Employee management can be hard. It’s one of the biggest things we all struggle with as small business owners.<\/p>\n
But here’s the thing: Your business is like a children\u2019s playground.<\/span><\/p>\n You put up the fences around the playground so that it creates a safe space, then you let the kids play & everyone can relax & have more fun.<\/span><\/p>\n Once you\u2019ve created that structure around what\u2019s expected, your employees are empowered to perform at their best within those boundaries\u2026\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n …and you get to step away & focus your time on other things.<\/span><\/p>\n But instead of creating a secure playground, maybe you\u2019ve ended up trying to fix your employee management challenges by trying on a few different management styles to see if they worked.<\/span><\/p>\n Have you ever unintentionally been guilty of being \/ doing one of the following? (You may resonate with more than one.)<\/p>\n Magpie Management<\/strong> – You make everything an extreme \u201cnumber 1 priority.\u201d Everything is urgent. Constantly screeching and annoying everyone.<\/span><\/p>\n Seagull<\/strong> Management<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>– You swoop in and shit all over everybody, then swoop back out again. Leaving a path of destruction.<\/span><\/p>\n Ostrich<\/strong> Management<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>– You put your head in the sand and ignore what\u2019s going on and hope it\u2019s going to go away.<\/span><\/p>\n Eagle<\/strong> Management<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>– You don\u2019t check-in, don\u2019t follow up, you\u2019re just doing your own thing. Your vision is so high up that you can\u2019t see what\u2019s right in front of you.<\/span><\/p>\n Vulture<\/strong> Management<\/strong>– You\u2019re preying on people, kicking them when they\u2019re down, constantly finding their faults (even if it\u2019s not intentional). Tearing them apart slowly. One emotion at a time.<\/span><\/p>\n That\u2019s clearly not working for you, which is why you\u2019re here. <\/span><\/p>\n So what should you be doing instead? <\/span><\/p>\n Your employees need to understand exactly what\u2019s expected.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s harder than it sounds because most business owners forget how much they\u2019ve learned over a long period and how many mistakes they made while they were learning.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOh my goodness, it took them 8 hours to do something that should\u2019ve been done in an hour and a half.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n But how long a task takes depends on whether your employee has the technical skills to independently do the task right now — and they need to know how to apply the skill.<\/span><\/p>\n First, you need to have a clear understanding of what skill sets are required to do the task.<\/span><\/p>\n Then, ask yourself what skill sets the person has, so you can identify the gap between what\u2019s required & what they have.<\/span><\/p>\n That will help you align your expectations & identify what\u2019s realistic.<\/span><\/p>\n Next, you need to clearly outline what you\u2019re expecting:<\/span><\/p>\n We always think, <\/span>\u201ccan they do the job?<\/span><\/i>\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n But there\u2019s more to it than just skills for the job. That\u2019s just the starting point for competence.<\/span><\/p>\n There are actually 3 factors that determine whether you\u2019re going to have a successful employee. Each person will need support in many (or all) of these areas<\/span><\/p>\n This is literally their skillset. Do they have the ability to do the task? Yes or no.<\/span><\/p>\n Do they need additional support or training to do the task? Yes or no.<\/span><\/p>\n This is the easiest thing to train and probably where you\u2019ve focused your attention the most, until now.<\/span><\/p>\n How are they conditioned to respond in good and stressful times?<\/span><\/p>\n People learn patterns of behaviour across their careers and that conditions them to respond in a certain way under stress.<\/span><\/p>\n Conditioning creates most management problems. It\u2019s what creates the bad habits & attitude problems that you might be experiencing.<\/span><\/p>\n Do they need help improving their attitude?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n If yes, help them understand what you see in them, how they should be thinking about things & how their attitude is holding them back.<\/span><\/p>\n Capacity is where overwhelm shows up.<\/span><\/p>\n What is their limit to how much effective work they can get done in a specific period?<\/span><\/p>\n Those limits are set by what exposure have they had to your environment. If they\u2019ve never dealt with something before their capacity will be lower than if they\u2019ve done it 3,000x in the past.<\/span><\/p>\n You need to be aware of how much they can handle before their performance goes rapidly downhill. Good managers know how much they can ask of their team members before quality & performance drops.<\/span><\/p>\n Once you know whether you\u2019re dealing with a competence, conditioning or capacity issue, you can come up with a plan to solve the problem.<\/span><\/p>\n Have you ever thought, \u201c<\/span>I hired this person because they had XYZ skillset. They should just do their job!<\/span><\/i>\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n That\u2019s a sign that you\u2019re fatigued & don\u2019t want to manage your people.<\/span><\/p>\n You might have an assumption that because you\u2019ve hired \u201cgood quality people\u201d you shouldn\u2019t have to manage them.<\/span><\/p>\n Unfortunately, that\u2019s a fantasy that doesn\u2019t happen in the real world.<\/span><\/p>\n You do them a disservice by assuming everyone is going to be a self-starter & not require any help.<\/strong> Even if your employee is a self-starter, they may be taking the initiative with good intention and still not going in the direction you want them to.<\/span><\/p>\n All humans need help & guidance with something. You need to be willing to embrace management to get the best out of your people.<\/span><\/p>\n There\u2019s a lot of misconceptions about how to get your people to be more productive.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s easy to assume that everybody does this naturally. But it\u2019s the exact opposite.<\/span><\/p>\n Business owner\u2019s think from a productivity perspective, but employees don\u2019t. They think from a task perspective without worrying about speed or performance.<\/span><\/p>\n The way you\u2019re thinking is an advanced form of thinking.<\/span><\/p>\n True performance mindset is something that business owners either learn or have naturally, but employees usually don\u2019t have that.<\/span><\/p>\n Let\u2019s use time management as an example…<\/span><\/p>\n Time management practices usually don\u2019t work because they\u2019re simple in concept, but extremely hard to implement because they\u2019re a \u2018one size fits all\u2019 solution.<\/span><\/p>\n Time is NOT the problem.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n The thing we need to focus on is how your energy works.<\/strong> You can accomplish more in 2 hours when you\u2019re <\/span>energized<\/span> & alert than you can in the same 2 hrs when you\u2019re feeling flat or exhausted.<\/span><\/p>\n Training people to be more efficient isn\u2019t about getting them to pump out more work. It\u2019s about getting them to do the work at <\/span>their<\/span><\/i> right time and <\/span>their<\/span><\/i> optimum speed.<\/span><\/p>\n When that happens, they\u2019ll probably get the work done quickly with fewer mistakes, fewer errors and less stress. It\u2019s a win, win, win.<\/span><\/p>\n It helps them to build up the efficiency muscle.<\/span><\/p>\n Best of all, when they\u2019re working in their prime zone, they\u2019ll produce fewer errors too.<\/span><\/p>\n The employee will also be able to see their speed and performance improve as they monitor their energy levels. That\u2019ll help them know they\u2019re doing well & motivate to perform even better.<\/span><\/p>\n Getting your team to work in their zone of genius makes your job as a motivator infinitely easier.<\/span><\/p>\n But everyone has a different motivation formula. That\u2019s why it never works to try & motivate everyone the same way.<\/span><\/p>\n Encouragement is the only thing that you can do for all your employees that will deliver a positive outcome.<\/span><\/p>\n So, think of one of your team members right now.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n What are they most brilliant at?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s usually the thing that comes most naturally to them. And if you asked them that question, they probably wouldn\u2019t know the answer because they think it\u2019s too easy.<\/span><\/p>\n Next, ask yourself:<\/span><\/p>\n Pro Tip<\/strong>: Create a leadership file and start recording what you\u2019re noticing about each employee.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n There are always clues about what motivates and distracts them.<\/span><\/p>\n When you apply all these motivators, you\u2019ll be able to stop thinking about \u201ckicking their butt\u201d and focus on positively motivating them to achieve the results you need.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s the difference between going to the store by turning your car on & driving there in the comfort of air-conditioning vs pushing your car all the way there with your bare strength.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n When people are empowered, they take on more responsibility. They feel better about what they\u2019re doing & they deliver better results.<\/span><\/p>\n So what does it take to empower your employees? You need to make sure they…<\/span><\/p>\n When all that happens, they know how to get themselves activated.<\/span><\/p>\n They know what\u2019s expected of them & feel they\u2019re in control of the success of that task.<\/span><\/p>\n They have the power to contribute — and most importantly, they <\/span>want<\/span><\/i> to contribute & do their best.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s like free will on steroids.<\/strong> They have free will to do what needs to be done to control their success.<\/span><\/p>\n They\u2019ll feel like they\u2019re \u201cwinning\u201d & accomplishing things, which will make them want to <\/span>keep<\/span><\/i> winning for you.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Employee management can be hard. It’s one of the biggest things we all struggle with as small business owners. But here’s the thing: Your business is like a children\u2019s playground. You put up the fences around the playground so that it creates a safe space, then you let the kids play & everyone can relax […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":164,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[180],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nSigns of a poor manager<\/h2>\n
6 skills of a good manager<\/strong><\/h2>\n
1. Setting clear and realistic expectations<\/b><\/h3>\n
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2. Confirm what support the person will need to perform well<\/b><\/h3>\n
Competence<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n
Conditioning<\/span><\/i><\/h4>\n
Capacity<\/span><\/i><\/h4>\n
3. Embracing management<\/b><\/h3>\n
4. Training people to be more efficient with their time & energy<\/b><\/h3>\n
5. Understanding how to motivate employees & bring out the best in them<\/b><\/h3>\n
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6. Empower your employees to take ownership of their role<\/b><\/h3>\n
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