Most small scale businesses within Nigeria’s automotive industry from the onset are driven by ideas and sheer determination of one principal individual. But to sustain a company, you just can’t get enough from one individual because long-lasting companies are built by collaborative efforts of several people under the right mentorship and leadership.

After having gone through the stages of developing the business from scratch, it’s only natural for bosses to feel even smarter because, truth be told; you just have to be smart and flexible to groom a business especially here in Nigeria with all the overwhelming constraints. However, from my observation of quite a number of businesses,-mostly small scale- it gets to an extent where these bosses’ self-acclaimed smartness and perceived prowess in every facet of the business stifles real significant growth; a condition contrary to what any business leader would hope for or intentionally have a hand in.

So exactly how does being a smart boss especially in the transitional phase of a business-from a sole proprietorship to a company-impair growth? Below are just a few ways bosses being overly smart might be a dumb move.

True delegation almost impossible

Most of these smart bosses pride themselves as the alpha and omega of their businesses; nothing happens without his knowledge and their wits is perceived as being a scale above others. With this kind of mentality in play, it becomes very difficult for them to hands off core operational activities and face key managerial roles. In an unsuccessful bid to do both, they end up not achieving much and thereby, rarely involving subordinates to handle some highly relevant business activities. What separates companies from sole-proprietorships is the existence of functioning laid out structures. Wise bosses know the smart thing to do is always to effectively delegate and take advantage of the smartness of a handful of employees.

Harnessing ideas from workers less likely

When staff are made to believe that their bosses are the smartest, they know for a fact that the safe thing to do-knowing fully well the difficulties in securing a job- is never to give the slightest impression of them out-smarting their bosses. For bosses in full supply of ego, that’s even an outright taboo. Another issue in play here is the fact that workers feel less as being a part of the company, so even with the brightest ideas, they just might keep it to themselves till they probably get to work under new bosses or start a similar business. Besides, when they don’t take up certain key roles they hardly have encounters that are most likely to generate ideas that can change companies.

Staff motivation low

This final observation isn’t far-fetched; most of these so called smart bosses tend to ‘use’ their workers and hardly pay well. Take home pay on this side of the globe is a crucial ingredient in formulating any practicable motivational plan for workers. When this is taken out of the equation, workers only pretend to be happy because they need the job.

Asides monetary factors, other factors like roles they play, rewards (non-cash) and perception actively come into play when staff motivation is concerned.
source:http://www.autobaseafrica.com/smart-boss-impaired-business-growth/[color=#000099][/color]