Dream Tall

It was January of 2000 and everything should have been perfect.

I was sitting at home on my plush leather sofa in my fancy suburban living room. Outside the snow was falling heavily creating a beautiful winter wonderland.

A crackling fire was blazing in the fireplace. I had warm, fuzzy slippers on. A chilled Grey Goose martini was in hand. My loving family sat all around me; their cheerful faces beaming as they chatted about yet another Eagles playoff victory.

But something was terribly wrong.

Despite my beautiful surroundings, my heart was filled with a dull, aching sadness that day as I looked out across the snowy landscape. I had arrived at a crossroads in my life. And I was terrified. I had almost lost all hope.

Really, this mournful feeling had been deepening for years. All because of work. Or so I thought.

You see, I was restless and bored. At work, we kept making little changes here and there. Things would get better for a while. But nothing ever really got better for long.  Something was missing. We would always find ourselves right back where we started.

 On a dead-end road. Paved with broken dreams.

I was spending my workday with people whose only ambition in their working lives was to punch a clock and make some money and go home and forget about it all and dread the next time they have to come back.

When I started this company I thought the sky was the limit. I was passionate about learning and growing. I wanted to recapture that energy. I longed to feel that child-like joy of learning again. I wanted to experiment, take chances, and have fun.

But after years of struggle, I discovered the sweet salvation I always knew was out there.

The Devil’s Tools

If your employee comes to you with tears in their eyes complaining about their job description and role in your company, this is only happening for one reason. They are using the “Devil’s Tools.”

 

The “Devil’s Tools are emotions like jealousy, envy, and selfishness.  And the more your employees work with these tools, the more miserable they become.

 

As the employee falls deeper and deeper into the abyss, they will make your life a living hell because they only care about themselves. They’ll start talking bad about you and your company behind your back, destroying morale all around.

 

How do you straighten them out and get them thinking that there actually is a big picture? Definition of “big picture”:  your customers, coworkers, and especially…YOU.

 

You might just want to smack them around and tell them to shape up, but the first thing you have to do is listen to them whine. They are going to want to tell you all of their problems. Swallow your pride and let them vent.

 

Once they’ve spewed out all of their poisonous venom, it’s time to redirect their attention to the big picture.

 

How exactly do you go about doing that?

“That’s Not In My Job Description”

Wouldn’t you like your employees to clearly understand that the only reason they exist at work is to help you- the boss– succeed?

Would you like a staff of hard-working, happy campers thrilled to come to work for you each morning?

Right now this may not be the case. You may have even heard one of your workers say “That’s not in my job description?” Ticks you off, doesn’t it?

You may not even  know exactly what you want your new people to do, how you want your new people to behave, and how success will be measured.

And this lack of a clear job description inevitably comes back to bite you in the ass. Warning signs include; decreased loyalty, grumbling, and reduced productivity. Plus, your staff will begin to hate you– and conspire against you– behind your back.

You will never have more power over your people than in the beginning of the employee life cycle. Take full advantage of this power to nail them down tight.

Prospective employees won’t argue about your rules during the hiring process (in fact, they will agree to almost anything).

And best yet, you can tell these employees exactly how you expect them to behave when they are in your business.

But if you change the rules of the game down the road you are asking for trouble.

 

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.

How To Make Your Employees Behave

You know, I believe that business success is a result- not an accident. Success is the result, largely, of behaving differently from the masses- including peers and competitors.

 Key words here: BEHAVE DIFFERENTLY. Yes folks, the most successful small businesses behave differently.

 You might be saying right now, “Sounds good Kurt, but how can I make my employees behave differently?”

 You probably have a pretty good idea of the skills you would like your employee to perform– but you have no clear, written requirement of how you expect your employees to behave. 

Result: You focus on hiring for skills… and then you end up firing for bad employee behavior.    

 Here is the reason why this happens: Up until now, it has been relatively easy to measure employee skills and much more difficult to measure employee behavior.

 Well lucky for you, I have de-mystified this whole employee behavior thing.

 My Perfect People staffing system is built on measuring, identifying and improving the employee behaviors that are linked directly to increased profitability and a smoother running workplace.

 To be more specific, I have identified 35 superstar employee behaviors—and found a way to measure these behaviors with cold, hard numbers. No guesswork involved. And it is all so simple and easy-to-use.

 And perhaps best yet, I can show you how to use my staffing system to eliminate  negative employee behaviors and get your employees to focus on the “big picture” (you).

Believe me, your little heart will yelp for joy as you create a more stress-free workplace that generates more profits than you ever dared imagine (and more worry-free time off for you).

 The only thing separating you from where you are now and this remarkable future is consistent daily use of my insider’s secrets. To begin, click on http://www.haveperfectpeople.com/how_perfect_people_behave.html