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June 2005  People Need People To Grow

You cannot reach your vision and goals without the help of others. Your greatest asset is people – the “right” people. People that share your company’s values, ethics, personality, culture and vision. Your primary objective is to get the right people on your ship, the wrong people off, and then direct the course of the ship yourself. Therefore, recruiting, training/coaching, developing and retaining your competent employees are critical success factors for your company and some of your top responsibilities as a leader. Your focus should be to develop others and create the right conditions for their success. In short, unleash the full human potential of your organization.

What Employees Want

Here is an unscientific crash course in what employees want:

 To know where the company is headed and why
 To know their roles, responsibilities and what is expected of them
 To know how they will be evaluated and rewarded
 To utilize their talents in the best way possible
 To feel appreciated and valued – that their work and ideas matter
 To be coached – challenged, motivated and held accountable
 To have the right tools, training and authority to do their jobs
 To contribute in a meaningful way to the company and its mission
 To grow and develop – to reach their potential
 To have an emotionally connected, competent manager/leader of character support their success

Hiring/Firing Basics

Hire for talent, not just resume data. Be sure to hire emotionally engaged people, people with passion in their eyes, fire in the belly. Match their talent to the position – again, help them to be successful. Don’t hesitate to use personal assessment tests to better understand the aptitudes, attitudes and talents of potential employees.

While you should hire people slowly, fire them quickly if they do not fit your culture and can’t operate within your system. Do not let emotionally disengaged people or negative people infect your company. Do not waste time and energy trying to rehabilitate poor performers (the lower 20% that cause 80% of your headaches). Spend your time and effort with your top performers, the top 20%. This top 20% will produce 80% of your company’s results. Therefore, put tremendous effort into developing and retaining the right people. For your business to grow, you must find and develop the right people.

Because you cannot control everything, the development of your system and your people is paramount. Spend time and effort hiring the right people to manage your system. Hire excellent leaders and managers. Then let your managers hire competent employees (not necessarily brilliant ones) to work the system. They should hire hard working and loyal people who will follow the system and execute their duties according to documented practices. Again, hire emotionally engaged people with passion in their souls. Their focus should be on working the system and improving the operations manual, as necessary. They should not be free-lancing, adlibbing or winging it.
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