The people conversation should always start with one single question. “If I were to close my business today and reopen it tomorrow would I enthusiastically hire every employee in my business today for my new business that starts tomorrow?” If one cannot answer the question with and emphatic “Yes” than your company has people issues.
So how do top managers end up in this situation? It all starts in the hiring process and sounds something like this…A clerk in shipping says “We need someone to help in shipping.” The manager replies “Have Cheryl post an ad on Craig’s List and get someone in here.” A week later Cheryl tells the manager she has 40 inquiries to the position. The manager tells Cheryl “Take a look at the resumes and pick the five best resume’s and let’s interview them.” No consideration is given that Cheryl is the office accountant, has little or no real experience in hiring people, does not have any idea what skills and traits are needed in shipping and can only assume what it takes to be successful but she still picks five. The five people show up for interviews and your time in on the calendar
Many owners will complaint their people are not doing what is expected of them, you’ll hear them say “if they only had people who cared their business would be growing rapidly.” The people in the organization the top managers are talking about
What skills do you need in your business you don’t have now? What can I do to train the people in my organization better?