16 Business management lessons from Adam and Eve

According to the business dictionary, a simple definition of business management is the activities associated with running a company, such as controlling, leading, monitoring, organising, and planning.

Contrary to popular opinion, Adam and Eve, the first couple on earth, depending on which divide you belong, laid a solid business management foundation that managers can learn from.

Eden was their business and the way they lost ownership of that venture is instructive.

Even if you are a seasoned manager or a trainee, there is something new for you to learn from this. For those of you who are also bible scholars, there is a bible reference to look up.

1. Take Responsibility: Take responsibility of everything that happens under your watch. Know what is going on in your department. Ask for, and read reports from team members. This is not to say you should be a micro-manager. You can practise what is called management by walking around.  Reference: Genesis 2:15, 3:12.

2. Know your team members: Know the names of your team members. Identify their strong traits, get to know and understand their personal and career goals. Be their friend and show care and love. Adam showed emotional intelligence by taking time to meet and name all the animals in the Garden of Eden. Reference: Genesis 2:20.

4. Walk the talk: Don’t break the rules you speak so much about. Live by example. Reference: Genesis 2:16-17.

6. Make judicious use of the human and material resources at your disposal: Don’t complain. When you complain, you shut your mind from identifying the inherent potentials, and innovative ways to utilise the resources available to you. There could be 12 baskets left-over in just 5 loaves and 2 fishes. Reference: Genesis 2:20.

9. Be a mentor to someone: Raise a protégé. Reference: Genesis 2:23.

10. Spend time alone: Spend sometime alone to rest and ruminate or meditate on your job, tasks, family etc. Reflect on your career goals, how to increase your personal and team productivity and efficiency. You might get new ideas. Reference: Genesis 2:21

11. Practise using praise and words of encouragement. Reference: Genesis 2:23.

12. Team bonding: Hold team bonding exercises. It eases tension and clears any ill feeling among team mates. It breaks any barrier to productivity and team communication. References: Genesis 3:1.

13. Meet with new staff personally: Try as much as possible to handle a part of the orientation training of new staff personally. Reference: Genesis 2:22.

14. Reporting: Always keep your superiors in the know by sending regular status reports. Don’t wait ill they call for it. Reference: Genesis 3:9.

15. Your family is key: Spend quality time with them. Reference: Genesis 3:21, 4:1.

16. Discipline: Openly discipline team members to serve as a deterrent. Reference: Genesis 3:8.