Employee Engagement? How About Owner Engagement !

The recession took its toll and you have high expectations for the next few years as a business owner.  You sense your business is not as strong as it was in the past probably because to survive you made many painful business decisions. You are expecting to recoup lost wealth but you sense your organizational culture, dedication and engagement level of your staff has not rebounded like you expected.  What are you going to do to get your team re-energized and engaged to generate profits again?

Maybe your team is more ready to win again than you think.  Could their neutral attitude be a reflection of your neutral leadership?  HOPE is not an HR Strategy, it’s time to lead your team to victory.  Here are some back to basics  tips to help you the Business Owner re-engage yourself and in turn re-engage your most valuable business asset – your people.

1. Get up, get out of your office, and spend 80% of your time talking to the people running sales and your operation.  That’s where the money is.  Make sure they see that you’re re-energized and expecting to win, your attitude can be contagious.
2. Fix your compensation systems  once and for all.  Strategic sales and operational performance matter more than ever.  Are you driving profitable behaviours and driving wealth creation?
3. Performance management matters.  So do rewards. Don’t forget to recognize and reward the people who drive high performance and give you extra effort.
4. Whatever happened to those KPI’s and performance records anyways.    What gets measured gets done.   Identify your “A” players and let them loose to create value.  Identify you “C” players and send them packing, professionally and fairly.   Your staff know who the weak links are and they are tired of carrying the extra load.
5. Your employees need to know what you know.  Tell them. Tell them again and Tell them you told them again.  Everyone needs to understand what the boss is thinking and expects.   You need to double and triple your communication and transparency efforts, staff will notice that the boss is engaged and energized.
6. Pay a lot of attention to your top talent.  If you don’t value them, your competitors who are also on the rebound and growing will want your stars.  Treat your stars as partners or else start preparing for their departure.
7. Let’s get innovative again and shake things up.  Where did your entrepreneurial instincts go?  Status quo will lead to obsolescence.   Wake –up and create or spot opportunities.
8. Is your HR team a wasted expense?   This is the big leagues and you need superstar HR people who can create an HR strategy and execute the HR plan to attract, retain and reward the best and brightest.  If you’re not getting HR excellence, bring in the ‘A’ team.

Don’t just HOPE 2012 is your year.  Get engaged and lead your business.

“Turned on” people figure out how to beat the competition, “Turned off” people only complain about being beaten by the competition

– Ben Simonton