I’ll get right to it. Most of us spend our early career focusing on sharpening our crafts. Unless you have been specializing in HR (human resources), chances are, you were never properly trained to be the boss that people would want to look up to.
To make it even more challenging, the reality is that most of us have experience working for a toxic boss or working in a toxic work environment before. And, most of us swore to ourselves right then & there that we would never do what they've done to us.
In other words, we are aware of what NOT to do from our own experience, but many of us don’t exactly know how to go about breaking the vicious cycle and what to do instead as a business owner.
That’s not all. Now that you are running your own business, all eyes are on you. You are ultimately responsible for leading your team, regardless of whether or not you have a management team right below you.
This is why today I want to check in with you to see how your people management skills stack up. Becoming an aspiring business leader isn’t fluff or an ego-driven wish; it’s a lifeline that can make or break your business.
Why?
Simple. Being a crappy leader costs an enormous amount of money in your business due to the deadly chain reaction of a high turnover rate with wasted training time, causing low productivity among employees resulting in piled-up, missed business opportunities.
If you don’t want anything to do with this chain reaction (I certainly do not), then just follow the quick steps I’m sharing here to fast-track your people management skills.
Even if you are reading this thinking, "I think I'm pretty OK at this," I still want you to read it to become self-aware of some pitfalls you may not even have considered before.
So, here are the 3 steps:
Step #1:
Get Your Head out of the Sand & Face These 3 Cold Facts
Step #2:
Focus on 5 Things Your Team Wants
Step #3:
Plan & Execute Actionable Tasks Based on Your Findings from Step #1 & 2
Just by following these steps, you will see a significant change in your team’s performance. As a result, you may even see a revenue spike quickly. Our goal for this post is for you to get yourself out of the emotionally draining people management hell F-A-S-T.
Once you get the hang of this exercise, then you can go read up on leadership & management books to further improve your people management & leadership skills.
By the way, my mantra for managing anyone – clients, employees, vendors, joint venture partners - all boils down to this:
You want people to willingly do what you want them to do for
things that benefit all of us.
Never, I mean NEVER, lose sight of this ultimate desired outcome. All of your actions must be dictated by this.
OK, then are you ready to rip the Band Aid off?
Hey! I’m Maiko.
Thanks for stopping by. If you are a visionary business owner with the desire to build a high-functioning, profit-generating machine of your dreams, let’s connect!
Thanks for stopping by. If you are a visionary business owner with the desire to build a high-functioning, profit-generating machine of your dreams, let’s connect!
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Step #1: Get Your Head out of the Sand & Face These 3 Cold Facts
This is going to hurt a bit. I feel like I say this in most of my posts, but it’s true. If you want change, you’d better get comfortable with feeling bad and uncomfortable. There’s no way around it.
I can’t emphasize enough how these facts are ignored by business owners. This is why none of those quick fixes to “motivate & encourage employees” work. Without accepting these facts wholeheartedly, anything you do will be temporary fixes.
If you can’t get over these, then you might as well stop reading this right now.
Fact #1: You Signed Up for It; They Did Not. So, don't drag them into your river of misery, stress & hardships. They don't want your drama.
Fact #2: They Are NEVER Going to Love Your Business as Much as You Do. So, stop projecting it onto them as if they are expected to do so.
Fact #3: Understand that *Who You Truly Are* will Show Up in Your Leadership & Management Style. So, check yourself.
Do I hear booing? I don’t care. I don’t hear it. I’ll just keep going.
It was your decision to start a business. Anything including all sorts of crap that comes with entrepreneurship and running a business is exactly what you signed up for. Understand that your employees did not.
What you need to reflect on is whether you have been conducting yourself based on the belief that they must share the same level of business burden only YOU signed up for. If this is the case, you know you are clearly off the mark.
The same goes for Fact #2. They did not sign up to LOVE your business. But you may argue that there are brands and businesses that have an almost cult-like following internally (employees) & externally (customers).
Sure, I can even name a few to save your breath. Apple, REI, Southwest Airline, Dollar Shave Club, Momofuku Milk Bar, Stitch Fix, Crossfit, Blue Bottle Coffee, Zappos, etc. OK, they all have loyal customers and employees are happy.
But what if any of these brands got into a financial down spiral due to bad PR causing its stock price to plummet or a sudden dip in economy forcing them to issue debts? Are any of these people gashing to drop a cool million to save the brand? Just because…they love it so much?
No.
The point I’m making here is this: They don’t love your business enough to go through what’s required to keep it going when things get seriously tough.
Every now and then, you will meet employees who are hard core dedicated to your mission and vision & ready to die on the hill you are standing on. But if you think that’s the benchmark for the rest of your employees, then you are off the mark.
Lastly as Shakespeare’s quote goes, “All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances…” we all play multiple roles throughout our lives.
What I would argue is our interpretation of a specific role or our belief about that role will show up through the role. It doesn’t matter whether you intentionally show up as a leader you want to be with a “leader” hat on, who you truly are as a person will show up as well.
For example, If your underlying belief is, “Young people are entitled and not even aware of how fortunate they are to have this opportunity (given by me),” then your comments or communication with your employees will showcase your belief.
If your limited belief is, “People are not trust-worthy. They will turn on me one way or another.” Then that is exactly how you will manage people. The kicker is, that is exactly the way every scenario will turn out to be because you focus on spotting evidence that supports your belief instead of remotely considering the opposite to be a possibility.
On the other hand, if you tend to believe both in work and life that, “People are, in general, wanting to do a good job,” then you focus on the evidence that supports this belief and want to do more of it.
You get the idea. So, check yourself.
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5 Things Your Employees Want in Exchange for Their Time
You must have heard about the many hideous events & programs that are meant to, here goes my air-quote, “motivate and encourage” employees. Heck, on more than a few occasions, I had to actually participate in those things. Regrettably.
Not only do I roll my eyes to the back of my brain, but I also feel pity for those who genuinely believe that’s what their employees want (or they think that they can mask the real issues with those activities.)
“What a disconnect! Seriously, are you telling me they don’t know?!”
That’s my reaction.
A potluck/BBQ, mandatory afterwork outing, pep rally, a trip to the spa (together, ugh), a little bonus for pain & suffering caused by blowing up in their faces, a cheesy team building exercise that’s 15 years old & clearly outdated… You ought to see my face that’s about to explode.
NO ONE WANTS THAT SH*T. They just want to go home far, far away from you.
Here’s the truth bomb: Those who come up with this silly stuff that no one wants are the ones trying to make themselves feel better to compensate for the guilt they are feeling a.k.a. licking your own wounds.
Boom! Case closed.
OK, now that that’s out of the way, let’s get into what they want instead. The list will blow your mind because none of them are sexy nor flashy. It’s not meant to surprise you; it’s meant to remind you how you might be over-complicating things.
But wait, here is a word of caution. This is based on the assumption that you have employees who care and are fit, capable & willing.
These 5 things are not applicable to employees who are opportunists with ulterior motives or coasters or freeloaders, etc.
These types do NOT want the 5 things I am about to list; they WANT the things I roll my eyes at because they are all about free things, beating the system, spotting every chance for not working & some extra money for doing nothing.
In a way, this is a good indicator you can use to determine who is worth keeping around & who to let go. You are welcome.
Now, here are the 5 things they want more than anything:
1. Consistency in terms of directions given
2. Reliability & trust
3. Clarity in communications
4. Good challenges coupled with a moderate level of autonomy
5. Organized work environment
That’s it. Basic, isn’t it?
Now, it’s my time to ask you a question. In your opinion, why do you think they want these things? If you aren’t sure, let me rephrase the question, “If all combined, what do these things create?”
These are the foundational elements required to create a calm and focused work environment for them to do the job they DID sign up for.
At the end of the day, the majority of people who choose to keep a job (and not start their own thing) are committed to being good contributors to the organizations they work for even if some may need more guidance than others.
Naturally, not having these in place will undermine their motivation. You can see that, don’t you?
Now, it takes two to tango. To be clear, I’m not suggesting that you, as a business owner, is solely responsible for providing all of these things to them on a silver platter. They need to prove themselves that they are capable of working collectively to make it happen. It calls for a collaborative effort.
Having said that, though, your responsibility is still to show them how it’s done. Hence, lead by example. Instead of focusing on "what you are NOT getting from them," focus on creating an environment where they can thrive on their own so that they will take up a role instead of a bunch of tasks with no accountability.
Step #3: Plan & Execute Actionable Tasks Based on Your Findings from Step #1 & 2
Lots of thoughts running through your head?
Before you submerge in an ocean of guilt & shame to hide from the public, I will point out 2 things that will help you move on faster.
First, do you remember my opening for this post?
This is what I said: Many of us are not properly trained to manage people other than the fact that we’ve seen and experienced plenty of bad examples.
We have dedicated our time to work on our craft. The downside is that we’ve spent virtually no time learning about how to lead and manage people effectively.
This is not a unique problem to you & you only. We all share the same struggle.
So, don’t even think about wasting your precious time shaming what you have done or haven’t done enough of.
Second, if you still feel heavy about the whole responsibility of managing people and leading a pack, this may be the time for you to take a step back and reassess your business structure.
You have 3 choices:
1. Make a conscious decision to run a one-person business.
2. Commit to being a kick-ass leader & scale your business.
3. Do #2 first & hire a CEO to hand down the acquired skills as well as your vision to him /her.
The reason #3 is listed is because I don't believe in any business owner not being accountable for all areas of their business. I discuss extensively in this post, “How to be Dangerous Enough with Everything to Do with Your Business,” as to why that is, so I will just touch on this briefly. This means, you still need to do #2.
Author of "Company of One," Paul Jarvis (https://pjrvs.com/) made a conscious decision to not build a traditional business with full-time staff because he wanted nothing to do with managing people. Instead, he wanted to focus on his craft & enjoy freedom.
Rand Fishkin, founder of SparkToro & ex-founder of Moz also talks candidly about spending his time leading & managing a large group of people (at Moz) that didn't inspire him. You can listen to Ramli John’s Growth Marketing Today Podcast interview with Rand here: https://growthtoday.fm/rand-fishkin/
And, this is perfectly fine.
Knowing what you are a genius at, what inspires you & what you'd rather be doing is vital to designing your business the way you desire. So, if you are leaning towards opting for Choice #1, you get right to it.
However, if you are to opt for #2 with a possibly pursuing #3, then you have your work cut out for you.
Just as a reminder, this post is about getting your results faster. So, write out just 3-5 things that you can immediately change by looking through the 3 facts you need to get real with & the 5 things employees want for the first month for you to work on.
For example, you have become aware that you may have been subconsciously expecting your employees to share the “owner’s burden” with you. Find out ways you can filter that out so that your employees can focus on their work.
It may be that every time you feel the pressure of dealing with operational challenges, you write your thoughts down in a notebook and come back to it later to digest on your own, rather than emailing it to your employees. Another solution can be to find a good support group of business owners who understand what you’re going through.
Or, you have come to the realization that you’ve never trusted your employees’ ability to own a role, resulting in micromanaging them. What can you do to reverse this? It may be that you talk to them and have them come up with a couple of challenging projects with clear goals and let them take over as a test.
Or, you have found yourself throwing problems at your employees instead of giving them a role, clear guidance and what’s expected from them. A solution might be that you take ownership of solving the problem and come up with a guideline.
The key here is to create a list of actions you will execute. Your feelings of shame, guilt, or doubts on whether any of the changes you are about to make will mean anything need to be set aside so that you can take action.
Not to be too harsh, but drowning yourself in these thoughts is a sign that you are being self-centered. Shift your gears and decide which matters more to you: 1) Your feelings, or 2) The well-being of your business and your team.
Once you complete your list of 5 actionable tasks, see if there are any improvements you can spot in employees’ behaviors. Don’t forget to also assess yourself and see if anything has changed for the better. Gradually, you can add more tasks to your list and monitor the progress closely.
Lastly, when it comes to facing the 3 cold facts I listed earlier, the wider the gap between your expectations for your employees and the 3 facts, the heavier you would feel. This gap is causing all the issues with the way you lead and manage people.
This may not have to take a long time for you to overcome, but it does require a ton of serious reflection and work on yourself to adjust your expectations.
Where Does This Leave Us?
People management doesn’t have to be difficult or hard.
Remember my mantra? If you reverse engineer from the mantra to determine what actions need to be taken, you will most likely set aside your fears, insecurity, doubts and ego to become the boss you either always wanted to become or you would have loved to work for.
Do keep in mind that it is an ongoing process. This is not a “set it & forget it” system.
By shifting your focus on your team’s success rather than focusing on what you don’t get in return or what you have to put up with, the cogs you once thought you had to move with a tremendous amount of force start to move on their own, like a well-oiled machine.
How light you will feel in your gut after seeing some changes is hard to explain unless you go through it all. I promise you, though, it’s a great feeling. So, be courageous and commit to making the changes needed because that is what you signed up for. Your future self will thank you.
As usual, @ me any time over Twitter or leave your comments below!