Q. Why do you ask employees so many questions?
Sometimes people try to put
the monkey on your back by
making a recommendation that
they themselves would never
take personal ownership over
implementing. A really great
way to test somebody’s commitment to an idea is asking
them to put together an implementation plan.
Bring together some colleagues to vet it before it gets
presented for allocating time or
money to it. That’s always a
good approach because you
get more minds looking at it.
If somebody is willing to
take personal ownership over
it, even if it’s only a B-minus
idea, you may wind up getting better results than having
an A-plus idea that nobody is
really willing to own and
drive.
Q. How else can you help
employees help you?
Design roles and responsibilities and manage performance.
Either organizations don’t have
job descriptions or they do and
they are perfunctory and meaningless. We went through a
process of really designing the
job and identifying the professional competencies.
All of the job descriptions had
a statement of the work environment, which addressed the reality
of the transition we were going
through and the human qualities
we were expecting of people. The
subtle point of it is if this doesn’t
match up with what you want
to do, don’t sign the document.
I have people sign the job
description at the top so it’s not
just a document in the file. They
are personally committing to
doing that role by signing it.
Q. How important is
camaraderie?
Your shareholders and your
customers don’t care whether
you get together on the weekend
and watch a football game. They
care about whether or not you
deliver on your promise to them.
The flip side is you’re more
likely to deliver on that promise
if you’re well run, your job
requirements are clearly defined,
your performance measurements are objective and reasonable, and employees feel like
they are being paid fairly.
Every survey I have seen on
why people leave a company,
money is seldom in the top
three. It’s usually I don’t feel
respected by my boss, and I
don’t feel like I’m being
allowed to contribute.
HOW TO REACH: The New Release|moviecube, (800) 518-1574 or www.thenewrelease.com
