There is an old adage : People are your most important asset.
But the truth is that people who are performing are really your best asset. And getting people to perform can be challenging at times. So how do you create a culture that fosters the best performance from your team?
1. Hire for Alignment with Values.
Sometimes the primary reason that you cannot get people to perform is that they are just the wrong people for the job you need them to do. The right ones are the people who agree with and live your company values. They fit with the team and they will be happier and more productive. You will be able to trust them to make good business decisions, because they are totally aligned with your organization’s core values.
2. Get and Keep Only the Right People.
Hire and retain your employees based on values, not just skill set. In interviews, ask situational questions that provide greater insight into a candidate’s values and problem solving approach. You need the candidate with the best skill set, but you also need to hire someone with the right fit. And it is difficult to teach values. Once you have hired them, keep only the right people. If you hired badly, remove them from the team. If you have a good team, make sure you communicate regularly what the core values are and how to live by them. Make sure the team knows the values and coach them regularly on how to live consistent with your company’s ‘way’.
3. Define Responsibilities Clearly.
Most companies define an organizational chart, but fail to clearly assign ownership of responsibility. It is critical that you identify what situations will require a decision making authority and what position on the organization chart should be responsible for that. Then communicate it clearly so that everyone on the team knows.
4. Your Team is Your Biggest Asset.
Often as business owners, we fall into the thinking that our people are our biggest expense and we feel annoyed or frustrated by challenges in dealing with them. Clearly it does take effort to find a good fit and empower the team to achieve best results. But if you take the view that your employees are your biggest asset, then any effort you put into them will pay dividends. And that makes any goal oriented entrepreneur happy.
5. Remove the Cancer as Quickly as Possible.
Sometimes an employee has the skills and abilities to do the job they are in, but they do not appreciate the direction of the company, the leadership, or the core values. And they cause dissension through sidebar comments, rolling eyes, and blatant unhappiness. The result is low morale and decreased productivity. That is both insidious and expensive. To build a highly productive team, you must remove the individual or group of employees that are causing this dissension. And the quicker you do it, the faster you will achieve your goal for better productivity.
It only takes a small group of people working in alignment and empowered well to accomplish great things toward strategic goals.
Put the right people on your team, get them to work toward your core values, and reap the rewards.