• Categories

  • Expansion Strategies
  • Franchising
  • Leadership
  • Random Reviews
  • Uncategorized

• Recently Written

  • Newsletter #6 - The “Right Employees” Issue
  • Newsletter #5 The ROE Issue – Getting More With What You Have
  • Random Review - GTD
  • Time Management Tips for Entrepreneurs
  • Reducing Franchise Selling Costs – Part III
  • Shoot Your iPhone
  • Random Reviews – A Random Walk Down Wall Street
  • 9 Things That Need To Change
  • “Employer of the Month” Parking
  • The Worst of Times, The Best of Times – Part II

• Newsletters

  • August 2008 Newsletter - Sound Strategies

• Search

No matter the industry or health of the economy, the most common complaint I hear from organizational leaders is, “I’m having trouble finding good people”. Even today, with unemployment at multiple-decade highs, I still hear it. Perhaps the problem is not the availability of good people, but something much broader in scope.

In this month’s issue, we’re going to take an overall look at this challenge.

For many employers, finding employees and then motivating them and getting them to do what the employer wants is a constant battle. Yet I know a handful of very successful business owners and entrepreneurs who appear quite relaxed in the overall employee hiring and relations sphere.

The answer isn’t quite as simple as hiring competent people and letting them execute their jobs. In working with successful organizations, I’ve found that there exists a multi-step process they use in “finding the right people”.

Step 1 - Create a sense of urgency. There is no employee problem unless a business identifies that there is one. Company leaders must objectively evaluate their current hiring practices and the types of employees, both good and bad, that they employ. Leadership must see its role as critical in formulating an ongoing plan to target good employees. Without this critical first step, consistently finding the right employee is largely a matter of chance.

Step 2 - Develop leadership skills. In order to hire and retain the right people, the leadership team must demonstrate competence in motivating and leading people. While the right leadership style varies by person and situation, there are benchmarks in excellence in leadership. Leaders have to be able to put themselves in the shoes of their employees and honestly ask, “Why should they care?” Most leaders in emerging companies miss this crucial step, and then wonder why they can’t get employees to perform their jobs in the desired manner.

Step 3 - Mold your culture/principles. Actively develop and hone the organization’s corporate culture and organizational principles. The good news is that every company already possesses a culture and set of principles. The bad news: most organizations never actively developed them or modified them over time as the business emerged. The resulting implied culture and principles can lead to employee confusion about actual expectations regarding their job performance and can contribute to ongoing “employee problems”.

Step 4 - Tirelessly bird dog and recruit the right people who share your principles according to “the right formula”. The search for good employees goes on 24/7. You never know where the right person might appear. Keep business cards on you all the time and talk openly of your culture and principles to any person who might make a good fit in your organization. Your next great employee might be standing across from you at the checkout line.

Step 5 - Educate employees to think like owners. Even if you don’t set up an Employee Stock Ownership Program (ESOP), the key to getting employees to think and act like owners is to educate them about the business side of your organization. The more employees know about key aspects of your business and how the success of the company will benefit them, the more likely they’ll act like owners on a day-by-day basis.

Step 6 - Continually educate. People forget. In the day-to-day operational battles, it is relatively easy to let organizational principles and expectations slip.  Find informal opportunities to re-educate everyone of your core principles and expectations. A simple five-minute exercise or story during a company meeting can do wonders.

Step 7 - Provide incentives and hold accountable. Develop programs to reward exceptional performance or effort. Hold yourself and employees accountable to your company principles. If a key organizational principle is to “continually educate ourselves”, then provide incentives for employees to do just that.

Step 8 - Make adjustments. Principles and culture, once set in place, shouldn’t change weekly, but can shift over time as the organization grows and/or faces new challenges within the industry they serve. If the methodology of operating the business changes, identify any applicable shift in your principles or culture and clearly communicate those changes to your employees. If the leadership team is struggling to follow consistently a certain principle, then either educate the team or get rid of the principle. There is nothing more ineffective than an organizational principle that is violated consistently by its leadership team.

Conclusion
Recruiting the right employee requires the identification and development of a formulaic process for recruiting the right individuals for your organization, consistently following that process, and duly modifying that process as any additional information is garnered as to what constitutes the right type of employee for your business.

In the next newsletter, we will further discuss organizational principles and how to create them.

I’ve noticed a disturbing trend: We’ve all have become slaves to our smart phones.

As the gadget du jour, smart phones are supposed to increase productivity and reduce stress. And for 20% of you, this is true. Unfortunately, for the remainder, it’s only made your life spin more out of control.

It’s not Steve Job’s fault, it’s the operator. Without rules of engagement, a smart phone only further exasperates existing challenges. The following are several tips that will allow you to better harness the power of any smart phone:

Use a System. If you think your smart phone will get you organized, you’re sadly mistaken. Begin with a productivity or organizational system. There are plenty of ways to organize your “stuff”. For me, David Allen’s, Getting Things Done methodology has worked best.

Get Off the Pipe. Don’t feel the need to be in immediate and constant touch with the rest of the world. Respond during preset times in the day that make sense for your energy level.

Be In the Moment. This has become endemic issue for many of my clients. Don’t let the phone distract you from your current commitment, be it a meeting, lunch date, or simply a peaceful walk on the beach.

Make Time for Free Thinking. Along the same lime, set time everyday for “email/phone free” time for free thinking or strategic planning.

Use on Vacation Sparingly. While on vacation, let others know you’ll have limited access. Check your mail or phone 2x per day and stick to it. If customers, employers or colleagues demand you respond right away, save your money and stay home because you’re not “on vacation”.

What are your real objectives? If this email or phone call doesn’t help with your strategic goals, get rid of it fast.

Learn Key Features. Many of these phones offer features that dramatically increase the phone’s capabilities. Take the time to learn them.

Do you have any tips that work for you? Email me your ideas and I’ll post them.

While normally I’m a half-glass-full kind of guy, I thought with the end of the economy as we know it, I’d mix things up just a bit with 9 things that need to change.

1. Order taking employees asking “is THAT it?”
Try “does that complete your order?” or “what else can I get for you today?”

2. Overhearing inappropriate conversations between employees. I don’t need to hear about somebody’s boyfriend being arrested last night or you trash-talking a previous customer.

3. Outdated notices on the front door of retail establishments. I recently saw a notice on the front door of a well-known restaurant chain that expired two weeks earlier. No employees were awake enough to see it and take it down?

4. Employees telling customers they care when their body language and tone of voice clearly state otherwise (flight attendants on some of the legacy airlines are classic for this one).
If your company is having this problem, solve it. At the very least, stop requiring employees to say scripted lines such as “we really appreciate your business” when they clearly don’t.

5. The multitasking customer talking on his/her cell phone at the checkout line. Would it be asking too much for you to put your phone down for just a minute to politely converse with the checkout clerk?

6. The “Legend-In-His-Own-Mind” guy in row 14 of your flight. As soon as the landing gear touches down, he shouts into his phone to tell the person on the line (and the rest of the plane) that he’s landed.

7. Jim Cramer. He’s entertaining and knowledgeable, no doubt, but his circus-show won’t make you “mad money” as proven earlier this year by the Wall Street Journal. If you want to become an expert investor, check out this month’s Random Review.

8. Economic statistics and the economists behind them. Now, you’re telling us we’re finally in a recession? I’ve got news for you. We’ve been in a recession for the last 9-12 months. I’ll prove it in a future commentary.

9. “Fresh” donuts made 8 hours ago in a central commissary 30 miles away are anything but fresh.

When I was building my home a few years ago, I would frequent local building supply stores. At one location, one thing that always struck me as odd was the “Parking Reserved for the President” sign conspicuously located right in the middle of customer parking (usually with the owner’s shiny white new Cadillac occupying the space).

So what’s wrong with this picture, you ask? Besides limiting space for customers during busy times, consider that it:

• Reeks of arrogance that the owner is far more important than customers and employees.
• Builds employee resentment to the owner’s success, which manifests itself in poor employee/customer interaction (experienced firsthand).
• Gives an impression that the company is making too much money off their customers (next time, maybe I should shop at the big-box home improvement warehouse down the street to save money).
• Reduces buy-in from employees, which could prove critical when asking for greater effort or sacrifice during lean times (which the company is probably facing right now).

Now, contrasts this experience with a client who has headed an organization for the past few years. Every day, he parks his car farthest from the company’s building. The implied message: I’m no better than anyone else here. The result: a 20% decrease in employee turnover and 15% increase in revenue. Qualitatively, he’s gained buy-in from employees to put through needed change into the organization.

Competition is tougher than ever. Don’t give your customers or employees an easy excuse to defect to your competitors.

When I was building my home a few years ago, I would frequent local building supply stores. At one location, one thing that always struck me as odd was the “Parking Reserved for the President” sign conspicuously located right in the middle of customer parking (usually with the owner’s shiny white new Cadillac occupying the space).

So what’s wrong with this picture, you ask? Besides limiting space for customers during busy times, consider that it:

• Reeks of arrogance that the owner is far more important than customers and employees.
• Builds employee resentment to the owner’s success, which manifests itself in poor employee/customer interaction (experienced firsthand).
• Gives an impression that the company is making too much money off their customers (next time, maybe I should shop at the big-box home improvement warehouse down the street to save money).
• Reduces buy-in from employees, which could prove critical when asking for greater effort or sacrifice during lean times (which the company is probably facing right now).

Now, contrast this experience with a client who has headed an organization for the past few years. Every day, he parks his car farthest from the company’s building. The implied message: I’m no better than anyone else here. He has gained the admiration of employees resulting in a 20% decrease in employee turnover and 15% increase in revenue while under his stewardship. Qualitatively, he’s gained buy-in from employees to bring needed change into the organization.

Competition is tougher than ever. Don’t give your customers or employees an easy excuse to defect to your competitors.