People Don’t Leave Companies, They Leave Managers

prwhite

Administrator
Staff member
Finding good people is the #1 concern for business owners. Once you find & hire them, you must switch to retaining them. Good leaders excel at turning employees into outstanding performers.

Although technology changes our industry, people make the difference for your business. A great leader knows how to ask the right questions, and find out what employees want & need. They continuously ask these 3 questions:
  • What do you like about your job?
  • What don’t you like about your job?
  • What would you change if you could?
Employees are a company’s “first customer”. By focusing on employee needs, valuable & loyal “external customers” will be retained. Tom Peters once asked Herb Kelleher (then CEO of Southwest Airlines), “what advice could you give other executives?” Kelleher said, “Spend less time with other leaders and more time with your people.” Debra Thompson’s Printing News article is full of gems like this.
 
Some years ago Doug Richardson one of the engineers at Creo gave a presentation at a Creo User's Association conference on this topic. Here are the bullet thoughts from that presentation.

On Hiring

Good questions test:
Past experience
Confidence
Pressure
Listening skills
Communication skills
Curiosity
Logic
Humor
Don’t care so much about the past
Don’t care about what was done, but the capability to do
Find out the limitations
Its not in the resume
Its in the person!

This:
Generally results in no firing
Generally results in little managing
Generally results in self motivation

On Management

Do’s
Be honest, be honest, be honest
Set clear a direction and clear expectations
Know you people
Know yourself (this is often rather humiliating)
Be aware that you have an impact and likely set the tone of the team
Be aware that you have a team
Allow people to make a contribution
Listen

Do not’s
Wait a whole year to give feedback
Dodge those difficult situations (it is your job!)
Make assumptions on peoples capabilities
Promise something to your team and then don’t deliver
Ask your team for something, you become the road block, and then chastise your team for non performance

On Motivation

Do’s
View your people as your best asset
Have goals, and a vision; share them
Have a strategy, share it
Give people the rope to hang themselves, but make sure that they don’t (support)
Respect your people
Encourage participation and discussion even if is dissenting
Allow mistakes (really!)

Do not’s
Keep changing your strategy
Have people constantly hurry up and wait
Tell people that something is valuable when you and/or they do not believe it
Encourage input and then disregard it
Have higher expectations of your team then you do for yourself
Bad mouth other employees in front of your team
Micro manage, it is disrespectful
React on technology, but not on people

Two of the quotes he included:

“If you can’t post it then what you are doing is likely wrong”
Ken Spencer (one of the founders of Creo)

“Tell the whole truth inside the company, and the truth outside the company”
Amos Michelson (former CEO of Creo)
 
Years ago...... And it holds true for today, as well!
Thanks for sharing Gordo.
 

PressWise

A 30-day Fix for Managed Chaos

As any print professional knows, printing can be managed chaos. Software that solves multiple problems and provides measurable and monetizable value has a direct impact on the bottom-line.

“We reduced order entry costs by about 40%.” Significant savings in a shop that turns about 500 jobs a month.


Learn how…….

   
Back
Top