Tell people why to do it
After the initial delivery of the message of this new mission, Monarch provided its employees with cards that had the mission statement printed on them. New employees would also be told about it when they became part of the company.
But it’s still not enough, even if you repeat it over and over again, to just tell employees what you want them to do. Contrary to when you were a child and your mother told you to do something because she said so, employees really do need a reason why they should adhere to your wishes.
“It’s not just saying, ‘This is the message,’” Terry says. “People want to know a reason. Why is that the message? Share with people your thought process, not just individually, but institutionally, as to why this is important. Share why
it
’s important and how it will be done. How will we execute on this? You start with that from day one. Set the course and drive the stake in the ground. For everybody new, that becomes lesson No. 1 for entrance into our family. The lesson is why we have that mission and how we’re going to execute it.”
There are two words that Terry uses in his speaking pattern that almost always come one right after the other: repetition and reward. It’s no coincidence why he does it.
“Rewards have to be tied to that message that you consistently repeat,” Terry says.
Many companies will reward employees who sell the most product and while that’s not a bad thing, it doesn’t totally fit under the column of doing your best for the customer in Terry’s eyes.
“Our reward systems are set up differently,” Terry says. “Do you have the right display and the right account? Are your orders put in for your customers? Are those an acceptable level of correctness? Are your displays in the right location? Do you have the product on the right place on the shelf? All that stuff goes into serving the customer and driving demand. Not stuff that deals with our company’s bottom line.”
If you’re having trouble getting employees to meet your mission, maybe you’re not reinforcing their compliance with the mission.
“When you’ve got a mission and you tell everybody, ‘This is what we’re doing and this is what we’re trying to get done,’ are your actions consistent with that?” Terry says. “If you give a mixed message and say one thing is important, but either your monetary compensation or your psychic compensation is based on something else, you confuse people and they don’t know what they are supposed to be doing. It’s the rewards. People do what you pay them to do.”