Hi! I’m Jim Muehlhausen author of the 51 Fatal Business Errors and Eight CEO Secrets.
Turning your race horses into plow horses, keeping good people in areas that are critical to your business is never easy and this discussion may make it even harder for you. This title is designed to make you visualize a sleek, tall and strong race horse tied to a plow. Of course, a horse is a horse, and a race horse is certainly capable of pulling a plow. But the real question is whether there is a more critical task that they could be doing that would be even more valuable to your organization. People can and should be plugged into those areas where you cannot afford to do the work. People that are dedicated and value driven will do whatever you need them to do. Even if you don’t or can’t calculate the opportunity cost of having them perform jobs that might be over qualification for them.
Think of these two points. When talented and driven people are assigned the tasks that don’t challenge them, one of two things happen. The first is that they become bored with the work and their frustration leads into leaving the organization. Now, not only have you lost a talented race horse, but the plow is now sitting in the field going nowhere. Each has a cost, and depending on the size of your company, that next horse to pull the plow might be you. The second thing is that they become so disillusioned that they grow apathetic and can even become rebellious. This can cause issues at work and their performance slips. The fields are not being plowed correctly. The rows are running with the grade of the hill, and the yields are down. Now I might suggest that this option is much worst than the first, because now this rebellious person is infecting others in the organization and it could be a cancer, heaving away at your organizational culture and at your profits.
Now, there’s no magic want, but I implore each of you to work at developing and nurturing a company culture where people feel free to ask for more. They need to be able to ask for more responsibility without fear of being seen as selfish. You want to be able to have people that want to grow, and you want to keep them around as long as possible. So, watch for people who were frustrated. Frustration is the key pain point for people that are not feeling satisfaction from their work. This frustration is often made evidence in their attitude. But what I’m really talking about here is effective leadership on your part, or ineffective leadership on your part.
Now to make the most of your leadership skills, here are a couple of talking points: One, use tools to ensure that you know the needs and motivations, as well as the talents of all of your key players. Now for effective communication, talk often, and just ask them what do they want? Remembering that what you want, or what you think they want isn’t necessarily what they want. Ask what their goals are? Ask what business skills they want to develop? Where did they envision themselves in 2, 3, 4, 5 years? Silence on this is not acceptance, that’s a big mistake. This is especially true for people that who have been with you for a long time and do good work, they may just remain silent. Watch for people that are becoming rebels. Key point, this is a shift in their actions, and you as the leader needs to shift your actions as well. Know what practical business skills and personality traits are crucial for any position before moving someone into it. Do they have the effective leadership skills? How solid is their communication? Can they motivate other employees? Can they manage people well or do they have skills that need some work? Move slowly; don’t make another error by making a quick decision that needs to be reversed later. Simply by slobbing someone into that position. Now, by improving your own team leadership skills, you could become better at developing employees within your organization. Effective communication and frequent quality communication is a key leadership skill that’s serves to improve employee accountability, as well as help retain your quality people.
To learn more about this CEOs secret, as well as the other 7 CEO secrets, please go down to the bottom of this page, put in your first name and your e-mail. And I’ll e-mail you this free report. I’ll also look forward to speaking with you on the next page.
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