Get the right people quickly

If you have been a subscriber for some time, you see me give advice regarding keeping your people, and that turnover kills you.  Each time a person leaves and you have to hire a new one, that piece of your business is brand new.

You also hear me say that if you have the wrong person you need to recognize it and let them go elsewhere so you can find the right person for that seat.

The idea between them is that you need to get the right people and keep them as quickly as possible.  If you made a hiring mistake, fix it and get the right person there.  Don’t string out this process for any more months or years as it needs to take.

It takes plenty of time even if you do it right.  Don’t make it take any longer than it has to.

Once you get the right people in the right seats, then they can build their knowledge and experience and teamwork – and that’s when things get fun.

A leader is team-builder-in-chief.  The better and faster you can do that job, the faster your business will pop.

The business will never outperform the leader.

“If I wasn’t a leader who really cared so much about the results I was getting, I might not care so much about who I was being.” – LJ

HIgh-Trust Environment

When people on a team know and trust each other, it makes a world of difference compared to if they did not trust or like each other.

In a high-trust environment, people aren’t questioning others’ motives, trying to be difficult as revenge for earlier transgressions, and aren’t going out of their way to cooperate or make other people’s projects successful.  They don’t spend a lot of time trying to dissect what other people really mean or want, and then questioning it.

In a high-trust environment, people know how others communicate and can know what they mean quickly.  They believe each other and in each other.  They want to show up and do a good job for each other and everyone wants to reciprocate.

This High-Trust Environment doesn’t show up on a balance sheet, yet it may be the most important asset a company has.

Hire for attitude, train for skill

“When hiring, look for people with the right attitude.  Skills can be taught.  Attitude changes require a brain transplant.” -Elon Musk

Do all your people have the right attitude?

“If you made a hiring mistake, it is a second mistake not to correct it.” – Larry Janesky

Working with friends

Working with friends is nice.  I love to call the people I work with friends.  There are advantages like you know the person’s skills, intentions and you can trust them.

There is a problem however.  You don’t tend to call BS on your friends.  You will be more hesitant to call them out on poor or slow performance.  You don’t want to throw your friends under the bus.  Of course, this is just as much your bad as theirs.

What do you do about it?  Well if you are the boss it’s easier than if you are not.

I’d have a private conversation and tell them you what you are seeing.  Ask for them to fix it – for you and the rest of the team.  Don’t be shy.  Afterall, if they are your real friend they wouldn’t want to let you down – right?  You have to communicate.  Don’t wait until you blow up about it.

Have you put up with bad behavior or performance from people because they are your friends (or family)?

For the competitive – enemies make you better.

If we are honest, we can see that our enemies made us better by forcing us to get better to deal with them.

If we had no enemies or competitors, we’d be lazy and complacent.

A primary feature of capitalism is that it has providers trying to out do each other to win the consumer’s business.

This effort makes the providers stretch, innovate, try harder, and get creative to win.  The consumer is the winner as they get more for less, and better stuff. 

Among the providers, the ones whom the consumer doesn’t like, starve and go out of business. This is how things get better.  The consumer is in charge, and providers try to be their best choice.

How has having “enemies” or competitors made you better? 

What did it make you do?

Leaders – Weak and Strong

Weak leaders silence voice and shoot the messenger.

Strong leaders welcome voice and thank the messenger.

Great leaders build systems to amplify voice and elevate the messenger.

Which are you?

Bad apples

Think about each one of your employees.  Do you have a low performer among them? 

A complainer?  A bad attitude?  

Would you hire this person again?

So why are you holding onto them and making their coworkers suffer by having to work with them each day?

Make room for someone better.

Important questions to ask your customer.

What are three very important questions to ask your customer?

Questions that would unlock their reasons for buying or reasons for not buying….

Questions that would tell you what you have to provide to earn their business easily….

Like – What is most important to you when you are in the situation to need a product/service like this?

What would be your ideal solution to your problem?

Craft three questions – and ASK THEM!

Make sure your salespeople are asking them too.

Gather the answers, and reinvent your product or service if you have to.

Call your company and ask for help

If you call your own company and ask for help, what is that experience like?

If you submit a request online on your own website, how long does it take for your company to get back to you?

What is that experience like?

Do this!  Many of you will be surprised with the result!