The Goldilocks Theory of Employee Management How can you get your employee relationships "just right"? Tips from this experienced business owner will show you the way.

It's one of the classic "Goldilocks" problems inrunning any business.

If you push your employees too hard to get results, they resentyou. They talk about you behind your back and complain bitterlyabout working in a "sweatshop environment" where theirlives are sacrificed to make you rich. The first chance they get,they bolt to another company, probably one of your competitors.Read any installment of the cartoon strip "Dilbert," andyou'll see exactly what I mean.

Yet if you're too nice to them and bend over backwardstrying to make your workplace as happy, nurturing and fun-filled asyou possibly can, what happens then? Your employees start thinkingyou're a "soft touch" and start taking advantage ofyour good nature. They ask for more and more, even though whatyou're giving them as compensation is quite generous byindustry standards. They start showing up late for work-ornot at all-and play to your sympathies when you try to pullthem up short or criticize them. They start second-guessing yourmanagement decisions, and insist that you justify everything youwant or need them to do.

How can you get your employee relationships "justright"? How can you build a positive, healthy workingenvironment for your employees without giving away the store?

Someone who's wrestled long and hard with this problem isBob Weiner, founder of Constantine Carpet. Constantine Carpet is aleading manufacturer of commercial and residential carpeting,employing about 270 blue- and white-collar employees in severalnorthern Georgia mills. It's been widely praised in itsindustry for the "cult-like" positive attitudes itsemployees bring to their work each day.

Here are some of Weiner's tips on successfully handlingemployee relations:

You're not "the Boss." "My employeesshould be thinking of the company and its well-being, and notdealing with me as an individual at all," says Weiner,explaining that today's workers have been taught to questionauthority at all levels and will resent you presenting yourself asan authority figure. "You can't just tell people to dosomething because 'I'm the boss', because thatwon't cut it anymore," says Weiner.

The key, according to Weiner, is to make sure your employeesdon't see you as someone who is generous or stingy, but rathersomeone who is smart and able enough to build a successful companyand who will make sure that if the company is prosperous, theworkers who make a difference will become prosperous as well.

You're not their friend, either. Weiner recalls thatwhen Constantine Carpet was just getting off the ground, "Iwas very close to certain individuals, and that was sometimes aproblem for me, like when I had to fire them." Weiner stressesthe importance of setting up policies once a company has grownbeyond the startup phase, and letting employees know that theirsuccess will depend on their adherence to the policies-andnot their personal relationship with you.

Make the company the "third person in theroom." "Employees should be thinking of thecompany's well being, not mine," says Weiner, explainingthat he makes a point of telling employees that such-and-such agoal will benefit the company as a whole, and therefore benefiteveryone. "You put the company in the room along with you andthe employee, and you tell the employee that if that artificialthird person is happy, you'll be happy as well," Weinersays.

Establish group incentives, rather than individualincentives. Weiner feels strongly that bonuses and otherincentives should be based on the company's performance, notthe individual employees' performance. As an example, Weinercites Constantine Carpet's productivity bonus: "We setoutput goals for the tufting or the dying operation, and make surepeople know if the whole plant produces more product peremployee-hour and meets the quota, then everyone benefits; if thequota is surpassed, everyone in that plant gets a bonus for theweek." One of the side benefits of this approach is that allemployees are guaranteed to be tough on slackers, whiners and otherdrags on productivity, knowing that substandard performance willaffect them personally.

Be humane. "It gets really hot in Georgia in thesummertime," Weiner says, "so I've put fans and watercoolers all over the place in every one of our plants, as well as'blow fans' with evaporated water that feel like airconditioning." You should do things like that, Weiner says,without your employees having to ask.

Make your employees "see the logic." Finally,Weiner says that while you shouldn't have to explain yourselfconstantly to your employees, it's important to make employeessee the logic in what you're doing. "If people can see whywhat you're doing makes sense, if they can see the logic ofwhat you're doing and that it does make business sense and doescreate value," says Weiner, "they won't view it as anarbitrary 'order from the boss' that has to bechallenged."

Or, as Benjamin Franklin said back in 1776 as British forcesapproached the fledging colonial capital of Philadelphia,"Gentlemen, if we do not hang together in this time of crisis,be assured that we will all hang separately."

is a syndicated columnist, author and host of the PBS TVseries MoneyHunt. This column is no substitute for legal,tax or financial advice, which can be furnished only by a qualifiedprofessional licensed in your state. Copyright 2004 Clifford R.Ennico. Distributed by Creators Syndicate Inc.