Like all people who follow horseracing, I frequently have opinions as to whether a jockey has made a mistake or not, especially when riding one of my horses. It is very easy to comment on something when you are not the person sitting on the back of a horse travelling at 65 km/h, with a whole host of other horses thundering alongside you. The same applies to the difference between somebody who has never run a business and gives their opinion on how a business should be run, and people who actually have run businesses.

When you are an employee, you tend to have much more liberal views on what motivates people and what does not and what rules you would implement if you were running the business. People, like children, need love and they also need discipline. Unfortunately, many employees do not understand that discipline applies to all, and they believe that an exception should be made for them – on the basis that they are the most senior in the office, the prettiest in the office, the youngest in the office, the hardest working in the office – you get the picture, everybody has a category in which they place themselves and why they think they should get preferential treatment. Perhaps one of the biggest mistakes I have made as a boss is actually taking part in those discussions – in fact, the people that I rely on to give me advice always tell me that I simply should not interact or enter into discussions with people making outrageous demands or ridiculous requests for exceptions – whether it is to work that half day in, or to be able to come and go from work when they want, because apparently they work hard.

The one thing that we can all learn though, is that until you have walked in those shoes, and you have dealt with managing 75 people who bombard you with requests on a daily basis, you really have no clue at all as to how a medium-sized business is run and how it should be run. If the business is doing well, it may well be because it is in fact run well, despite your belief that if you ran it, it would be run better. Ultimately, the enduring success of a business is the mark of whether that business is a success or not, and while it would be nice if every business could make exceptions for every single employee, once a week, as some employees would have it, unfortunately discipline is required. Certainly, you also have to recognise the achievers in your firm and give them credit when credit is due, which in my case I try to do by employee of the year awards as well as a monthly employee of the month, not to forget mentions whenever good results are achieved.