Brandon W. Jones
One of the biggest challenges in life is allowing yourself to be excellent. There are many opportunities to shine and be great all the time. It is, however, hard to let yourself be great. People like to be one in the crowd. As you begin to be great, you also begin to stand out which can be uncomfortable at times.
Leaders have to be great. Do not be afraid to be excellent. As you are excellent you allow other to be excellent also.
Once the right people are in place, leaders must do all they can to retain them. Many leaders and companies don’t have a good system in place to retain their employees. This issue is compounded when you throw in the fire happy leaders. It is possible for the fire happy leaders to hire and train good employees then fire them on a whim. A good employee retention system is a key to keep the right people that are qualified and trained employees.
For an employee retention system to succeed, it must discourage leaders from firing people without taking adequate measures to help them succeed. The following are two safeguards that must be in place for the success of employee retention systems:
Ultimately, fire happy leaders cost companies lots of money because each time a trained employee is lost, the company has spend money to train a new employee. With disincentives in place, fire happy leaders will slow down or stop firing people. The fire happy leaders that I am referring to are those that fire based on personality conflicts, differing opinions, etc.
Some ways to disincentivize firing are pay freezes, pay cuts, holds on promotions, or demotions. Although some of these disincentives seem strong, it is very important for leaders to keep the trained employees within the company. The disincentives will encourage leaders to get over their personality conflicts for fear of punishment.
[Read more…] about Leaders, Obtain And Keep The Right People: Part 3 of 3
One major problem I have seen with the fire happy leaders is that they don’t properly train their employees. These leaders can’t keep the right people because they don’t give them the proper training from the very beginning and then they expect them to know more than they should. All the employees must be trained on the following:
In many of the large corporations that exist, there is a specific set of training sessions that every employee must go through when they are hired. As a part of the training session, HR or some other department reviews all the policies and procedures of the organization. This is very important because this training teaches the employees what they can and can’t do within the organization.
Recently I spoke to a manager friend of mine. He mentioned a major complaint he has with many leaders in the business world. He said that there are far too many “fire happy” managers. They are fire happy because they fail in one of the following three areas:
Because it all starts with hiring the right people, this post will cover techniques for hiring the right people.
Leaders need to know their own job really well before they can begin hiring the right people to work for them. They must know the specifics of their job on a daily basis. They must also know what it takes to do a good job in their current position. They must be the expert in their department, so they can answer any questions that people might have of them. Included in being the expert in their department, they must also have a very good idea of what their employees do in their jobs.
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I love the explanation Brian Regan gives of what the “me monster” is. I am sure everyone has had contact with a me monster before. Me monsters take the form of coworkers, bosses, subordinates, etc. Me monsters can be very destructive in an organization. The following are three reasons why me monsters are destructive:
When you have a me monster in your organization, they are only in it for themselves. They focus on themselves all the time. They only do things if it directly benefits them.
As a leader, it is very important that you are keeping perspective. When we stop keeping perspective, we are bound to fail. The following are three ways to keep everything in perspective.
It is essential that we look to those who have gone before us and review both their successes and failures. We must also take time to review what we have done in our own lives and the outcomes. [Read more…] about Keeping Perspective As Leaders
