Getting Your Employees On Board
Recently I was talking with Irene, a perky woman in her late 30’s who owns a 12 person health care business. As we chatted about what we do she said “Can you do anything about my employees? They just are not on the same page as me.”
She went on to share how they each march to their own drum, don’t work as a team and have their own itinerary. Her description so reminded me of the “Herding Cats” TV commercial several years ago.
“Herding Cats”
Trying to herd a cat is a great mental picture of so very many companies with regards to their staff. According to Gallup’s 2013 State of the American Workplace Report 70% of employees are not fully engaged and inspired at work. These people have their own agenda and are doing their “own thing”.
In these situations, as a business owner or leader you scratch your head and say to yourself, “I thought explained what I want and how to do it enough times that they should get it”. But they don’t.
They don’t seem to see eye to eye with what you want to do in your business and where you want it to go. Does this sound familiar? But take heart, you can get your staff on board with what you want to do in your business and create a fully “engaged” workforce.
Having worked with over 1,200 companies during the past 17 years I have found there are three main ingredients to getting your personnel on board with where you want to take your business. I will cover the first of these elements in this newsletter and the remaining ones in the November issue.
Vision
Many times people are not on board with where you want to take your business because they simply don’t know where you want your business to go. So many business owners and leaders think that when a person just walks through the door of your company they suddenly are endowed with the knowledge of knowing your mind and what you are trying to accomplish.
The truth of the situation is, unless you tell them and regularly remind them of the Vision you have for your business they will frame your company, their workplace and what they do on a daily basis from their standpoint.
Several years ago I was working with one of our clients who owned a 25 person dog training, boarding and grooming business who had the same problem as Irene. Once they understood they needed to regularly and formally communicate with their staff they started having weekly meetings with each of the three units of their company and a monthly meeting with entire company.
Using the newly learned concept of “Casting their Vision” they regularly shared what was the future of their business as they saw it. This transformed their entire company and their personnel issues virtually disappeared!
Casting Your Vision
Your Vision is the destination or direction of where you want to take your company. It is – what a successful and thriving business looks like to you.
Sharing or Casting your Vision is painting a vivid mental picture in words of what your company will look like when it is there. The process includes describing the path you and your organization are on. Your company’s Goals are key pieces of information to present.
As you envision what your company will be like down the road, you should naturally get excited. You want to communicate and show that you are excited about the future of your business! That excitement is contagious to all of your staff.
However, what you communicate should not be done in a self-aggrandizing or boastful way. It should not be accomplished in an egotistical way, but in an encouraging way, just like a football coach ties to motivate their team before and during a game.
A key thing to relay is how your company will improve and benefit the lives of your customers. You want to stress how their job and its daily activities is critical in making this happen.
Both Formal and Informal Communication
Communicating your Vision should be done both formally and informally – in one-on-one conversations. Telling your personnel where your company is going and the great things it is now and will be accomplishing should be done in:
- Staff meetings
- Newsletters
- Emails
- Videos
- Walking down the hall
- Performance reviews
- In everything you do and say
Painting a picture with words like “Won’t it be great when…” is very encouraging to your staff. However, you want to be very careful not to repeat the same thing every time. Otherwise you will sound like a broken record and your personnel may just write off whatever you say.
Variations on a Theme
You want use a “variations on a theme” approach like if you are looking an object from various view points and describing it from many different perspectives.
Your messaging should be like a song that uses a base melody, but it changes a line or a sequence of chords regularly so you don’t become bored with the song. When it is done this way you look forward to the great chorus that really grabs you. Casting your Vision should be just as natural as writing that song. Just as much fun as singing it. As enjoyable to your staff as hearing their favorite song.
If you need assistance with getting your employees fully engaged and on board with the goals for your company please contact us so we can show you how to use this concept of “Casting your Vision” to tremendously increase your revenue and take your business where you want it to go.
www.FountainheadConsultingGroup.com
Office phone: (770) 642-4220
