The single greatest mistake a manager can make

You don't have to be a tyrant to get Americans to work together. You just have to give us a reason.

That's what managers are supposed to be able to provide.

Motivation. Goals. Resources. Leadership. But not restrictions. Not being told what to do. Not rules. Oh, God, how Americans hate rules. One of the sharpest entrepreneurs ever was Gardner Symonds, a former chairman of Tenneco*. Tenneco people describe Symonds as the person who had the vision to make Tenneco what it is today – a $14 billion* company.

Once he said there are four things you need to do to build a successful business. One: find the capital. Two: find a favorable environment to employ it. Three: hire the key people. And here's where he took a long pause and said, "So far, I'm not telling you anything you didn't already know, because number four is the important one. Then you've got to know when to get the hell out of the way*. That's the hardest part, but that's the one that will make you rich."

Within three years of the time Pat Fallon, who runs an advertising agency, opened his shop, Advertising Age named Fallen McElligott Rice as Agency of the Year. He has the same problem everyone in the business has: getting out a superior product. He does it by maximizing personal freedom and thus personal responsibility to an almost unheard-of extent*.

Fallon understands that in his business – and in yours, more than you realize – what people are looking for isn't only money, it's recognition, appreciation, and creative freedom*. He gives them what they need. They give him what he needs: the best product in the industry.

Fallon doesn't give orders; he facilitates the creative process by hard work and accessibility. In the ad game*, your inventory is ideas, and they can come from anyone, anywhere. Art directors are as capable of great copy as copywriters are of graphic concepts. The key to keeping the ideas flowing is an atmosphere where everyone can feel free to contribute. That atmosphere requires a barrier-free environment*. That's why if you pick up the phone and call Fallon, you get Fallon... without anyone asking who you are or what you want. There aren't many $100 million-a-year businesses where you can get the boss on the phone without passing through a receptionist and three secretaries. Though Fallon probably talks to more insurance agents and stockbrokers than he wants to, it's a small price to pay for creating the best advertising agency in the country.

No matter what business you're in, to be successful, managers must create the kind of environment that makes their people the most productive. It isn't enough to make them conscious of details* if you destroy their sense of freedom and spontaneity in the process. You must understand them well enough to give them not what you want, but also what they need to make a maximum contribution.

Look at the people who walk out your door and leave you to become successful at their own businesses. Chances are they're not doing it just for the money. They need the room to express their own styles. Give them that room ... and the recognition and appreciation ... and nine out of ten times they won't leave. We've been hearing a lot about "intrapreneurship"* lately. But it isn't some new form of capitalism. It's the old idea of taking talented men or women one step short of a full partnership*, a means for making the employee president of his own company rather than losing him.

We have a sharp young person in our firm who could easily have been a great success on his own, and he had reached the point where he realized it. Just in time, we furnished him the capital and the infrastructure to manufacture his own specialty line as president of Minnesota Color Envelope Company, a Mackay Envelope subsidiary*. Sure, it's not as profitable for us as it would have been if he'd been content to stay on as an ordinary employee. But that wasn't the alternative. The alternative was losing him and winding up having him as a competitor*.

Lyndon Johnson* provided the ultimate justification for that kind of "intrapreneurship," albeit a negative one*, in describing his relationship with J. Edgar Hoover*, "I'd rather have him inside the tent pissing out than outside the tent pissing in."

So remember, you can get your employees to pay attention to detail, and run your ship like an America's Cup yacht*, if you develop a leadership style that delivers your message in a positive way, and if you demonstrate your confidence in your people by giving them freedom to do the job you hired them to do.

Be like jockey Willie Shoemaker. He's the best in the business because he has the lightest touch on the reins. They say the horse never knows he's there – unless he's needed.