniority with C-Suite executives spending up to 70 percent of their time making decisions. 

So, if you are in one of these roles, where you are making big decisions for the organisation, what is the best thing to do? Making the right decision is about understanding the environment your business is in. 

The importance of business environment 

Identifying your environment means knowing and understanding your surroundings.  Identifying your environment helps you understand what you want to be as a business.  Before you can do that, you need a deep understanding of where you are now and all the factors (both internal and external) that influence your surroundings.  For example, are there processes in place to ensure success? Are your people trained to deliver results? Is your organisation’s culture healthy? Or is it toxic? Do you have strategies to outperform your competition? Can your business deal with unexpected threats or rapid change? Have you identified the opportunities for growth?  

Going through these questions one at a time gives you clarity and helps you make the right decisions to move your business from A to B. A – being where you are now and B – being where you would like to be in the future. 

How to identify your business environment

Business environment is all the internal and external factors that can influence your business activities.  The business environment impacts the business on every level: success, scale, vision and development strategy. Bear in mind that external factors can influence internal factors and vice versa. Also, some external factors that impact your business may be beyond your control.  For example, the recent pandemic is an external factor that affected many businesses.  Even the best planned companies in the world were caught by surprise. But two years into the pandemic, companies now know how to make better decisions to protect their businesses if a similar health crisis hits the world again. 

Internal factors

Internal factors refer to everything within your organisation that is under your control whether tangible or intangible.  An element that brings positive results is a strength and one that brings a negative impact is a weakness.  I have highlighted several key internal factors and how they can impact your business performance.

People and culture

In today’s global economy, ideas and skills rather than physical assets are some of the most important assets for growth and success. The people in an organisation – their attitudes, mindsets and behaviours – have a profound impact on the company’s image, performance and profitability. For example, a business with skilled and motivated workers is more likely to perform better than one that has staff that are poorly trained or have negative work habits and attitudes.  In short, decisions at the senior leadership level that consider employee wellbeing and development are more likely to translate into positive outcomes and results. 

Talent management

Attracting talent is not easy.  Retaining them is even harder. Talented individuals are in demand.  They can pick and choose where they want to work. If they do not like where they are, they leave. Understanding your talent pool can help you make better human resource decisions at a senior leadership level. If, for instance, your organisation has a superior training and staff development plan that can upskill your workers, you may want to complement this with a staff engagement plan that keeps people happy in your employ. The last thing your organisation needs is upskilling your staff for others to reap the rewards.  

Organisational structure

A suitable organisational structure requires a carefully set up system to manage workflows. An important thing to remember when designing an organisational structure is how effective will it be when implemented? Is there information sharing and clear accountabilities across all levels? Are there policies in place that can ensure smooth workflows?

I recently consulted for a large private education institution that was having problems with its student recruitment.  The college employed 155 people of which more than a third were marketing and sales personnel.  The marketing organisational structure was a flat reporting line with two directors and eight portfolio managers reporting directly to the CEO. Below this first line of reports, there were sales and marketing specialists who reported to the directors and some of the portfolio managers. Some portfolio managers had no staff. The problem with the structure was that there were too many chiefs and no Indians. Too many people were giving orders. No one was executing these orders. The company was structured to fail. 

Operational efficiency

Operational efficiency directly affects the company’s success in the marketplace. Operational efficiency encompasses all the company’s activities leading to the end product or service. Knowing and following these processes can help you identify bottlenecks or problems that may be preventing them from performing optimally. Operational efficiency is also about identifying the processes that are working well for the company and seeing how you can leverage these strengths to grow the company. For example, if one division is performing better than another, learning what makes it successful and duplicating it across other divisions may make the business more efficient.   

Leadership

Leaders make decisions that impact the business. Great leaders are role models that staff look up to for direction and guidance. They have the ability to galvanise the people and respond to rapid change. If your leaders are falling short, it is time to consider seeking some external help to coach them to become better. 

External factors

External factors are factors that are outside the control of the business. External factors can be micro factors like customers, suppliers, public image and so forth. They can also be macro factors for example economy, technology, political and legal and most recently, a global health crisis. It’s important to remember that external factors can have a positive or negative impact on a business.  Factors that can be leveraged for better results and growth are opportunities while the ones that can impact negatively on the business are threats.  Knowing both are important in decision making.   

The economy is one of the most determining factors to success. A positive economy is good for business, a negative economy is not.  Good decision making means the ability to take advantage of the good times and mitigate the risks in bad times.  

Another important external factor that can affect the business decisions you make is the customer. If your company cannot figure out what your customers want, you cannot align your products or services to give them what they want. 

Recent global events have also shown that companies need to be prepared for potential threats that are not anticipated.  A good example of this is COVID-19. The once-in-a-century pandemic that hit the world affected many businesses.  The consequences of this global health emergency are still affecting the world today. When making decisions for the future, companies nowadays need to take into consideration a survival plan that can address any type of sudden and unexpected threat to the business.  It may sound impossible but it’s not. It’s about planning for change. If you have a way to respond to rapid and sudden change, your business can survive most calamities. 

By answering all the questions you have about your internal and external environment, you start to understand where your business is and can pinpoint the problem or bottleneck areas that need fixing. You can also identify the processes or people that are performing and develop strategies to duplicate this winning formula to parts of the organisation that may not be performing so well.  It may be that you need a system to reward the overachievers or to motivate others to become equally productive. The decisions you make are driven by what you observe in your internal and external environment. 

Understanding your business environment gives you a panoptical view of your entire business and helps you produce strategies for both predictable and unpredictable events. Your company’s success rests squarely on the decisions that employees at all levels make. Of course, every business wants a decision-making magic bullet that guarantees success.  The most important element of good decision making, however, is the organisation’s working environment. If you can master it, you can make good decisions that will benefit your company. 

So, evaluate the environment around you. Understand where you were previously and where you are at now before you take a step forward because you do not want to be walking in the wrong direction as a business.  Or worse, walking backwards.

Thai Ngo

As a business, HR and career strategist, Thai Ngo has worked with some of the biggest businesses in Australia to help people fulfil their professional potential. Thai firmly believes that the biggest barrier to success is often ourselves, but with the right guidance and the right perspective, that barrier can be overcome. Now he works with businesses, leaders and individuals to tap into their existing talent to create the professional and personal life they desire.

youwantgroup.com

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Running a business is like a star athlete competing in a major competition. If you want to win, you have to train, watch your diet and be in the right mindset to beat your opponents. Likewise, if you want your business to succeed, you have to nurture it. Depending on which area needs the most focus you may have to invest in training or upskilling your people, employing new talents, developing strategies to guide business activities or improving processes to increase productivity. If you want your business to succeed you have to invest money, time and commitment. 

If you don’t give your business the attention and focus it needs to grow, your business will become unhealthy. Imagine your business as a small child. If you only feed him or her junk food, the child will become obese and unhealthy. Obesity can affect the child’s physical, mental and emotional well-being. Now take a look at your company.  Is it carrying too much unwanted fat? Maybe you have too many staff doing one job. Or you have invested in projects that have brought in no tangible results. Or you have a toxic culture of finger-pointing and name-calling? Or leaders who don’t lead? 

In this article, I would like to discuss lean, healthy organisations.  The type of organisation that runs smoothly and efficiently.  Successful businesses with an enviable organisational culture that attracts the best talent in town.  I am going to show how you can trim the fat off your organisation and transform the business from sluggish to active.

If you want to succeed, think lean

The concept of a lean organisation is similar to that of a top athlete.  Think of a lean, agile and flexible athlete.  To succeed, the athlete needs to be focused, determined and in the right frame of mind. He or she needs to stay fit, train hard to hone their skills and develop an attack strategy that can beat their competition.  Top athletes don’t get to where they are through sheer luck.  They are at the top of their game because they have plans that are expertly planned and precisely executed. 

That’s exactly the same for a business. Most people start a business to succeed. Your business is more likely to succeed if you train it the way a top athlete trains.  

Here are five ways to turn your business into a lean and mean money-generating machine.

1. Be flexible and adaptive

Successful businesses are not reactive.  They are proactive. They have the ability to respond to rapid (or sudden) change and to pivot themselves out of a disaster. How do they do it? They can do it because they have a superior understanding of the environment they are operating in and are keenly aware of all internal and external factors that impact this environment. They have plans in place they can execute immediately as well as the ability to plan quickly if needed. In short, they are prepared. 

2. Look at your culture

An organisation’s culture creates the right type of environment for a business to thrive. The role of organisational culture is to align the people with the vision, mission and values.  If cultivated properly, culture can become a catalyst to guide employee behaviour. Beyond vision and mission, organisational culture also shapes attitudes and behaviours. An organisation that has a healthy culture is one that is inclusive, supportive and adaptive. An unhealthy organisational culture on the other hand promotes silo mentalities, secrecy, fear and distrust. Why of the two cultures do you think is more likely to succeed?   

At the heart of culture is the leaders. The way a leader thinks and acts affect how the people around him or her behave.  A leader who is not interested in helping his or her people seldom succeed.  

3. Be customer-centric

Identify what your business wants to achieve and for whom.  A customer-focus vision means answering questions such as: What do my customers need? How can I provide it? Is what I have better than other options that are available to them? Don’t make the mistake of focusing on features before first identifying what the customer wants. 

Customers needs are constantly evolving. If you want to stay customer-centric, you may want to consider prioritising innovation and creativity as key strategies to help your company grow.  

3. Get smart. Be efficient. 

There is no wastage in lean organisations. Every input that goes into the business becomes an outcome that contributes to its growth and success.  Processes are clearly defined so the business activities can run smoothly. The company is supported by visionary leadership, empowered

s and a culture that is inclusive, engaging and supportive. Considerations are given to every phase of a product or service lifecycle and there are plans in place for every scenario. Just like the athlete training to win, organisations that want to succeed also do not take chances. 

4. Evaluate. Innovate. Improve. 

A top athlete very seldom rests on his or her laurels. They are constantly challenging themselves to be better than they were in their last win. Their training, diet and mental agility exercises do not stop when they are at the top. In some cases, these strict regimes intensify because the athlete wants to stay at the top not just get to the top.  

The same goes for a successful business. Complacency eventually slows you down. As a business strategist, clients hire my services to help their business. Many of the businesses that engage my services are successful ones. Some are industry leaders.  In most cases, I am received with open arms as the leaders and managers are keen to pick my brain. Sometimes, I face resistance. One of the most common resistance I face is a manager telling me on our first meeting: ’If it ain’t broken, why fix it?’

Well here’s why: Think Kodak, Polaroid, Toys R Us, Pan Am, General Motors, Tower Records, Blockbuster and others. They are just a few examples of big brands that have died because they kept the status quo.  It’s true – some things don’t necessitate replacement but if you keep putting off improvements,  you become complacent and eventually the rest of the world catches up and overtakes you.  If you wait too long, you become obsolete. That’s how a business dies. 

Business continuity is about continuous improvements whether it’s processes, people, products or place.  

How to avoid getting fat in business

The term ‘lean’ has a close association with Ford Motors. Henry Ford set up a very productive organisation beginning with raw materials and ending with the customer driving away in his or her car.  Ford was the first to apply lean concepts to his organisation including standardisation, waste reduction, and just-in-time production. Lean principles today are not limited to just the production line. It can extend to the entire organisation.  

Every business can learn to be lean, reduce waste and embrace agility if they are open to changing the way they do things.  Take for instance a company’s organisational chart.  An organisational structure that is cluttered with many people doing the same task and no clear reporting lines can lead to chaos, confusion and even, conflict.  Let’s say everyone in the team is working well and delivering outcomes. It may appear productive but a single outcome is delivered by many when it could have been done by one or a few. That’s not efficient. To avoid excessive resource wastage, companies can look at the business environment they are operating in and consider all the pros and cons. Understanding why you are doing well and what is impeding your growth, helps you produce strategies that are leaner, better, and more effective.    

Getting rid of the excessive ‘fat’ in your organisation is about evaluating whether your business is operating at its optimal efficiency.  Start by asking yourself: ‘Is my business operating in a way that is delivering the best results to get it to where I want it to be? If the answer is no, then you need to pause and take a closer look at what’s going on, where the wastage is and what else can you do to optimise your operations, improve your processes or support your people.  

It’s time to get rid of the ‘fat’ before it turns into a dead weight that will pull your business down. It’s time to get fit for success.  

Thai Ngo

As a business, HR and career strategist, Thai Ngo has worked with some of the biggest businesses in Australia to help people fulfil their professional potential. Thai firmly believes that the biggest barrier to success is often ourselves, but with the right guidance and the right perspective, that barrier can be overcome. Now he works with businesses, leaders and individuals to tap into their existing talent to create the professional and personal life they desire.

youwantgroup.com

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