December 15, 2009

Building Business | Most Important Ingredient

What Do You Think?

Years ago I worked for a company that asked all of its employees for their opinion. The results were startling. The number one grievance was management’s inability to deal with non-performance. Yes they notice when you fail to deal with issues.


Good enough is not good enough, that will do is worse than don't bother. You need your people to be the best at what they do and it's up to management to create an atmosphere for them to shine. If you think you can shortcut this, call the local sand company and get them to deliver enough to bury your entire body.

Fix What's Broke

If you are in a management position and you are not dealing with these issues, everyone is aware. If you don’t think they are, you are fooling no one but yourself. This was well documented by Malcolm Gladwell in The Tipping Point and the chapter Broken Window.

If you don't care, why should they care?

One person is late for a meeting and the boss does nothing about it. Suddenly half the room is late for meetings, dress code rules aren't followed, customers receive sub-par service and profits shrink.

The average person spends 2,000 hours a year at work. If those are enjoyable hours, no one is counting. If they are miserable, time stands still.

What’s the solution?

Creating experiences are the best way to get everyone involved. If it is an atmosphere of encouragement and teamwork, you will see a remarkable difference in morale and productivity.

Who wants to grind it out at work and deal with passive aggressive behavior? We are healing from the worst economic crisis in seven decades, it’s time to get creative and devise ways for us to enjoy the process better.

The most important ingredient in building a business is people.

Without good people, your great ideas may just jangle around your gray matter trying to find a place to land. Remove a solid creative team and the battles will be tougher to win. A company void of a collaborative environment is primed to fail.

If you are like me and consult business, it is important to build a collaborative network of people in and out of clients' companies. I don't know about you, but I want to work with people who want to make a difference and inspire others. If you're not interested in that type of working environment, I wish you well in your future endeavors.

One Works. One Does Not.

Have you ever wondered how one business thrives with fewer resources while another well-financed company can’t seem to find success? You need resources but without encouraged people good luck to you.

Will you deal with non-performance and encourage creative ideas or will you shake your head in disbelief when your ideas aren’t magically turned in to success?

@knealemann
marketing and social media strategy

image credit: sciaf.org.uk

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