Recruiting, Acquiring and KEEPING upper echelon employees begins with…

Most companies are striving to get the best employees and keep them as they know this is integral to their success and growth. Competition is steep as the number of “A Players” seems to be dwindling by the day. The consolation? Not many have mastered this art, so making an effort goes a long way!

As usual, let’s start at the beginning…

How do you attract “A players” in the first place?

One of the most innovative and effective ways is by creating interesting and fun videos to tempt great employees and leaders to your company. I have seen this succefully done by companies like Zappos and MindVakkey, it has the top employees coming to them to apply and vy for positions!

But how do we accomplish this for our company when it isn’t young and hip or when we don’t have a fun business because  we sell widgets!

IF your perspective is open and willing, then you can accomplish the goal of painting a picture that is appealing for prospective employees. NOW, let me preface this with this admonition, IF your company only paints the picture as being a good, fair and fun company to work for but it is riddled with a different culture totally, then even if you are successful in recruiting top employees, they will shortly find out the reality and move on to a company that better suits them. SOOOO, this is only the first step to having an employee team of  upper echelon employees.

Alright, so now back tot he video idea…

ANY subject can be fun and interesting if you have the right perspective. You may not have this perspective, so you might want to hire someone to make this or even better, delegate it to some of your employees. Ah! Here’s an idea: Have a contest for different departments to make each a video for recruiting. They can talk about how it is to work there or about events that you hold, whatever. But, then you can have a viewing party and vote for the best video. Make a day out of it!

Don’t believe ANY subject can be funny? Would you think it is possible to be funny when delivering the “speech” all airlines must give before takeoff, “There are four exits…” etc.?

Thin again. Check out this video by Virgin Airlines. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyygn8HFTCo&NR=1

Have a recruiting video already? Post a link here, we would love to see it and learn from your example.

To your continued success,

C

 

 

Your Laziest Employees’ Impact on the Rest of the Employee Team… is WORSE Than You Think!

In a study of 158 students, a test was designed to see how conscientious and motivated they were, and then they were sorted into 33 teams.

Each team was given a case study to work on, and was told that each team member would receive the same grade based on how well they did.

Benjamin Walker, a PhD candidate at the University of New South Wales’ Australian School of Business, found that “the person who contributes the least has a huge impact. Even if the rest of the team is pulling their weight, they won’t be able to compensate for that member.”  That single lazy person ended up with the most responsibility for team failure or success.

What about irresponsible people? Do they have the same affect? No, Walker ran tests to see if recklessness affected team performance, but found that the group mentality overrode the few impulsive people–in a way that it couldn’t do with lazy folks.

So, will you allow a lazy person to erode everyone else’s potential success?

Or will you step forward to make a small change that could drastically affect the entire company’s success?

C

How to know how your employees REALY feel about you:

They WILL NOT tell you! Probably EVER! Even on exit interviews, people do not tell the truth as they generally are worried about getting a good referral from the company. Hence, the question is raised “How DO you know?”

Bnet has FOUR signs to read in order to find out:

How do you know what they really think? Very rarely will people tell you directly. So you have to be adept at reading their behavior–and your own. Here are four signs:

1. They often argue with you

This is a good sign. People do not argue if they don’t care. Workplace arguments are healthy because it means people are invested in outcomes.

If you haven’t had an underling push back in the last week, then you have staffers who are under-invested. They don’t care. You’ve ticked them off. They have decided that you aren’t worth their time.

The best thing you can do to remedy this situation is to show people you care about their opinion. How? By thanking them for their suggestions, admitting you’re wrong and changing your path. Do it now, before it’s too late and no one is ever willing to tell you you’re wrong.

2. You haven’t had to apologize in a while
If you don’t say you’re sorry once a week at work, then you’re not honest about your mistakes. And people are sick of it. You shouldn’t wait until some epic mistake–you’ve run over a child or poisoned a stray cat–until you apologize. Apologize for the for small, everyday mistakes as well. It’s a sign of respect and caring to say you’re sorry. Which is why you can be pretty sure your employees hate you if you don’t apologize regularly.

Start now to fix things. But remember that body language and tone matters. You can’t fake an apology and make it matter. A fake apology actually aggravates the situation.

So manage in your heart, first, to honestly believe you should have done better. And whatever you do, don’t say, “I’m sorry but–”  An apology doesn’t have a follow-up clause. It doesn’t have a summation.

The most powerful thing to say after “I’m sorry”? Nothing.

3. You’re good at the details

Guess what? Management is not about details; it’s about people. You have to love people to be a good manager and trust those people to be good with details because they are conscientious, capable people who care about their work. If you are caring about details more than people, then you are treating people as if they are not capable, and then, of course, they will perform that way.

It’s easy to be incompetent when that’s what the boss expects. But look out, because
people who perform poorly feel bad about their work. And if they feel bad about their work, they probably resent you for that.

So here’s a suggestion: Trust people. Put faith in them. Manage people in a way that allows them to take care of details. If you don’t like how they manage details, fire them. But it does no one good for you to do the details for the people you manage.

4. You think you can be a better manager

If you think you could improve, you’re probably right. If you think you’re doing just fine, you’re probably wrong.  This research comes from Tiziana Casciarofrom Rotman School of Management. Casciaro says that people who are focused on improving a given trait at work can almost always make good progress.

Also, if you think you can improve, you display the type of optimism that is contagious. Because optimism (and pessimism) are contagious and the manager sets the tone for the team. An optimistic team will like you even if you’re having a bad day – or month. A pessimistic team will think you stink, even if you’ve been putting in a decent performance as a manager for years. Perception of your team is what matters. But maybe you already know that.

If you do, you’re probably already a manager people like.

How to get your team (or anyone) to pay attention or care AT ALL! Seth Godin chimes in…

Want to talk to your team? Write a memo? Communicate a change? Want them to read your newsletter or blog?

Why not write NAKED. I have said this for years, communicate with clarity and with raw realness or don’t do it at all.

Seth Godin weighs in today too from his blog:

Writing Naked

Here are Orwell’s rules, edited:

1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print. You don’t need cliches.

2. Never use a long word where a short one will do. Avoid long words.

3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.

4. Never use the passive where you can use the active. Write in the now.

5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent. When in doubt, say it clearly.

6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous. Better to be interesting than to follow these rules.

The reason business writing is horrible is that people are afraid.

Afraid to say what they mean, because they might be criticized for it.

Afraid to be misunderstood, to be accused of saying what they didn’t mean, because they might be criticized for it.

Orwell was on the right track. Just say it. Say it clearly. Say it now. Say it without fear of being criticized and say it without being boring.

If the goal is no feedback, then say nothing. Don’t write the memo.

If the goal is to communicate, then say what you mean.

My best tip is this: buy a cheap digital recorder. Say what you want to say, as if the person you seek to persuade is standing there, listening. Then type that up. Simplify. Send.

So, how will this change what you write today?

C

7 Ways You Make Your Employees Miserable

7 Ways You Make Your Employees Miserable!
Employees should be motivated to perform by their managers, not in spite of their managers. As we discussed in 10 Things That Good Bosses Do, a good manager provides employees with:

* Direction, tools, and training they need to do their job effectively.
* A challenging, engaging, and rewarding work environment.
* Freedom from management politics and other assorted BS.

Notice there’s nothing in there that reads, “Make everyone’s job harder by acting like a self-important, egotistical, micromanaging control freak.” That’s because that’s not what good managers do. That’s what dysfunctional managers do.

It’s not even a rare occurrence. In my management and consulting experience, it’s entirely too common. And here’s the thing that’s going to @#!*% off a lot of people. It’s really common in the middle management ranks.

That’s because, unlike senior executives, middle managers haven’t yet “arrived,” so proving themselves is first and foremost on their minds and they’re not always sensitive to who they step on in the process of getting there. In other words, their own needs and wants come ahead of the group.

I know that sounds harsh, but who among you is beyond the need for improvement? That’s right, nobody. And guess what? If getting ahead and “making it” is your top priority, you’ll get there a lot faster by taking your job and your responsibility seriously. And that means not doing these:

7 Ways Managers Make Employee’s Jobs Harder:

1. Give cryptic or incomplete direction and expect people to read your mind. You’re in a hurry because your time is so important – more important than anyone else’s – which of course gives you a license to tell people half of what they need to know and then beat them up when they guess wrong on the rest.
2. Stay in your comfort zone and don’t push the envelope. When you sign up for high-risk and high-visibility projects or stick your neck out for your group, it clears the way for all your people to grow and shine with everyone watching. High priority stuff gets attention, resources, and raises, too.
3. Control or limit information flow. “Always go through me,” “don’t cc him,” “you don’t have a need to know that,” “You’ll find out when I think it’s time” – classic micromanaging and controlling behavior that reduces employee effectiveness.
4. Let your employees take the heat when you should be accountable. This is inexcusable for the simple reason that your people are your responsibility. When they succeed, it reflects well on you. And when they fail or screw up, that should reflect poorly on you. You were hired and you’re paid to be held accountable, not to be scarce when management is beating up on your people.
5. Be a coward when it comes to delivering bad news and criticism. One of the most challenging but important management functions is to spend time explaining and teaching people how they can improve and delivering bad news that affects them. I know nobody wants to be the “bad guy,” but when you’re tough and straightforward, you’re actually being the “good guy.”
6. Ask for stuff people have already given you. This is a classic sign of dysfunctional management. What you’re really saying is that, because you’re so much more valuable than everyone else, it’s more productive for them to do something twice than for you to look for it once. What a load of crap.
7. Let everyone walk all over you. If you’re a wimpy doormat, then more assertive and aggressive peers will more effectively sell their ideas and get budget and resources for their programs and people. If you don’t fight for your people, it’s all downhill – not just for you, for everyone in your group.

From Bnet: read more here  http://ow.ly/5p5hy

The #1 stress of work and the #1 time killer!

In a Bnet post, the data is clear: over 80% of email requires clarification because it’s so poorly written. That’s almost two hours a day and roughly $1.2 trillion in wages a year that are wasted mismanaging email.

How do we fix this?

Tell employees to keep it simple. “Summarize and use bullet points,” he says. “Make it clear what you want the email to accomplish by putting the action requested by your reader right up front.” They’re small adjustments that can have a huge impact on efficiency.

So, what will you do differently starting today?

C

Manage Without Micromanaging

I have worked with many on the balance between managing and micromanaging. If you manage people, then you have dealt and maybe even wrestled with this yourself.

Some feel they should let people totally make their own mistakes and figure it all out in order not to “micromanage” and then others do micromanage and then they fool themselves into believe that they aren’t.

You may say, “How important is not to micromanage?”

The issue is that you tear into your employee longevity when you micromanage.  The Washington Business Journal reiterated last month the number one reason employees leave a company is because of an issue with their direct manager.

Often, it is due to micromanaging or lack of leadership from their manager.

So, how do we know what balanced management looks like? How do we achieve it?

The Harvard Business Review give a great plan for this. I think this is a fantastic plan for how to begin to be a master delegator!

Start by expecting your people to use Prep-Do-Review themselves in their work. Not only will it make them more effective, but it will provide a way for you to become involved in their work as appropriate for the person and the situation.

This is the way it works:

Prep: Start by previewing people’s plans with them and suggesting changes, if necessary. You do this by asking crucial questions. What are you going to do? Why — for what purpose? How will you do it? How can you use this to make progress on our goals and plans? Who should be involved or kept informed? How can this be used to help you learn and get better? What if your assumptions are wrong or the unexpected happens? This is how you move your group’s purpose, plans, and work forward, how you coachand develop others, how you delegate more confidently, how you assure yourself that someone is well prepared and ready to act on her own.

Do: Based on what you learned in the Prep stage, you can decide whether and how to be involved in the doing of the activity. Working with a novice, you may want to perform the activity yourself while the person observes. Next, you may want to monitor periodically as the person does the activity and then give them feedback afterward. Thereafter, you probably don’t need to be present at all — the Prep and Review stages are where you’ll be involved.

Review: Great managers make post-action review a regular practice for themselves and their people. You can make it the focus of a one-on-one after an activity has been completed. Or it can be part of periodic meetings with each of your people or a standard procedure you go through in the updates your people provide at staff meetings. Be sure to model what you expect when you describe something you did — Here’s what we learned. Next time we’ll do it this way.

Remember to do a review regardless of the outcome of an action — failure or success. We are much more likely to reflect on our failures. Too often, we don’t take time to learn from our accomplishments and never really understand the keys to our success and what lessons we can take forward.

Most of your managerial interactions with people will occur in the Prep and Review stages. Only with someone inexperienced or in situations of high stakes and high risk will you, or should you, be involved in the actual performance of a task.

Used this way consistently and consciously, Prep-Do-Review becomes a powerful management tool that will improve how you manage your people. By giving you ways to be involved without directly intruding as your people do their work, it will make your interactions with them richer, improve outcomes, help people learn, and make you a better delegator.

If you operate this way as a boss consistently, you’ll find certain core management tasks become easier and more systematic. It will let you delegate more intelligently, based on both a person’s skill and experience level and on the situation. It will help you coach people more effectively; indeed, it will help you turn many tasks into learning experiences. And it will let you use your time more effectively by helping you determine when you do and don’t need to be involved.

With very experienced people, and especially with routine tasks, you needn’t be involved in either Prep or Do, but as a boss you never completely let go of the Review stage. You may not review outcomes after every task, but ongoing performance review is something you’ll never give up entirely.

If you think about it, Prep-Do-Review is the fundamental cycle of activities by which effective bosses manage — through a perpetual loop of prep-do-review-prep-do-review. By using it to become more mindful and deliberate in all you do, it will help you convert mundane workaday activities into management activities. It will help you make progress through the daily work. And it’s the way you guide your people, produce results, and help them learn without inserting yourself unnecessarily into what they do. It’s not the solution to every management challenge, but it’s a powerful approach and the closest thing to a management secret that we know.

So, how will you implement this?

When?

I would love to hear about it… and keep you accountable to it!

To your continued success,

C

 

References:

Harvard Business Review, how-to-get-involved-without-micromanaging

Washington Business Review, Why Your Best Employees Quit

Don’t know where to start in creating your core values or culture? Scott Ginsberg gives us some advice!

Although this post was written about business and the like, I think it is VERY applicable for us and Company Culture Creation. Hence, I want to share it with you. I find it very inspiring. Thank you Scott Ginsberg (the nametag guy)!

How to Trust the Process, Even If You Don’t Know What the… You’re Doing

To trust is to surrender.
To surrender is to open yourself.
To open yourself is to risk getting hurt.
To risk getting hurt is to increase the probability of success.

LESSON LEARNED: When you assemble the courage to trust the process, you access the power to transform the world.

Your world. Your partner’s world. Your customer’s world. Your employees’ world. Your organization’s world. Maybe even your dog’s world.

Today we’re going to explore eight daily practices for trusting the process, even when you have no idea what the… you’re doing:
1. Don’t be stopped by not knowing how. (Note from Christie: Don’t let “not knowing” how to start creating your core values or culture book, stop you from starting!)

How is overrated. How is the enemy of progress. How is the barrier to trusting the process. And I’m not saying it hurts to know what you’re doing once in a while. But if you always waited until you knew what you were doing, you’d never do anything.

You’re never really ready. Nobody is. Whether you’re starting a business, starting a relationship or starting a new career, trusting the process means traversing the periphery of your competence.

That’s exactly what I did when I started my publishing and consulting company right out of college… I didn’t know anything. I was twenty-two. But for some reason, I trusted the process anyway.

And here’s what I learned: Eventually, you’re just going to have to jump into the pool with your clothes on and trust that you’ll figure out how to swim before the water fills your lungs.

Let’s go. It’s time to put down that margarita and make a splash that matters. Remember: You don’t have to get good to get going; but you do need to get going to get good. Whose permission are you waiting for?

2. Restore the equilibrium. The reason it’s so hard to trust the process is because it’s a form of surrendering; and for most people, that’s a terrifying preposition. Human beings have an inherent need to preserve their sense of control. And any time they feel it being taken away from them, they freak out.

I’m reminded of the Arabian proverb, “Trust God, but tie up your camel.” That’s the real secret: To restore the equilibrium. To balance letting go with preserving control.

For example, when you enter into a new relationship, make a handshake agreement with your partner:

“Look, I know we’re both scared. I know we’re both skeptical. So, let’s agree that for every path we pave for our hearts to follow, we’re going to take regular rest stops for our brains to reflect. That’s where we’ll check in with honest, open and clear updates on the process.”

When you ease into that exchange slowly, you hold yourself over until you’re more comfortable tipping the scales. How can you balance control with surrender?

3. Bow to the door of next. Next is my favorite word in the dictionary. For many reasons: Next fortifies action. Next symbolizes progress. Next means complacency prevention. Next means continuous improvement.

Next is the monetizer of momentum. Next is the fervent architect of creative reinvention. Next is the critical trigger of entrepreneurial advancement. Next is the rocket fuel of your career.

Ultimately, the secret is not just to use the word next – but also to bow to the door of it. Bow meaning honor. Bow meaning respect. Bow meaning recognize. Remember: Without incremental progress, there is no incidental profit. Are you standing on a springboard or struggling in a straight jacket? (Note from Christie: Well, which is it? Which do you want it to be?)

4. Fall in love with why. When you infuse your process with deep purpose, it’s noticeably easier to trust it. That’s why rituals are so critical. They carve a pathway. They create a sacred container around what you’re about to engage in. And they prevent you from asking, “Why…  am I even doing this?”

This helps you fall in love with the process, not just what the process produces. Mihály Csíkszentmihályi’s defined this dichotomy in his book Creativity:

“Exotelic means you do something not because you enjoy it but to accomplish a later goal. But autotelic means there is no reason for doing something except to feel the experience it provides.”

Lesson learned: Trusting the process is a spiritual discipline. An investment in the stability of the universe. Why do you do what you do?

5. Don’t be so hard on yourself. In Leonard Cohen’s documentary, I’m Your Man, he shares his philosophy on the writing process: “You gotta go to work everyday, but know that you’re not going to get it everyday.”

Initially, that was a bitter pill for me to swallow. The idea of accepting a blank page as part of the process was devastating to my creative spirit. But over time, I learned to stop beating myself up when I didn’t get it.

That’s part of trusting the process: Knowing when you’ve got it, knowing when you’ve lost it, knowing when there’s no way… you’re going to get it, and knowing when you’re going to have to take measures to get it back.

My current strategy is: When I sit down to write every morning, I give myself an hour. That’s my cut off. And if the faucet never turns over to hot, and if I realize that I’m just not going to get it that day – I go back to bed. Simple as that. Then, an hour or two later when I wake up, I hit the page refreshed and renewed.

Works every time. What’s your strategy for returning to the work that matters? (Christie’s note: So, how can you reset your team? How can you clear the path for a renewal?)

6. Believe in the dividends. Every time I start working on a new idea, I constantly remind myself: “There will be more.” More details. More resources. More answers. More everything. (Christie’s note: THIS in itself is a FANTASTIC concept. So, when you lose you biggest client, the first thing your mind thinks is “Wow, this is really bad, what will I do without them?” However, there are always more clients, more options, more solutions, always!)

This affirmation builds my confidence, relaxes my brain and alerts the Muse that she can move at her own pace. And even if I only make minimal progress today, I believe in my heart that more art is on the way.

That’s the posture to practice when you trust the process: Easy does it. Keep it casual. Establish gentle flow. Soon enough, your rhythm will develop. And the dividends will come.

The cool part is, once you achieve a few victories with this strategy, your experience bank fills with success stories to dwell upon. That’s when trusting the process gets fun. All you have to do is roll the mental footage of the last time it paid off. How strong is your belief in the dividends of your process?

7. Don’t fight the contractions. Pregnancy is a process. And according to a 2004 study from University of Hawaii, it’s a process that’s happened approximately ninety-six billion times since the dawn of time. Not bad. Maybe those mothers are doing something right.

My guess is: Epidural.

Just kidding. The real secret to trusting the process is to honoring the natural rhythms. Easing your judgmental tendencies and embracing the contractions no matter how much they hurt. As Quaker author Eileen Flanagan writes in Listen With Your Heart:

“By speaking honestly, listening non-defensively and waiting patiently, we help create the space where love can reveal itself.”

The best part is: You don’t have to be pregnant to practice this. Take writing, for example. Readers often ask me, “How do you know what you’re going to write everyday?” And my answer is always the same: “I don’t. That’s not my job. Instead, I listen for what wants to be written.”

Stop fighting the contractions. The baby will come when it’s ready. Even if you’re stuck in that godforsaken hospital bed for the next forty-seven hours. What are you allowing yourself to give birth to? (Christie’s personal thoughts: Take it from me! The more you fight or stress during labor the WORSE, much WORSE you will be! Instead, keeping your stress down and focusing on the current priorities will get everyone through this in a faster and more productive manner.)

8. Don’t abandon the process just because it gets tough. Trusting the process doesn’t mean being passive. The secret is to understand the principle of threshold level.

That’s the moment in the process where you’re so close to completion, you can taste it.

The moment when the entire the world is doing everything they can to prevent you from finishing.

That’s when you hit it hard. That’s when you take every ounce of trust you have left and invest it in the process that brought you to the threshold.

Because in the end, trusting the process is about doing the footwork. Even if you don’t recognize the road before you. Even if it hurts like hell. Carry out the task to completion. And let growth unfold incrementally. The world will reimburse your efforts. Are you willing to hustle while you wait?

REMEMBER: This might be the perfect time to let go.

To achieve success and significance with your newest idea, project, initiative or relationship, you know what needs to be done.

Employ your faith.
Learn to trust the process.
Surrender to your primal self.
And allow it to do what it needs to do to lead you in the right direction.

You’ll be fine.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
What will you have to let go of to become something different? (From Christie, of course So, what will it be?)

My absolute best,

C

Paddi Lund, Christie Scott and Michael Gerber do this. Do you?

Paddi Lund (www.PaddiLund.com) has some great advice today in his newsletter. He is a dentist gone entrepreneur, but is most known for changing his reality by firing D clients, only accepting new clients upon referral, and insisting that he receive a certain number of referrals from each client! Here are some payoffs he experienced when he first fired D clients:

Simply “firing” his D customers immediately freed up 30% or more of your time … time which then is used to focus more attention on A and B customers with an instant increase in sales results as a consequence. Fewer hassles, more money – all good, right!

This has had a dramatic effect that is virtually responsible for every great innovation that followed in Paddi’s business.

Here’s why. Here’s the secret: S P A C E !!!

You read that right. Space. Time. Freedom from pressures.

Quite often when we start out in business we struggle to find the model that pays off. That’s just business. It’s hard. Very few people jag it and produce massively profitable businesses right from the get go. But even for those people, a similar process occurs. We get so busy, so caught up in the frantic pace of getting everything working that we get completely lost in the day to day pressures of it all.

Bills to pay, customers to see, people to hire, people to train, people to fire (because we never got around to training them!), marketing to write, advertising to try to forget (because it’s not working and you don’t know why), family to please, fatigue to fight … in business it just goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on …… and on and on and on and on!!!

Before you know it, you have absolutely no S P A C E to think, let alone work on the business.

But that’s exactly what Paddi found when he “fired” his D’s. He was making just as much money, or more, and now he had S P A C E to truly start thinking clearly about his business.

Michael Gerber, author of the famous E-Myth, later called this vital discovery “Working ON the business, not IN it.”

———— A Fundamental Difference ————

Now, this isn’t the same as having lots of time on your hands when you’re young and starting out and don’t have any customers yet. Not the same at all.

There’s a fundamental difference between the time that the ABCD’s buys you and the time you have on your hands when there’s not much business on.

1) Ongoing Cashflow gives you room to breath

Say no more. Free time alone just won’t get you fed.

2) Experience gives you lots of information to work with

If you’re to this point, you have tried lots of things and failed with most of them. This experience is invaluable in helping you hone in on what’s really most important. You’ve also probably learned a thing or two about managing people – there’s nothing like being pushed around by an employee or two to galvanize the skill of leading from the front!

3) The Pain of being trapped motivates you to use your time wisely

… It’s only when you learn how valuable and scarce that S P A C E is that you really begin to use it wisely when it appears. Parkinson’s Law: “Work expands to fill the available time.” Well not when you have the motivation of great PAIN focusing you on making the most of this very valuable resource!

The 2nd Major Hidden Benefit:

* Making S P A C E for Key Results Producing Activities.

So, how could this idea help you?

One client of mine is facing this right now! She is SO overwhelmed by the everyday, that she cannot “see” or focus, prioritize, or even  enjoy life.  She is BRILLIANT! Simply amazing, yet this is overshadowed and hidden by the murkiness. Has she changed? No, but when you are overwhelmed, you cannot create or orchestrate your best work! Plain and simple.

So, my recommendation? Find space.

For this client, a getaway is in order, a getaway from emails, phones, and any work or responsibility. This will enable her to clearly see what she needs to do, how to overcome obstacles and have fun.

You may have experienced this when trying to come up with a name or fix a problem. When I was trying to title my book, I struggled for months. Then, when daydreaming while driving a car, it came to me.

Or sometimes the more you try to determine a solution, the more convoluted your opinion becomes.

So, what do YOU need to do to create S P A C E for what will allow you to reach the next level?

C

Why employees don’t care what they need! Instead give them what they demand…

Seth Godin wrote a post today about how to sell and market what people demand and tells you NOT to try to sell what people need. I think it is applicable to managing employees:

Needs don’t always lead to demand

One of the accepted holy grails of building an organization is that you should fill a need. Fill people’s needs, they say, and the rest will take care of itself.

But… someone might know that they need to lose some weight, but what they demand is potato chips.

Someone might know that they need to be more concerned about the world, but what they demand is another fake reality show.

As my friend Tricia taught me, this is brought into sharp relief when doing social enterprise in the developing world. There are things that people vitally need… and yet providing it is no guarantee you’ll find demand.

Please don’t tell get confused by what the market needs. That’s something you decided, not them.

If you want to help people lose weight, you need to sell them something they demand, like belonging or convenience, not lecture them about what they need.

So, how can you apply this to managing employees?

You may as the employer feel you know what is good for the employees, you may find yourself saying as I heard someone say yesterday “This is not just a lecture, but you really need to hear this…”.

Now, if you think that this is helping your productivity or morale or end results, you are wrong. It is not.

Instead, imagine for a moment that Seth is right, that people don’t care what they need, they only care about what they demand.

So, what are you employees demanding? They may not be saying it out loud or to you, so this may take some effort on your part, so go find out.

If you do not give employees what they demand, they will either work for you forever in a half-butt style or quit.

Employees generally demand to be treated with respect and honesty. Now, now, you are probably thinking “I treat everyone with respect and honesty!” Which you probably do, however what about the managers and co-workers?

MOST COMPANIES have someone in them that is a bully or rampaging personality who is not respectful or honest. However, they are excellent manipulators of the bosses, and they are the last to find out what is going on!

But, employees demand much more, especially these days! With companies vying for “the best place to work”, and companies follow the Zappos way, the gems of employees will be firmly planted there, with more joining their ranks everyday. Those that are left will be those that were not ethically or morally firm enough to be hired by these cultural companies.

How will you compete?

C

So, does managing HAVE to be this much work? Is it the employees that are the problem?