(Time to read this Blog is about 4 minutes)
Before we get to the main topic, here are a few things to get you thinking or smiling:
- My Biz Quote of the week:
“We’re all ‘wired’ differently. One of the biggest gifts that we can bring to any situation or relationship is to understand and honour the other person’s wiring”. …Donald Cooper.
- Quick Biz Tip:
College and university students are one of the most under-used resources for small and medium sized businesses.
Youth unemployment is a huge problem, and a huge opportunity. Hire a sharp college or university student for the Summer, or plan to hire a student in September, to do a specific project that you’ve not gotten around to. They need course credits and some money…and you have stuff that needs doing.
Start by making a ‘List of Projects’ that students with specific interests, skills and talent could do. Examples are: Market Research; Customer Surveys & Focus Groups; Database Creation or Updates; Social Media Campaigns; Digital Marketing / SEO Audits; Email Marketing; App Creation; Competitive Analysis; Business Plan development.
Then, build a relationship with the folks in charge of the courses at these institutions that will be most helpful to you, and they’ll point you in the direction of the top students.
These students will need some of your time, some clear direction, deadlines and supervision …but they will get stuff done.
- Fun Fact: Summer is coming and it’s Ice Cream season. So, here’s your ice cream ‘Fun Fact’. New Zealand is the world’s #1 per capita consumer of ice cream at 28.4 litres per year. USA is #2, Australia is #3 and Finland is #4. Canada is #6.
- Deadly Fact: Mosquitos are the world’s most deadly killer. By transmitting diseases like malaria and yellow fever, it’s estimated that mosquitoes have killed roughly half of the 108 billion humans who have ever lived…that’s about 52 billion people. Only female mosquitos bite.
Mosquitoes still kill an estimated 700,000 people every year.
- AI Update: A new study co-led by Harvard researchers found that OpenAI outperformed two doctors in making emergency room diagnoses. When the model and the doctors were given the same patient information in triage (the first step in emergency care), the model got an “exact or very close diagnosis” 67% of the time compared with 55% and 50% for the MDs.
6. Shameless Promotion:
If you or your Industry Association have a Conference coming up in the next 12 months, perhaps we should talk. As a thought-leader on management, marketing, staff engagement and profitability, I deliver bottom-line business insights that inform, energize and inspire.
To quote one recent attendee, “Best, most real, insightful and entertaining management session I’ve attended in 30 years. Bring this Cooper guy back!”
Our most requested topics are:
- “Accelerate Your Business…the ‘straight goods’ on how to sell more, manage smarter, grow your bottom line…and have a life.”
- “Winning the Talent Wars…8 essential steps to attracting, developing, leading & engaging a top-performing team.”
- “Vision Critical…how to manage, innovate and thrive in a very different tomorrow!”
- “Succession Planning & Exit Strategies…preparing your business and yourself for the most important financial transaction of your life!
I’m happy to chat about possibilities at 416-252-3703 in Toronto.
Now, to this week’s important topic:
Is failure to deal with non-performance hurting your business?
Failure to deal with non-performance is one of the biggest problems in many businesses today.
Several of my Biz Coaching clients are struggling with this problem right now as we work to terminate team members who never should have been hired in the 1st place, or have been allowed to under-perform, defy and stonewall, frustrate customers, destroy morale, cause good people to quit in frustration and, in some cases, actively sabotage or defraud the company.
These people should have been given the boot long ago and now it’s going to cost much more to get rid if them. Don’t make this mistake.
The problem is even more complicated when the non-performers or toxic team members are shareholders, partners or family members. I’ve recently worked with a number of clients to clean up these complicated messes.
For years I’ve stated that, ‘businesses don’t die from a single shot to the head…they die slowly but surely from a thousand uncompleted tasks.’ Staff under-perform or exhibit toxic behaviour because they’ve been allowed to get away with it. This has to end…now!
The solution is simple. It starts with creating a culture of clarity, commitment, urgency and accountability. As business owners, leaders or managers, our 1st job is to create clarity about…
- the compelling value and experience we commit to deliver,
- the extraordinary future we commit to create,
- how we’ll get to that extraordinary future,
- the healthy bottom line that we commit to generate,
- the Team we need to create, empower and engage to make all of that happen…and,
- how we commit to behave along the way (our values, ethics & standards).
Without ‘clarity’ there can be no commitment and without commitment there will be no urgency or accountability. So, once we’ve created ‘clarity’, we’ll create a culture of commitment and urgency. We’ll replace the words ‘goals, targets, aims and objectives’ with one word …’commitments’. I know I’ve written about this before, but it’s so important that it needs to be repeated. When we change our language, we change our culture. We become what we speak. To access my insightful Biz Tool #A-4 on creating ‘Clarity’ in your business, no charge, Click Here.
Here’s the simple 10-word solution to chronic non-performance. Every time you give someone a task or project, or make a request, ask this question, “By when can we agree that this will be completed?” Then negotiate and document the fair and do-able commitment date, always follow up, reward success and deal quickly with non-performance. Everyone on your team will quickly know that you mean business.
Bonus tip: When speaking with an employee about their need to improve their performance, attitude or behavior in some specific way, the magic 11-word question to ask is basically the same, “By when can we agree that this improvement will be accomplished?” Agree on a specific time by which the required improvement will take place and ask them for a plan as to how they will achieve that improvement. Also ask them how you can help support their journey of improvement. Then, follow up to ensure that it has been done…and stays done. No back-sliding allowed.
If you don’t have a professional HR function in your business to guide and assist you, a simple tip for tracking employee performance over time is to create a file for each person reporting to you. Every time they have a significant success, significant failure or behavioral problem, after you speak to them about it, make a quick note, date it and place it in their file. Many smart managers have the employee sign the note to confirm that the conversation took place. Then, when you’re evaluating staff for raises, promotions or dismissal, you have an accurate, balanced record of their performance.
When the time finally comes to terminate someone, it’s essential to have that written record of non-performance or toxicity, and proof that they’ve been talked to repeatedly about the need to get their act together, when those conversations took place, and what the result was. If you get sued for ‘wrongful dismissal’, the side with the best documentation generally wins. It’s also important to seek guidance from an experienced labour lawyer. Getting rid of non-performing or toxic team members can be tricky…especially if you’ve ignored the problem for some time.
Everyone on your team is part of your value, or part of your problem. What are you doing to reward and grow your ‘value’ people, and to rescue or dismiss your ‘problem’ people? One of my Biz Coaching clients recently terminated a long-time toxic supervisor, and it’s as if a large dark cloud has magically been removed from the entire business.
That’s it for this week…
Live brilliantly and be kind to each other!
Donald Cooper
Donald Cooper speaks and coaches internationally on management, marketing, and profitability. He can be reached by email at donald@donaldcooper.com in Toronto, Canada.
