As a business owner, would you be interested in learning three distinct activities that if you implemented today would bring you sustained success for your business?
Jack, a business owner of 4 years, recently received a phone call from Bill, his supplier. In the conversation, Bill mentioned a meeting he had had with Jack’s employee out in the field in front of the owner of the project. Jack hung up from that call, walked into his employee’s office and preceded to rail on the employee about having THAT kind of conversation in front of an owner.
Jack didn’t stop and ask for the employee’s side of the conversation. Jack didn’t call the owner to see if there was an issue. Jack didn’t stop and ask if what the supplier, Bill, had said was true. Jack didn’t stop and think about the 25 years of experience his employee has, nor did Jack stop and think about the countless hours this employee puts in for him every week. Jack didn’t stop and think about the best way to bring up this issue.
Jack simply reacted and he reacted badly.
In fact, Bill had misled Jack. The context of the conversation wasn’t out of line and the employee handled it with diplomacy. There was no issue with the owner. But now there is an issue that Jack will be dealing with for a long time. Broken trust. If Jack had understood one of the three activities I’m going to introduce, this entire scenario would never have occurred.
And there’s Julie. Julie has run her wholesale company for 28 years. Jerry, her sales manager, who has been there over 15 years, was holding a sales meeting. Julie never attends these sales meetings and in fact, never asks how they went. Because sales were slower than Julie liked and she walked by while the sales meeting was still in progress, Julie opened the door and told Jerry, in front of his staff, that the meeting had gone on long enough, there were people waiting on the warehouse floor for something to do and his people needed to start making sales calls and start generating work. Then she walked out.
Julie didn’t stop and think how interrupting that meeting would look. She didn’t think how it might embarrass Jerry. Julie didn’t stop and listen to the laughter that came from the meeting indicating people were engaged and actually having a great meeting. Julie didn’t think how her actions might influence the sales staff.
Julie simply reacted and she reacted badly.
In fact, the sales meeting was 2 minutes from being over, the staff had just exceeded their last month’s sales goals by 15% and they were going over some new product information that would help sales for the next month. The issue that Julie created by not waiting until the meeting was over and talking to Jerry alone will impact her company far into the future. That issue: Broken trust.
If Julie had implemented one of the three activities I’m going to introduce, she wouldn’t have felt the need to assert her control.
If you own a business and if you have employees, you have your hands full. But just like Jack and Julie, sometimes we make it so much harder than it has to be.
Want to know what those three activities are that will guarantee scenarios like the two mentioned above never happen? Want to know how to avoid being a business owner who feels you are babysitting your employees? Want to know how to avoid having those horrible closed-door meetings with employees where you have to correct their behavior?
1. Company-Focused Communication.
2. Team-Focused Communication.
3. Individual-Focused Communication.
As a business owner, you have a lot riding on how your business performs. I know I felt that pressure when I was running a company with 100+ employees and it sometimes seemed that every single employee simply came to work, grabbed their paycheck and asked for time off.
I believe that when people communicate, problems are solved. When people communicate, trust is maintained. When people communicate, no one feels taken advantage of. When people communicate, egos get stroked. When people communicate, ideas get generated.
Want to eliminate unproductive behavior? Want to engage your employees? Want to stop feeling you have to be in control of everything?
Start communicating. Do it from a Company-wide perspective. Do it from a Team-wide perspective. Do it from an Individual perspective. Start communicating on a regular basis to your entire company, to your divisions or teams and to your direct reports.
Try it. Communicate key ideas. Communicate key attitudes. Communicate key behaviors. Simply start talking more consistently to your employees and your employees will start talking to you.
