What Employees Deserve

Most employees want to do good work and to be successful in their job. But they often fail to meet their full potential because they lack direction and good management oversight.

It is the role of the owner, leader, or manager to train, motivate, and set goals for staff members to reach. Leaders often assume that employees know what to do and what is expected of them. Unfortunately, they often don’t, and leaders can then use this as an excuse to blame staff for so-called under-performance. But the role of leadership, among many things, is to work with employees in such a way as to help them become the best that they can be.

I was coaching a store owner recently and listening to his concerns about an employee. I heard how the staff member was failing to pay for himself and was not meeting company expectations. I asked the owner what he was doing to help the employee understand his role and meet targets that would support his value to the firm. The owner’s response: He was doing nothing to help the employee, not even giving him basic oversight, instruction, and goals. This is certainly more of a reflection on management than it is on the employee.

Every staff member deserves a fair chance to succeed. It is up to ownership or leadership to provide it. If you are unwilling to do so, don’t blame the employee. Blame yourself. Most of all, do something about it by giving employees the best chance for success. After all, their success is your success. If employees still don’t perform, well then, you have a clear conscience and know what to do next.

What Management Must Do

In The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey made a leadership principle out of putting first things first. If we relate this principle to leading people, we can see where our priorities must lie. If someone needs to see you, you need to be available. If there is a problem that needs solving, you need to help solve it. If there is an issue that requires a decision, you need to make it.

If we don’t manage the issues that cross our desk each day, we will be forced to manage the crises that will occur as a result. Don’t put off what you can handle today with the blind hope that things may get better tomorrow, or just go away altogether. Sometimes problems disappear, but more often than not, they just get larger. Have the courage to confront issues and put first things first.

Here are a few Business & Life Tips to think about…..

Business Tips:

• Next time you gather your staff to focus on a new project or venture, lead with this question: What is it we’re trying to accomplish?
• Price vs. Value. You compete on price at serious risk. Value is a smarter option, but requires intelligence, ideas, and great implementation.
• If you are simply “satisfied” with your education or job or career or business, you run the risk of complacency. Be careful.

Life Tips:

• Your belief system dictates how you react to people and circumstances. Stop to think about how this impacts others.
• If you wait to have enough money to give away, you will never do it because you will never quite feel that you have enough.
• The right preparation is a recipe for success. Only a fool jumps headlong into a situation without planning.

Tags: Advice, Business Tips, Crisis Management, Developing Leaders, Leadership Excellence, Leadership Problems, Leadership Skills, Life Tips, Management, Managers, The Mind of a Leader