What common assumptions should business owners avoid when dealing with their employees?

One is assuming that people are like machines—if you press the right levers in the right way, they’ll do what you expect them to do. Second is assuming that without being threatened by a stick or enticed by a carrot, people will just sit there and do nothing.

Starting with these assumptions defines—and limits—your options, and leads to big mistakes.
 

• Do whatever you can to provide employees with more autonomy over their time, their team, their task and their technique.
• Encourage people to supplement traditional performance reviews by doing their own performance reviews, e.g., setting out monthly goals, then self-evaluating at the end.
• Infuse the workplace with a purpose larger than simply making the numbers or increasing earnings per share by two cents this quarter. Supplement the profit motive with the purpose motive.

Definitely. So edit the question and ask, “Was I a little better today than yesterday?”