I can’t get the staff, they don’t want to work, I’m better doing it myself….. Sound familiar?
Our people are our most valuable asset, but many business owners find it a challenge to get the most from them in a stress free manner? So what can you do about it?
Here’s my Top Three strategies for TEAM in 2018.
1. Set the Culture of the business
The culture of the business reflects the values that are important to those involve in it. The values are aligned to the business owners values, those they hold to be dear. They are the values important for the customers and the success of the business and they are the values important to the Team. If you do not set a culture or “rules of the game”, a culture will naturally develop and it will not necessarily be one you would choose.
Think of the company culture as the guide to your team in meeting the objectives of the company. It is the guide of what is and isn’t acceptable. It lets the team know what is most important in terms of thoughts and behaviours.
2. Introduce Regular Team Meetings
Most people dislike meetings, as a waste of time. Those who like them, like them for the same reason! We want to have regular team meetings as a pit stop. Getting ownership from the team, maximsing communication and celebrating wins.
An effects template for this is the L.I.O.N meeting (See Andy Bounds The Snowball Effect). Each member of the team has around a minute to talk about their week.
L. Last week I…….(see below Next Week)
I. Any issues they have currently or they dealt with this week. They must bring a proposed solution to any outstanding problems. This gets them out of the habit of coming to your to solve their problems.
O. Opportunities – suggestions they have to improve the business. (Manage their suggestions, if it’s excessive, instead of saying No, say, we can do this when sales reach… / customer numbers are….)
N. Next week. Their commitment to what they will do this next week.
3. Establish KPA’s & KPI’s
Key Performance Indicators are the way in which we measure the results of the Team and the business. Much like they do in sports. There’s no performance if we’re not keeping score. These need to be visiable to all the Team. The team will perform better when they know how their activity contributes to the business/profits. KPI’s are the results, Key Performance Activities (KPA’s) are the input. What are the minimum requirements to achieve the results?
For example – your target is ten sales per week. You know you need two appointments for a sale and you know you need to make ten calls for an appointment, you know the number of calls needed for an appointment is 20. And to get ten sales is 200 calls in a week. Your sales team needs to make 40 calls per day. This is the daily KPA. Once the team are hitting their KPA regularly you can address any shortfall on the KPI’s by looking at each area of their job and seeing where they are missing opportunities. Amendthis with training.
