Employees: Assets or Liabilities? – The People Game

Posted on November 15, 2015 by Mark R Steinke, One of Thousands of Business Coaches on Noomii.

Over the next few months this series will provide actionable, valuable information on how to ensure your employee(s) are the right ones for you, are engaged, are performing and you can develop them so they operate your Business so you can Work ON your business vs. IN it.
Interested?

Read on.

According to Brian Tracy, Author of over 70 Books on Business Success, in his book; The Way to Wealth – Part one [quotesright] Fully 95% of your success will be determined by the people you hire to work for you. [/quotesright] In the early stages of your business, your turnover will be very high, as much as 200% each year.”

Now when you consider cost of hire, cost of training, cost of lost revenue (from turnover or bad hire) it is costly and expensive to be have employees who are not Right for you, not Engaged in your business, and not Performing at peak performance. [quotes]So where do you begin? How do you ensure your team is the right team, doing the right things, at the right level with the right outcome?

This takes a people approach. Do you not plan for your Business results? Do you plan for your sales? Your operations? Your Customer service? Then why not a formal approach to your employees? [quotesright]Too many business owners bring on employees, integrate them into their business and manage them with a last minute, ‘Thanks for joining, here you go’ approach.

Think about your approach to creating a great team out of the people who REPRESENT YOU and YOUR BUSINESS. Will they do that the way you WANT it REPRESENTED? [quotes]Do you really want to leave that to chance?

How do you get your people to do what you want?

The answer according to Michael Gerber, the world’s #1 small business guru and author of the Book; The E-Myth Revisited states in this book:

“You can’t! You can’t get your employees to do anything. If you want this done, you’re going to have to create an environment in which ‘doing it’ is more important to your people than not doing it. Where doing it well becomes a way of life for them.” Gerber continues to say: ‘The method to have this environment in your Business is to make your employees understand the IDEA behind the work they’re being asked to do by creating a “people game’. [/quotesright]
This game is HOW YOU ACT. It is how you infuse purpose and value into your employees doing the work you want, when you need it and how you need it done. So the real question is how do you create this “game”?

According to Gerber there are 8 Rules to this game:

The Rules to Getting Employees to Do What You Want
1. Never figure out what you want your people to do and then try to create a game out of it.
• If this is to be serious, the environment (Game) comes first what your people do, second.
2. Never create a game for your people you’re UNWILLING to play yourself.
• You need to walk the talk and live it.
3. Make sure there are specific ways of winning the game without ending it.
• Like any good MBA class on game theory, you need to create something where wins happen, it’s appealing to do yet your people never FINISH the game.
4. Change the game from time to time – the tactics, not the strategy.
• Strategy is its ethic, moral underpinning, basically the logic of your work environment.
• How to keep interest and focus is to change the style, method, etc.
5. Never expect the game to be self-sustaining. People need to be reminded of it constantly.
• Weekly, daily, at meetings, etc. keep reminding yourself and your people the goal, strategy of the purpose and value of the work you need accomplished.
6. The Game has to make sense
• The trick here is to create the vision, purpose and value without it seeming like a “game”. It has to be logical, intriguing and rewarding to DO.
7. The Game needs to be fun from time to time.
• Note from “time to time” and not ALL THE TIME. Small rewards, recognition, etc. all need to be included in your “game”.
8. Lastly, if you can’t think of a good game, steal one.
• Learn how successful companies with high employee productivity, low turnover, and strong engagement do it. Copy it.
• If you need help creating one work with a Business Coach who should be able to get you to develop and implement one.

So play the new game, have fun and start to experience your employees loving their work, doing what you want, when you want it, how you want it done. [/quotesright] Not only has this, imagine people asking to work for you or in your organization.

When this happens you know you have…

“EMPLOYEES who are ASSETS and not Liabilities.”
– By: Mark R Steinke – Elite Business Coach / Area Representative
Focal Point Business Coaching of Pennsylvania
www.coachmarksteinke.com