The world is in a state of flux and business owners are very concerned about getting back on track and seeing their business levels return to growth and profitability. It is difficult to say what is going to happen with the economy right now, but I do know one thing for sure. This is the opportune time to position your business for the future. The business owners who realize this are the ones that will definitely have a competitive advantage in the very near future. What every business owner should be focusing on right now is their infrastructure. If you don’t have a strong infrastructure in place, you will not be able to grab the golden ring when the opportunity presents itself.

To evaluate your infrastructure take a look at the three elements of a business: Systems, People, and Communication. Do you have the systems and procedures in place that will guarantee a high quality product or service no matter what rates of production are required? Take a look at how work flows through your business. Is it smooth and effortless or do projects seem to get hung up in certain areas or departments? Because of new technology and new equipment, many of your current systems may no longer be suitable. Now is a good time to analyze all of your processes and rework where necessary to enhance efficiency and profitability.

Do you have the right people matched with the job functions? Do you have management candidates that can grow as the business grows? Are you blessed with top performers? With the recent downturns in business, there are many good people out there looking for jobs. The bar has been raised in most businesses because of technology and the digital world. You need people who are bright and articulate. They need to be able to understand this new world of business and they must then be able to communicate that understanding with your internal and external customers.

Many businesses now have people who have been on staff for a very long time. There is benefit to this as long as they are up to speed with what is going on with the technology. If they are not, they need to be retrained. The problem is that many of the long-term staff are reluctant about training. In those cases, these employees need to be replaced. It might be time to use the ax in order to move the business forward.

Do you have the communication systems in place to provide your staff with information? Today’s employees want to know what is going on so they are comfortable in their position and with the company. Do you have feedback processes in place so you know what is bothering them or are you able to easily receive suggestions they have for improving the processes and procedures? Are you providing your staff with personal feedback in the way of performance evaluations? Remember, communication is the glue that holds it all together. Communicate! Communicate! Communicate! It can never be overdone. The economy will turn around and when it does, make sure you are ready for success.

This information was originally published in my newsletter TG Notes. If you would like to subscribe to TG Notes, click here.

When a managerial position opens up, it is usually an opportunity to move a top performer into the position. No one would argue that promoting from within sends a strong message to the rest of the company about investing in people and cultivating management talent. Unfortunately, when it comes to actual qualifications, current job performance is given greater weight than the competencies required for a managerial position – most notably, management traits and/or experience.

The fact that individual job performance and management are two entirely different sets of competencies too often gets ignored. Before you know it, you have someone in the position that doesn’t know the first thing about managing a group of people.

Dr Laurence Peter, in his popular book “The Peter Principle” he states, “in a hierarchically structured administration, people tend to be promoted up to their level of incompetence.” The principle is based on the observation that in such an organization new employees typically start in the lower ranks, but when they prove to be competent in the task to which they are assigned, they get promoted to a higher rank. And usually the higher rank can only be achieved in a managerial position. This process of climbing up the ladder can go on indefinitely until the employee reaches a position where he or she is no longer competent. At that moment, when it is too late, the failure of the promotion process is finally recognized.

What seemed like such a great idea is now a nightmare. Where do you go from here? Having the wrong person in management could actually destroy a department or even an entire company. But what can you do now? One option is to hope that the new manager becomes so frustrated and fed up being in a position they know they are struggling with that he or she will quit. Another option is that the manager bides his or her time until they accumulate enough “evidence” to withstand a lawsuit and then terminate the person. A third option is the offering of a mutually agreeable severance package to expedite the entire process. In this case it would be wise to have this person sign a waiver that no future lawsuits would be filed.

In any of the above scenarios the end result is that you have lost a person whom you considered a top performer at one time because you promoted them to a role for which they were not suited. Many companies have recognized this dilemma by creating two career paths: One path is for managerial growth; the other is for an individual contributor. Both offer similar pay grades and salaries, therefore, it is not necessary for them to become a manager to advance within the company.

But how can you do a better job of preventing the “Peter Principle Syndrome” from happening to you when you have a manager opening and you want to promote from within?

1. First you should analyze the individual’s personality. It has been proven that good managers have certain personality traits that help them to be more successful in delegating, communicating, multi-tasking, follow-through, etc. Not all people naturally have these personality traits. In order to find out a person’s strengths and weaknesses for the position, conduct a personality profile analysis of the individual you are considering promoting prior to offering them the job. If they do not appear to have all the qualities you are looking for, at least you will be aware of the weaknesses and know where you will need to do additional training and coaching. For more information on the DISC System that I recommend, go to: www.tgassociates.com/products/products.asp#profiles.

2. Next you should find out if the person you are considering promoting has the mental ability to take on additional responsibility. To find this out, I recommend using the Wonderlic Personnel Test. There are established minimum acceptable scores for a manager’s position. You would want to use these benchmarks to compare your current person against. Many times a company spends a lot of time and money training someone to take on more work and/or responsibility and it never quite works out because they didn’t have the mental ability to actually do the job. On the other hand, you may be pleasantly surprised to find out that you have a person who is very smart and definitely worth the investment of time and money. The Wonderlic test that I recommend consists of 50 questions, takes 12-minutes to complete, and is a very accurate measure of a person’s general intelligence. For more information go to www.tgassociates.com/products/products.asp#wonderlic.

If the Personality Profile and the Wonderlic Personnel Tests give you positive responses, then you can feel more comfortable moving ahead. Below are some questions to think about to be completely sure the candidates are management ready:

Are they ready to:

1. Act more like a coach than a player?
2. Step out of the limelight and let their employees get the glory?
3. Handle paperwork and details?
4. Organize themselves and their employees?
5. Be self-motivated and be able to motivate their employees?
6. Spend most of their time planning and analyzing others’ tasks rather than doing?
7. Listen to complaints and resolve their employee’s problems?
8. Handle personnel issues and possibly fire someone?

Although every organization should continually work to reward top performers, promoting them to management is not always the right answer. Organizations will be better served to come up with more creative ways to reward top performers, while keeping the management positions for those who exemplify the attributes in the testing and in the checklist above.

This information was originally published in my newsletter TG Notes. If you would like to subscribe to TG Notes, click here.

I heard this from one of the attendees during my seminar at the Mid-Winter Conference. I thought it was so appropriate. There are many shops out there that will never be as good as what the owner desires, because they continue to put up with underachievers or bad-attitude employees. Even though finding a replacement for this type of individual is a top concern for owners throughout the nation right now, these employees must be addressed.

The first recommendation is to “Coach Your Underachievers.”

The second recommendation is to “Get Rid of Them.”

Underachievers come in every shape, size, educational background and ethnic group. The only thing they have in common is that they are not living up to the potential that you are sure they possess or what the position requires. Below are a few suggestions to help you try and raise the standards for an underachiever:

• Expect more from them. What you expect from people is often what you get. If you write off an underachiever, he is likely to live up to your low expectations. Underachievers need more, not less, responsibility.
• Boost their self-esteem. Many underachievers desperately need acknowledgment and support. They especially need you to recognize their intelligence and professionalism. You need to “pump them up.”
• Use cross-training. Train your underachiever to train someone else. This is a great morale-booster, and when people are responsible for training others, they will have to master the subject matter themselves. Caution: Don’t allow the underachiever to begin training others until you are certain the person has mastered the task.
• Don’t be afraid to discipline the underachiever. Most of the time these people need discipline and structure. They need to know someone is watching. Sitting with this person on a regular basis and discussing the progress of their performance is absolutely critical. The first conversation needs to revisit the job description. Have it in writing and also have them sign the job description after they have reviewed it with you to confirm that they do understand what they are to be doing. Next, create a plan to help them achieve the expectations. Then you need to meet with them daily/weekly/monthly, whatever it takes, to have open discussion about their progress.

After you have followed the steps mentioned above and it is still not improving, it’s time to let this person go – NOW!

This information was originally published in my newsletter TG Notes. If you would like to subscribe to TG Notes, click here.

In our last staff meeting, I told my staff, “no more eating at your stations.” This was particularly intended for my production team. I’ve got employees standing at their presses, printing and pounding down a super-sized burrito at the same time. Not only is quality in jeopardy because they are using both hands eating this thing, but there’s also a chance that the end product will have a little salsa on the side.

Anyway, the very next day after issuing this edict, one of my operators grabs his lunch and his iPod and heads to the front office. He proceeds to find an account manager’s desk (who happens to be out on his lunch break), plops himself down, pulls up YouTube on the computer, plugs in his headset and begins to eat his lunch while now sitting in front of other teammates, customers, and me.

I guess he took “no more eating at your station” literally, and eating at someone else’s station as not a problem. Like I said, you just can’t make this stuff up.

On another – more serious – note, the other day, I was sitting at my desk sipping on a glass of water. One of my employees came in to “share with me” some things going on in the office. In the middle of the conversation I started to choke, my water went down the wrong pipe. Well, I continued to choke and gasp for air to the point at which my employee began to do the Heimlich maneuver on me. As this was not working as he thought it should, he began to panic and call out for help. Now there were three people all standing there, not knowing what to do.

I calmed myself down and was eventually able to get air to flow through my air passages – thank goodness. However, the entire experience was very scary for all of us.

The lesson learned here was the fact that everyone on staff needs to have emergency training. To watch a teammate in trouble and not know how to help is a terrible feeling. My staff felt helpless, scared, and embarrassed that they didn’t know what to do.

Since this incident, I have found a Worksite Wellness Program sponsored by the YMCA. They will provide all sorts of programs based on the needs of our current staff. They will provide speakers from health care agencies, conduct exercise programs, diet programs, refer us to CPR training classes, and many other needed wellness programs. The good news is that 90% of it is free and the programs are designed specifically for our group and individual needs. I would highly recommend that you contact your local YMCA to find out if this special grant program for Worksite Wellness is available in your area.

This may seem like a silly topic, especially to men, but it definitely tells a story about customer retention vs. customer exodus.

I spend quite a bit of money yearly on my hair, as I’m sure most women do. And now that I’ve tipped over the age of 50 I’m even more vain and willing to pay even more money to keep the gray hairs from showing their silver/white strands. So, not only do I pay to have my hair cut, but I pay to have it colored and highlighted. I pay for the special products I need to treat the specially dyed hair, and I pay for all the other products that will make it poof when I want it poofy, or go straight when I want the flatter look. The end result is any hairdresser who wants to earn a good living, certainly has a good chance by keeping me as their customer.

I don’t consider myself to be a high-maintenance customer, but I do like change, I like to look fresh and perky and I want help and suggestions to keep up to date. I’ve noticed that when I first start out with a new hairdresser, they are very willing to spend time on that first visit discussing my concerns about my current hair style, asking questions about my activity level, how much time I want to devote to daily hair care and what thoughts I have about my color and style. It’s the best feeling to have someone actually take that time to help me figure out what I need to do to be fresh and look good.

The next visit there is the conversation about how I liked the new do, what worked, what didn’t, etc., then adjustments are made. The next few visits have a little initial conversation about the hair, but after awhile it feels like the stylist is assuming what I want and is just anxious to get going on the whole haircut ritual forgetting about that first-time experience. I then find myself at each of the next visits trying to squeeze in a few comments about what I would like to try or what’s bothering me about my hair, but walk out with no real sense of change, hence feeling like I wasn’t heard.

Eventually I decide to call another salon and look for another awesome “first-time experience.” I feel guilty for changing and also sad that I had to. But, as I stated in the beginning, my hair is personal and very important to me.

I started thinking about our customers and wondering if we continue to give them each that first-time experience, or if after awhile we treat them like a “regular?” My guess is that after some time, we treat many of our customers as a regular and forget to take a little extra time at the beginning of each encounter to make them feel important and to find out what is really on their mind.

How often to we reach out to them to check and see how things are going? Or invite them in for a tour to see some of our new equipment or samples of things we are doing for our other clients. Do we set up Lunch ‘n Learns and invite a few customers in at a time to show them things that would help them get more ROI on the money they are spending with you? What about a hand-written thank you note once in awhile?

With our new customers, it is easy to cover all the above because we are still in the dating phase of the relationship and we are still trying to win them over. We’re tying to figure them out and working to set up a relationship that provides an annuity for our company for many years to come. However, after the marriage is sealed, too often we tend to take the relationship for granted and slowly, over time it may even slip away. We may be so busy working on securing new relationships that we don’t even realize that one of our “regulars” just left us for good.

In today’s marketplace customer retention is critical. No business can afford to lose even one good customer. So while we are trying to acquire new customers, we need to have a strategic plan in place to retain our current relationships. You need to establish a system for reaching out to each of their customers to make sure they are getting the attention they deserve. Schedule in time each day to make the calls and they need to be trained on how to give that first-time experience when reaching out to the customer.

I encourage every business to establish a plan for customer retention and hold your sales team accountable for keeping those relationships new and fresh. Not everyone needs as much change as I do, but I bet there are many customers that would truly appreciate the extra attention, the suggestions and ideas on how to make them look better and how to get more return on investment of their printing dollars.

This blog originally appeared in TG & Associates’ free e-newsletter “TG’s Notes.” Sign up for a free subscription at http://www.tgassociates.com.

Bill and I never know how people will react to our articles and publications. However, one recent response on our new book was totally unexpected. Our book “No More Rotten Eggs – A Dozen Steps to Grade AA Talent Management” got into the library of the federal prison just south of Tucson. As a result, we have been invited to spend a few hours at the prison on my birthday, August 11, meeting with inmates who are learning how to adapt to life upon release.

One of the classes being developed by an inmate will focus on how to be “A Good Egg.” They want us to come down and provide some guidance based on our book and our staffing experiences. I hope we do okay so they will let us back out.

It is always interesting to watch the ongoing debate between owners on which new widget to buy or how to get their existing widget serviced properly. As I look at the different opinions, it seems to be more a question of who they are dealing with rather than the quality of the widget itself. Sure, sometimes there are some lemons out there, but by and large, most complaints are because they don’t like the dealer or the techs.

Do you ever wonder if your ability to draw customers has nothing to do with the equipment that you have, but rather how you and your staff are interacting with your customers or how you are interacting with your employees. Do your customers complain about how they are treated at your store or do your employees complain about how they are treated by you and their fellow employees?

Think about the answers to those questions. It could be very interesting.

Open and Honest

(This blog was submitted by Bill Greif of TG & Associates)

Debra asked me to take a cut at a blog about a subject that we feel is critical to business success and growth. We often emphasize the role of leadership in the business and we cite the traits that we think represent leadership. Being open and honest with your staff is such a trait. When we work with owners we ask if they are open and honest, and they always say they are. Then we ask if they share the numbers, and the response is usually, “No, of course not. They don’t need to know that.”

When I worked in aerospace, the employee profit sharing at the end of the year depended on how the company did against the goals in four major areas: Bookings (New orders), Sales (Delivered Orders), Cash On Hand, and Profitability. Every quarter, the General Manager would conduct a series of meetings across the plant site (I guess we would call them town halls today), and she would provide the status YTD for each of those four areas and the actions underway to make sure they would be met at the end of the year. If there were some serious concerns about meeting any of them, she would be open and honest about those concerns and would answer any questions from the employees. There were over 10,000 employees and they all had a chance to hear the news from the top and to question what was going to happen.

In this era of economic stress and uncertainty, your employees need to know what is going on in your business and what actions you are taking to deal with the issues. They need to know that you are managing the business and that you are on top of what it takes to secure their livelihood. They also need to know how they can contribute to help secure their future. When did you hold your last town hall meeting? Don’t remember? Then it is way overdue. If you won’t be open and honest with them, then fear of the unknown may drive them to another company where they can learn what is going on.

Some of you may know that I had to stop a lot of my travel a couple of years ago for health reasons. Anyway, things seem to be better now, so I am going to be doing some speaking engagements again and trying to get back to where I was at that time.

On June 4, I will be at Northwest Forest in Houston speaking for ICED. I will be doing two different sessions. I am really looking forward to the opportunity to see some old friends and get back in the middle of things. Interestingly, Bill will also be doing some speaking at the same time. He will be at MFSA in Charleston, SC, from June 3-5, presenting twice there. Who knows, this could become another career for him.

The tough deal now is trying to make arrangements for Spencer (our somewhat spoiled Cavalier King Charles Spaniel) while we are gone.

Hopefully, you have seen some of our announcements and press releases about our new book, “No More Rotten Eggs – A Dozen Steps to Grade AA Talent Management,” just published by McGraw-Hill and available in book stores everywhere and online.
We have been asked why we would suggest a book on hiring now when, in fact, many companies are still in the downsizing mode. Well, the fact of the matter is that this is the right time to hire. Not to add staff, but rather to upgrade staff. Given all the discussion of a structural change in the industry, it is only logical that business owners recognize the need to restructure to cope with these structural changes. And when they restructure, they need to be sure that their current staff will fit their new vision. There may be better people out there and now is the time to get them. If you wait until the recovery is underway then you will be competing again for the top performers and you could lose.
So don’t wait – start now. And if you want to know how to do it right, buy our book!