According to a recent Harris poll, a third of American workers will look for new jobs at the first opportunity. Almost half of those will do so because they have lost trust in their employers. What have your reactions to the recession told your employees about your leadership and character? Do you share the gains and the pains? Do you give credit where credit is due? Do you demonstrate respect and appreciation for all of your employees who are making a positive contribution? Are your employees involved in decisions affecting their work? Do you value their input? Do they respect and trust you? Will they seek new jobs as soon as the economy strengthens leaving you unable to move ahead?
It is all the rage to down play talent, quote Malcolm Gladwell, and talk about 10,000 hours of practice. With this mentality, you would only hire people who have spent at least 10,000 hours doing whatever it is you need them to do. There are three things wrong with this thinking: Most positions do not require a level of expertise akin to that of a concert violinist. Most employees are not hired to perform one set of tasks over and over. The demands placed on employees change over time. In reality, most employees learn many new skills throughout their careers and adapt to a wide variety of demands. As the company changes and their roles change, employees must change and they must do so in far less than 10,000 hours! So, work hard and long to develop the skills and knowledge you most crave, encourage others to work hard and constantly practice to improve their performance, but hire talent!
CEO or last bottle washer, you will perform your best and be happiest if you are captain of your own ship! Master of your fate! This is true for everyone, at every level of your company. Granted, some people’s ships are bigger than others but in every case, we are all at our best – proudest, most motivated, happiest, and most successful – when captain of our own ship – when we know what we are about and can control our fate. But you can’t be captain if you don’t know you have “a ship” and understand what constitutes “your ship.” And you don’t want to be an organization of pirates, even well intentioned pirates, who commandeer ships on whim.
When out for a walk or run, most of us head for the high and dry path, the even steps, and smooth pavement. If you are in a hurry, dressed-up, or bird-watching, this makes all the sense in the world. But if you are out for exercise, hit the mud and the ruts. Why? Walking on sinking or uneven terrain is more work, and thus, more exercise. If you don’t believe me, try it. Ask yourself why you keep gravitating back to the smooth path. Walking at a tilt strengthens and stretches under-used muscles.You need more and different muscles to walk on uneven ground. Toning those other muscles improves balance and reduces the chance of falling. This is not my area of expertise but if you think about it for a minute, it can’t not be true.
We all have flaws. Some are our secrets and unlikely to see the light of day. Some, known both to us and others, are old news. Others, those visible to everyone but unknown to us, hold incredible value. These are the golden nuggets. These are the insights that might lead us to see the world in a new way and shock us into changing our thoughts and behavior. These are the nuggets that might be our keys to greater success and happiness. If these nuggets are so valuable, why are they usually inaccessible to us?
“Why can’t my employees make decisions? Why do they always have to come to me?” Busy clients ask me these questions frequently. Are their employees unwilling, incapable or simply indecisive? The following tips will not only answer those questions, they will also help you dramatically improve employee decision making. 1. Does the employee understand what decisions you expect him or her to make? Don’t laugh. It is not at all uncommon for people to complain that someone is unwilling to do something they don’t realize they are expected to do. Unclear expectations are especially likely if you have been making certain decisions all along. Are you sure you have made it clear that you want someone else taking responsibility? Even if you have been clear, your employees may not really believe you. If they don’t think you trust them to make the decision, they simply won’t believe you really want them to do it. “I know he says it, but he doesn’t really want us to go ahead without his approval.”
You tell them over and over again, but they don’t seem to get it. They don’t get it, so you don’t trust them. You don’t trust them, so you don’t give them more responsibility. You have to do things yourself. Plus, you have to keep them under control. How will you ever make real progress? You won’t. Not alone. You need their help. All of them. But first, they need your help. Read the first sentence of this article again. See how much trouble is caused just because they don’t seem to get it? But that isn’t the root cause – their inability to get it. It all starts with the telling. Have you really done what you can to help them understand what you are trying to tell them?
Class is over and employees are energized. They rush back to their offices where a screen full of email, a stream of voicemails, and piles of work quickly suck them back into the world of old habits – business as usual. Where is the hope? How can they possibly digest what they have learned, figure out how to apply it, and then find the opportunity to practice it? Just Google “Making training stick,” or something similar, and you will find a multitude of long articles that leave the Googler, likely the supervisor, in the same boat as the trainee. No, worse off than the trainee – not even energized and definitely wishing for an escape such as “class dismissed.”