What If I Want More Out Of My Management Team?

The can-doers fall into two categories. The first category is the can-do minimizer. Regardless of what you give this person to do, they get it done. Not only do they get it done, but they do so with the minimal amount of “noise.” Regardless of how difficult the task, it gets done. They don’t complain or grouse, they just do what is expected of them. Then there are the can-do maximizers. They get the job done, but they do so with a lot of “noise.” “I had to work so hard on this.” “I have been here since early this morning and I had to stay late last night.” “I got it done, but everybody made my job so hard” etc. I think you get the idea. They get the job done also, but you sure have to hear about it.

The can’t-doers also fall into two categories. There is the can’t-do maximizer. They never get the job done and it is always somebody else’s fault. Then there is the can’t-do minimizer. They are the most lethal. They can’t get the job done and they don’t want you to know that they cannot get it done. They are in way over their heads.

The optimal goal would be to try to get your entire management team to become can-do minimizers. In the real world that will not happen, but we can try. At the least, you need to recognize the can-do minimizers, reward them, and do whatever it takes to retain them because they are invaluable. The can-do maximizers are a different situation. We can try to get them to become minimizers, but in my experience this is not easy to do. It is hard to change people’s way of seeing life. We need to keep these people because they do get the job done. We just have to learn how to deal with them, not lose patience with them, and try to get them to do their jobs with less “noise.” Sometimes just showing them an article like this might work.

The can’t-do maximizer, needs to change or leave. You have to determine if they really cannot get the job done or if they are they so programmed to complain, that they know that if they do so loudly enough and long enough, they won’t have to get the job done. The can’t-do minimizer is lethal to your business and could put you out of business. They like to fly under the radar and go undetected. They can’t get the job done and never will be able to do so. The quicker you replace them, the better off you will be.

There are certain things you need to be aware of. Can-do minimizers have no patience for maximizers any kind. They will never get along with them because it is so contrary to how they think. Maximizers will become fast friends, and like birds of feather stick together. Can’t-do minimizers have the ability if they are in the right position, to put you out of business. They generally think that they fooling everybody. People can be hybrids depending upon the situation. Most people have a very dif cult time changing. Can-doers unfortunately have to learn how to deal with can’t-doers. Everybody can learn to become a can-doer if they want to badly enough.

There are tools available to employers and people trained to use these tools to work on all of the above. Believe me, it would be a great investment. If you need more let’s talk – contact us!

January 18, 2010  Tags: , ,   Posted in: business owner  No Comments

What if I Want to Jump Start 2010?

Anybody who owns their own business is being challenged in ways unknown since the Great Depression. Our challenges are commensurate with our strengths and we are strong. If we were not strong, we would not be in business for ourselves.

In 2010, we are fighting back. We are going to take control of our own destinies. In 2010, we are going to:

  • Take care of our employees, our vendors, our customers and ourselves.
  • Begin to diversify our wealth and in the future not concentrate all of our wealth in our businesses.
  • Make a contingency plan in the even of our death or illness.
  • Get debt free and stay that way.
  • Show constant appreciation to our key employees.
  • Get balance back in our lives.
  • Act like we own our business not like our business owns us.
  • Make a living and a life.
  • Get out of bunker mentality.
  • Work on our businesses as well as in our businesses.
  • Quit being fee adverse, seek the advice of quality advisors.
  • Improve the bottom line by spending less.
  • Let our customers and/or clients know all of the things that we can do for them.
  • Ask our customers and/or clients what we need to do to make it simpler to do business with us.
  • Do what we say we are going to do.
  • Say please and thank you to everyone.
  • Forget common sense, it is time for imagination.
  • Systemize our businesses.
  • Never forget that our future is far greater than our past.
  • Focus on relationships.
  • Forget about yesterday, do not think about tomorrow and just focus on today.
  • Concentrate on what we have to work with, not what is missing.
  • Always stay calm, polite and professional.
  • Strive to be different from everyone else.
  • Make a difference in peoples lives,
  • Get back on our customer and/or clients agenda, not on ours.
  • Respect our customers and/or clients time.
  • Only deal with people that I like.
  • Continue to dream.
  • Thrive on change.
  • Remember that no only means not yet.
  • Never compromise our standards.
  • Never abandon our goals.
  • Listen more than I talk.
  • Quit talking about our failures.
  • Walk in our customer and/or clients shoes.
  • Concentrate only on what is important.

There is always a purpose in what is going on in our lives. Make the negatives positives. The purpose of this downturn in our economy is to help us realize what great opportunities we still have and how good we really are. Go out and make 2010 the best year ever.

January 15, 2010  Tags: , , , , , , ,   Posted in: business owner  No Comments

What If I Want My Employees To “Think Like” Employers

Whether a business owner plans to sell his business to an outside party, to people inside his company or to assume a passive role as an exit alternative, none of these options will work if the management team cannot think more like employers than employees.

Is there a process for this? There is, and we refer to this as the quarterly meeting. The objective of this meeting is to transform the mindset of the management team. If done properly this key employee group will be valuable to an outside buyer, could become the inside buyers or enable the current owner to become a passive owner, knowing that he / she does not have to be there daily in order to have a profitable entity.

The first objective of the quarterly meeting is to give the owner the opportunity to do what he does best and delegate the rest. We ask the owner to write down in list format all of his duties, the things that he does in the business, on a daily basis. There generally will be eight or nine different things on the list. We get the owner to admit that there are only two or three things that he does uniquely well that drive profit to his business. He does these two or three things better than anybody else. We ask him to give away at each quarterly meeting one of his non-unique functions to someone else and keep doing this until he is only doing the two or three things he does best.

The next thing that we focus on are messes. The owner and his management team will identify each quarter a “mess” and commit to eliminate this mess before the next quarter. We encourage the management team to acquire a new ability each quarter. By doing this, the employees begin to see the company, as well as themselves, in a different light.

The owner and his employees ask themselves at these quarterly meetings if there is a “bully” they deal with in their work. This bully could be in their own office. It could be a customer, a client or someone who works for a customer or client. It could be a vendor. Just like grade school, until the bully is knocked down, they will continue to bully. Get rid of the bully.

Also at quarterly meetings, the owner and his team must ask themselves if they are compromising by working with a client or other party that they don’t like, don’t respect and under normal circumstances would not have anything to do with were there not a lot of money involved. All business owners compromise from time to time. Four things that we know about these situations;

  • These kinds of people generally do not change.
  • They drain a lot of positive energy from the business.
  • The owner loses the respect of his management team, whether he realizes it, or not, because they see him dealing with this person.
  • If the owner “hiccups” or makes the slightest misstep, the problematic customer will come after him.

At each quarterly meeting, the owner needs to prepare a list of the most important relationships to his business. These could be vendors, customers, advisors, employees, etc. it is important that the management team begins to ingratiate themselves with these people. Our ultimate goal would be to have the managers enjoy the same relationship as the owner does.

Teaching employees to think like employers does not happen over night. It is a process. A quarterly meeting is an excellent tool to get this process started. After just two years and eight quarterly meetings, can you imagine how much better a business a business owner would have? He would be only doing the two or three things that he does best. He will have cleaned up eight messes. His management team will have acquired eight new capabilities. There would be no more bullies and no more compromising business relationships.

Nice picture, huh?

January 11, 2010  Tags: , , , , , , , ,   Posted in: business owner  No Comments