Nobody Ever Listens To My Ideas!

Doesn’t it just tick you off when you hear one of your employees whine, “Nobody ever listens to my ideas.”

Of course, they give you half-baked ideas and expect you to take the ball and run with it, you know, to hammer out the details, test the processes and put them into action. Even if they wanted to work with their idea, they have no clue how to go about it. 

But you are busy and you don’t have time to do their work. So you tell them to flesh out their ideas and bring them back to you. That, of course, leads to a…

 Stalemate.

So, your business loses two ways.  Some ideas that are trashed might prove quite useful if properly developed and implemented.

And as if that isn’t bad enough, casting aside employees’ ideas erodes trust and breaks down morale- your employees feel unappreciated and frustrated.  

Result: You, the small business owner has to come up with all of the ideas yourself.

Manager after manager has told me that most of their employees also believe they have great ideas. And that these ideas largely go to waste.  

These ideas go to waste because creativity- the kind of creativity that will make you money- is largely misunderstood.

Most people think that creativity is the “blank slate” kind of thing that artists do. You know, sit in a room and wait for the “eureka” to come down from above. In reality, this is an environment that very few of us get to work in.

Adaptation is the form of creativity that is cheaper, faster and more certain of success. 

You see, adaptation is really about 90% of the kind of creativity that should go on in business. Building on other people’s good ideas is fast. Pure invention is slow and uncertain and costly.

I provide the checklists and flowcharts to clearly lay out the steps so your employees can implement great money-making ideas for your small business.

They’ll feel happier and more appreciated- and you will be laughing all the way to the bank

How Do Superstars Become Drones?

I got a question on my last blog entry asking me how to keep new employees motivated and how to keep them from becoming demoralized.

You know, you hire someone who you thought was going to be a superstar– and then within a few weeks, your new hire had become just like the rest of your under-performing, “Thank-god-it’s Friday staff?”  

It is a frightening thing when superstar employees turn into drones, right in front of your eyes.

Definition of drone: dull eyes, dragging feet, sick calls, do-as-little-as-possible, look the other way when something  needs to be done, make excuses, talk about everything but work, etc.

Why do superstars become drones? It’s because your current employees conspire to drag the new guy down to their level. They don’t want the new guy to make them look bad.

The problem is you can’t put a healthy plant in poisonous soil and expect it to thrive.

The solution?

Your performance review should be 2/3 behavior-based. Specifically, 2/3 of your performance review should be based on behavior with customers, co-workers and management.

If you want to control your staff’s behavior, you have to tell them exactly how to behave.  These behaviors should be laid out in your performance reviews and employment contracts.

But, most small business owners don’t have a list of behaviors to expect…and even if they did have that list, they have no easy way to measure the behaviors.

Obviously I have the answer or else I wouldn’t be writing about this.

Get a free sample of my behavior scorecard: http://www.haveperfectpeople.com/how_perfect_people_behave.html

Hit The “Hire-Me” Switch

Want to get more work done with less people?

I can show you how to boost productivity by hiring superstars—and getting rid of your “average working drone.” Your new, smiling superstars will do twice the work of current drones.

You will smile quietly to yourself with your new found power- the power to pick and choose between superstar employees who are dying for the chance to work for you.

You see, I am the world’s foremost expert in the differences in the brain between superstar employees and drone employees.

Don’t believe me? Google “superstar employee behavior” and see who comes up #1(and #2). Me J.

I have discovered that every superstar employee out there has a “hire- me” switch hidden deep inside their brain.

And there are superstar employees out there, right now, restless and bored, just waiting for the employer who can truly “hit-the-switch” and give them exactly what they have always been looking for.

And its not about what business you are in… even if you need employees to do dirty manual labor, dish washing, customer service or telephone sales. And its not about how much money you have to offer.

It is how you talk to them. I use simple words and ideas to flick-the-switch … that will earn you their admiration and ultimate respect. 

Superstars will start looking at you– and your small business– in a whole new, wonderful way. Dazzled and intrigued.