Management techniques — elephant style

01-Apr-2009

Getting back to our favourite topic — after an issue’s break — of animal-related management training tips, James Osborne, director of training and consultancy organisation Innergy, has some drawn some interesting analogies on his blog between elephant behaviour and management techniques.

“I’ll touch on just three of the key learnings that every manager, team leader or business owner should take on board from our ‘trunked’ friends if they want to improve the performance of their people,” says Osborne. (OK, we’re intrigued.)

“When elephants mate, the process is long and particular, as they are very selective about their mates, and the female carries her baby around with her for almost up to two years, which is longer than any other animal.” (This should be interesting.) “Similarly, high performing leaders will always ensure that the process of sourcing and engaging new employees is both meticulous and thorough, knowing that a recruitment mistake at the beginning is equal to a thousand issues later on. In the same way that the female elephants carry and nurture their babies for almost two years, so do high performing leaders with their new employees.” (Ahh, now we see.)

We may return to the other two key learnings, which Mr Osborne covers at length, at a later stage. That’s if we remember, of course.