I expect you have similar thoughts and complaints as many of my clients around hiring and training staff.
“It’s hard to get good people.”
“I just spent 3 months training them and now they’ve left.”
“I keep having to train the same thing over and over again because people don’t last.”
“I’m sick of answering the same questions and having to repeat myself over and over.”
If this is familiar to you, there are some things you can do to make your life easier.
It starts with your recruitment process.
You need to be crystal clear about the role and the K.E.S.A.Q. (Knowledge, Experience, Skills, Attitude and Qualifications) required to succeed in the role.
You need to identify the critical “Must Have’s” and stick to that when interviewing and selecting people.
Before they start, develop a structured learning program so you and they know what they’re going to be learning and when.
Identify their preferred learning style (visual, auditory, kinaesthetic). In other words, do they prefer to read procedures or see things done, hear verbal instructions or just get in and have a go themselves? Yes, people can learn, even if it’s not their preferred style, however if you can train in their style, they will learn more quickly.
Have workflow diagrams available for your processes, so people can see the bigger picture and where their work fits into the overall process. This also helps with teamwork as people understand how their work impacts those whose tasks follow theirs.
Have your procedures documented in a way that is easy to understand and easy to find. If your team don’t know where or how to find procedures, they’ll complete their tasks to the best of their ability, but this may not be the way it’s meant to be done.
Finally, and possibly most importantly, check your mindset and your belief systems. If you believe good people are hard to find, guess what, that’s exactly what you’ll manifest.
If you expect that people can’t learn, that’s also what you’ll get.
You can lessen the burden of hiring and training staff (over and over again). Your team’s success is directly related to you personally as much as it is to the degree that you have your recruitment and training systems in place.
Your task this week, if you’re up for it, is to monitor yourself and audit your recruitment and training systems. If you find gaps, create a plan to fill the gaps and then start implementing the plan.
As I was preparing for the first session of the current Loyal Lieutenant online experience, I was speaking with a client whom I’ve been working with for over 15 years.
Our very first project was a 10 week coaching course for him as he stepped into the role of General Manager.
He had been promoted because the owner of the company observed that any time there was a problem, (and particularly when the owner was away), this employee sorted it out.
He was a natural problem solver.
We chatted about the mindset it requires to solve problems and to step into that 2IC role.
When I first started at Kip McGrath, I made a lot of changes to the systems, simply to make my job easier.
I too am a natural problem solver.
And I also believe this is both a skill and a mindset that can be learned and improved.
This is something pay particular attention to in The Loyal Lieutenant.
Problem solvers ask questions.
They look for easier ways to do things.
They don’t just accept “this is the way we do it around here” without questioning the efficiency of the way it’s done.
Problem solvers don’t ask for permission to fix things. They just fix them.
One skill problem solvers can improve though, is their ability to promote themselves. Not in an arrogant or brash way, neither in a coercive or controlling way, but to let the boss know what has been fixed.
For example, “The franchisees were complaining that we were sending their materials to the wrong address. I talked with the dispatch manager to understand how this could happen and as a result, we now ask the franchisees what their preferred postal and delivery addresses are for letters and parcels. We haven’t had any complaints about delivery in the past few weeks.”
If you don’t tell them, they won’t know. Promoting yourself is also a key skill.
If you’re a natural problem solver, please embrace this. Continue to fix thing and make sure to let those in charge know what you’ve fixed.
If you’re not a natural problem solver, don’t despair. You can develop the mindset of a problem solver. Give yourself permission to become a problem solver and set about finding better ways to do things. The choice is up to you.
You can learn to be a problem solver. It’s a skill and a mindset that is very valuable and in high demand. Your boss will love you for it.
Ross and I were discussing the subject heading for this weekly thought.
Should it be “I’m perplexed, I’m confused, I’m puzzled”?
When we looked up the Macquarie Dictionary, the old fashioned book format, the words seemed to be interchangeable.
So here’s why I’m perplexed.
I recently created some facebook ads and offered a Complimentary Private Career Planning Consultation to seconds-in-command or aspiring seconds-in-command to help them understand where they are in their journey and where they want to go. In other words, for the “Go To People” in your organisation.
A number of people completed the facebook form which asked for first name, email, phone number and country/region. The country/region was so I could ensure I got the timezone right when I reached out to book their consultation.
The details entered were legitimate. I spoke to one lady who was driving at the time and whom asked me to send her an SMS message to work out some times.
I honoured her request. No response.
Similar results happened with the other leads.
Why would you go to the trouble of entering your contact details to “ghost” the person who is offering to help when they contact you?
I don’t get this. I really don’t.
Some people may be sceptical (cynical, disbelieving, doubtful) and that’s okay. Don’t fill in the form.
But to go to the trouble of filling in the form and then not follow through for the consultation, that perplexes me.
Human behaviour and human psychology absolutely fascinate me.
My challenge now is to coach myself and not allow myself to start making up stories as to why people do that and then make it about myself and how I’m not good enough etc. or worse, reinforce old limiting beliefs that are not true.
As an example, I can tell myself, they are busy. They’ll come back when they’re ready or they’ve decided they don’t want to be a second-in-command now. Filling in the form was actually helpful for them because it made them stop and think and ask themselves if that’s what they truly want.
My point is, we tell ourselves stories to make sense of what happens. Rather than slip into our old habits of making up negative stories, we can choose the stories we tell ourselves, so choose useful stories. Choose empowering stories.
Ross and I were going to the dentist. He was driving.
I got into the passenger side, or rather fell into the passenger side.
“Whoa! Who’s been sitting in this seat?” I asked.
The seat had been lowered to the floor, pushed all the way back and the back of the seat had been lowered to almost lying down.
“Hmmm. I remember someone moving it”, replied Ross as I attempted to get it back to our normal position.
“I know”, he said. “It was the guy at the car service place. He got in to show me how to fix some of the buttons and gadgets that had moved since we had the last service. I don’t know why he had to move everything. He was a nice guy and a tall guy but he was a guest in the car and as a guest, you shouldn’t move things without asking.”
This comment about whether he should or shouldn’t have moved things, “as a guest” got me thinking about values and how we all have different values and ways of doing things.
The same topic came up later in the day when I was with a coaching client. We’ll call him Mark.
Mark mentioned since completing one of our leadership experiences, that he was much more tolerant of others’ values and ways of doing things.
I think this is something that most of us deal with on a daily basis. Many of us want things done our way and we get frustrated and angry when people don’t follow the rules (our rules).
In fact, in her book, “You Can Heal Your Life”, Louise Hay cites research by Virginia Satir that showed that “there are more than 250 different ways to wash dishes, depending upon who is washing and the ingredients used.”
Louise Hay goes on to say,“If we are stuck in believing there is only ‘one way,’ or ‘one viewpoint,’ then we are shutting out most of life.”
This poses a couple of tricky questions:
Is it okay for your team to do the work how they want to do it or must they follow the process?
If they must follow the process and they don’t, do you just fix it or do you point it out to them and make them feel inferior or guilty or do you look to the system to see if it’s a system problem that could be fixed or is it a people problem?
If it’s a people problem, is it because they are unable or unwilling and if unable, give them more training.
If you fix it, you are robbing them of the opportunity to learn or worse, you could be teaching what we call “Learned Helplessness”, where people learn to become helpless. For example, say your kids pack the dishwasher and it’s not the way you do it, if you repack it and they see that you have done that, you are encouraging them not to do it again and could be affecting their confidence and feelings of self worth.
What we value and how this differs to others can be a touchy subject. When it comes down to it, the most important question to ask is “how important is this in the scheme of things?”. If it’s not a high priority or very important. Let it go.
I’ve been watching some of the personal trainers at the gym as they walk around with their clients.
They seem to laugh and joke with their clients and then when they make eye contact with us “non-clients” they just seem to stare.
Wouldn’t you smile at everyone?
Just from a marketing perspective, if I was a trainer I would be making sure I engaged with the “non-clients” because they could very well become clients.
If I was going to choose a trainer, I’d choose someone whom I felt comfortable with. I’d choose someone who seemed friendly.
I don’t get it.
What is it with people in the gym? They just don’t seem to smile.
One of my clients tells me that he doesn’t make eye contact because he just wants to go and do his thing and work out. It’s a stress relief for him as much as a physical thing.
Okay. That’s reasonable.
But the trainers?
If we delve into their psychology, perhaps they’re insecure too. Perhaps they’ve got imposter syndrome and think we’re judging them for the exercises they give.
Who knows?
Which is why I am fascinated by people.
What we see on the outside is often not a reliable indication of what’s going on inside.
We get taught as children to wear masks. To show up in an acceptable way. To do as our parents tell us.
