Ready to roll your gasping,

bleeding business into the ER?

     At a  9AM meeting you asked for a copy of an old 12-page report by the end of the day. That didn’t seem unreasonable, did it?  

     Probability is that your headache only came on when you realized that not only was your request ignored, but that the employee who smilingly agreed to provide the copy actually took a two-hour lunch and then left for home early.

     Of course you needed some icing on the headache cake, so your eager-to-please employee obliged you while you were on a conference call by dropping a “Sorry, the copy machine’s been down all day” note on your desk for you on the way out!

     How many times have you asked someone who works for you to get something done quickly and then discovered that the task ended up in the “SLOW” pile? Okay, every one’s not “Charlie Hustle,” but assuming that you’re making your “RUSH” requests in a reasonable and courteous manner, maybe the person on the receiving end simply doesn’t share your sense of urgency?

     Do you find more evidence of this in your observations of employee dealings with customers and clients? Perhaps it’s time to recruit your people into developing or up-dating your business mission statement and –in the process– to make sure that some key reference is made to “responsiveness.”

     Why not just repremand and push everyone to move quicker? Because you need your people to buy into the way of thinking you want the business to have if you’re interested in having them behave more responsibly than hired temporaries. After all, doesn’t the government aspire to be in a position of simply dictating change?

     Ah, but the government knows nothing about running a business. In fact, the government seems unfortunately destined to experience that rude awakening soon… the reality that change cannot be dictated anywhere with any degree of success by anyone, except perhaps at gunpoint in a dictatorial regime, is not far from discovery.

     People accept change more quickly and more wholeheartedly when they have a hand in designing the ingredients and/or the parameters of what behavior is expected of them. Giving them at least the opportunity to suggest recommendations for inclusion in the revitalized guidelines for conducting day-to-day affairs makes them part-owners.

     People who are business owners and those who have risen to the occasion and accepted at least the conduct–if not the roles of part-owners–are the same people who accept an ownership mindset. These are the people who you can count on to be responsible, to have a sense of urgency about them in all that they do. And businesses with a sense of urgency succeed.    

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Input welcome anytime: Hal@TheWriterWorks.com (”Businessworks” in the subject line) or comment below. Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals, good night and God bless you! halalpiar  # # # 

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