Entrepreneur Deborah Meaden is on hand to solve your business dilemmas
I have recently joined a company that seems to be very keen on socialising after hours. I have been asked by my boss to join the office football team, which is fine with me, but, more worryingly, he has also asked me to play golf with him. My dilemma is that I have a rather impressive handicap and am likely to wipe the floor with my opponent. So, should I fall on my own sword and let the boss win or should I show him what I’m made of?
Name withheld, by email
You need to think about how you want this relationship to develop. If you’re doing this because you want to, then fine, but if it’s for the possible advancement of your career, if it bothers you now, how are you going to feel when your boss asks to see you every week? As for letting the boss win — don’t. It’s a lie. It’s much better to be yourself, be very good at what you do and get to the top that way. It’s politics versus skill and skill is always better in my book. I don’t like political people. If the boss reacts badly to being beaten at a game of golf, think about how long you’re going to be working for this person and what effect they might have on your career. If the effect is great then you have to ask yourself if you really want to work for such a person.
My small company has recently formed a partnership with another. While my new business partner is hardworking, good with numbers and brilliant with people, he has very little idea how to spell, wield an apostrophe correctly or even use capital letters consistently. Since correspondence goes out in his name how can I, as it were, send him back to school without hurting his feelings?
Name withheld, by email
Firstly, the person must be good and will have impressed you at some point otherwise you wouldn’t have gone into partnership with him. On the other hand, of course everybody should strive for perfection when presenting their business. You need to tackle this one head on and say, “Look, you’ve got everything else in the bag but you can’t send out letters like that.” If they’re a good person, they’ll want to sort it out. A good system might be to make sure all correspondence goes through a PA before it goes out. If you’ve got a brilliant partner, you don’t want them wasting time making sure capital letters are OK if they have the essence right, and it might be better to have someone else check the details instead.
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