I spend most of my time these days visiting with small business owners. I am constantly having coffee or lunch with business owners, managers, salespeople and technicians.
I spend hours on end listening to them vent their frustrations and disappointments.
And one thing is clear. With rare exception, most problems in small businesses are the direct result of a lack of proper communication.
In many cases, the employees simply aren’t sure what the owner really wants from them. And the owner doesn’t really know what the employee’s want either.
Oh, they think they do. But, in most cases…when you really get down to the nitty-gritty of it…they’re pretty much clueless.
I met with a small pest control company recently and this fact was painfully obvious.
I found the following conditions:
- The business wasn’t growing. It had hit a wall.
- Everyone was frustrated.
- Everyone felt alone and isolated.
- They were not functioning as a team, but as a group of independent units totally out of sync.
- The employees all felt taken advantage of, under compensated and over worked.
- The owner felt taken advantage of. He felt that the employees were compensated well and should be happy just to have jobs.
- There was a lot of finger-pointing and very little acknowledgement of individual responsibility for anything.
- Nobody, including the owner, really knew what the other team members wanted from them or expected of them.
- They were just going through the motions each day.
- They were not excited about anything to do with the company.
And so…I gathered them all together into one room and here’s what I told them to do as a first step to turning things around and building a winning team.
First…I told the owner that it was his responsibility to find out exactly what each employee’s goal was within the company. And then it was up to him to do everything within his power to help each employee reach their goal.
Second… I told the owner that he needed to tell his employees exactly what his goal was. And then I told the employees that it was up to them to do everything within their powers to help him reach his goal.
Zig Ziglar says, “You can have anything you want in life if you will help enough other people get what they want!”
But first you have to find out exactly what it is THEY really want.
And they have to know exactly what it is that YOU want.
If you will practice Zig’s principle within your business, you will see an increase in motivation and positive mental attitude. And that will ultimately lead to more sales, more new customers, and more new business.
I promise.
Thanks for taking the time to read this letter, and I hope you have a great day!
Hal
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Or feel FREE to call me at 770-993-0004 Email Hal@HalColeman.com
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