'Do unto others' applies to business, too

One of my uncle's favorite stories summed up for him one of the truths about business and people that he had learned in more than 65 years of building and managing more than half a dozen successful enterprises.

It seems customers were standing in line 10 deep and more to get a seat at the new restaurant he'd opened. With low prices, excellent food, big portions, and good service, everything was working out just the way he'd hoped.

Some of his waitresses (this was a while ago - before the days of generic "servers") also noticed just how good things were going and decided that they deserved a raise from their 75 cents an hour (I guess this certainly was a while ago) to $1.

Calling a meeting of all the waitresses, my uncle laid out the facts. He explained to them his pricing philosophy - low prices and high volume - and how that translated into a reasonable profit for him and plenty of customers - and tips - for them. And he demonstrated how, in order to absorb a 25 cent raise, he would have to raise prices as well.

He'd be happy to give them the raise; they were well worth it. The question was whether they all wanted to take the risk of fewer customers. That would mean less profit for him and fewer tips for them.

He concluded by suggesting they talk among themselves, take a vote, and let him know what to do.

Well, as you'd expect, everybody pretty much agreed that more customers and more tips were probably worth a lot more than 25 cents an hour. And they were right.

The point, according to my uncle, is that no one person can make a business succeed on his own. Like it or not, your success depends on the intelligence, dedication, hard work and honesty of the people who work for you.

You have to take care of them, and trust them to take care of you. And you've got to give them a stake in what's going on.

Sure, sometimes they'll let you down, but most of the time you will succeed because of them, not in spite of them.

Now, if you're a reader of business literature, you know that participatory management, employee empowerment, teams, etc. are management fads that come and go every 10 years or so. Often, half the titles in the business section of your local bookstore have something to do with these ideas.

And if you're like a lot of business types, you probably are tempted to dismiss these as the half-baked ideas of some management gurus who never ran any business, let along a successful one.

The truth is, management consultants are simply repackaging the truths that a good many older, experienced and wiser leaders learned the hard way many years ago. They may not have coined any fancy labels for these ideas, they just put them to use. And they succeeded.

Read some of the stories of the most successful businesses over the last 50 years or so and you'll find that most, if not all, of them have learned the lesson my uncle learned a long time ago.

"Do unto others ..." is not just a pious platitude for religious do-gooders. It is an essential - perhaps the essential - management tool we must have in order to succeed.

When we treat others with respect and offer them both responsibility and accountability, they will do their best for themselves and for us.

• Dr. Ken Potts is on the staff of Samaritan Counseling Center in Naperville and Downers Grove. He is the author of "Mix Don't Blend, A Guide to Dating, Engagement and Remarriage With Children."