simplerich

When your biggest problem is your most senior employees then your biggest problem may be you! As a manager I’ve been fortunate to get crews that stick around and continue to work for me and then I have said to myself, “Well, they know what they’re doing. There’s no reason for me to nag them to do what I know they need to do.”

I think we all know where this is going. I, as their manager, have to find ways to keep those old dogs doing old tricks as well as new tricks… tricks they’ve done so often they can do them faster and better than I can in a lot of cases. They should be able to… they do them more frequently than I do. Well, they used to.

One way an employee starts slipping is when we, as their managers start slipping on noticing if they’re doing what they’re supposed to. We start not noticing, or start making excuses for them. “Well, Mongo missed his cleaning list last night, but I’m sure he’ll do it next time he works.” Once the long-time employee has his manager trained to make his excuses for him he’s golden. We have to notice when they do it exceedingly well and we need to notice when they do a bad job.

I don’t have the answers on how to keep all my employees motivated all the time. I can’t do that. I’m not a good pusher. I don’t lead well by nose-rings either. I’m better at, I think, getting people to want to do better because they want to. That for me is more important. The whole carrot/stick approach works if you know what carrot people want. Money isn’t the only carrot out there and it’s not the best carrot in my experience. That doesn’t mean I have never used it or that I’ll never use it again. Just that it’s not the only one out there.

One of the dirty tricks about management is that sometimes it’s more than just getting great results out of people. Sometimes it’s getting to watch someone go from being a fair employee to being a great employee… during that transition, when the employee is growing their manager is, to use an ugly word… manipulating that employee… tricking them to do things. There are a ton of books out there on the subject and I love reading them. Helping them help you keep them engaged is often as easy as just asking them to help you. They’re long-timers for a reason. They are typically the type who are willing to help.

Complacency is the danger on those long time employees. Lately I’ve been battering my head against that wall at a couple locations and have gone with the shake things up for the sake of shaking things up route. New checklists. New cleaning lists made by new people. New duty distribution. What used to be store front jobs now merging with store back jobs. Having the lifers… anybody here over five years has earned that title from me (January is 15 years for me)… having the lifers help make the lists, and having them intentionally trade jobs with other employees in other departments has been helpful.

None of this is new. None of this is earthshaking or digg fodder I know. But it’s important… and as a long time employee myself. I’d forgotten it until recently. I’d gotten used to seeing the same thing and seeing what I expected to see recently. My boss recognized it in me though. He didn’t come right out and accuse me of going through the motions, but he did point out that I was enjoying special projects more than day to day stuff and that I tended to do better on special projects than I was doing on the day to day. He never said I wasn’t doing well on the day to day stuff… just what areas I was doing better. Then he stopped talking and waited for it to bug me enough to come back to him.

So, look around… are you going through the motions? Are your employees doing it?  I was. I’m better now. I’ve been very lucky with bosses lately.

There’s a saying in business that nobody’s indespensible. That every employee can be replaced. It’s true. In the past two years the company I work for has changed ownership I think 3 times. If even the owner of a company can change I think it’s a sure bet that an overnight janitor at one of the smaller locations can change, regardless of time with company or even quality of work. Everybody can be replaced.

Earth Day is about conserving and the difference between Disposable and Replaceable becomes important. I’ve owned a Dodge Dart, Monte Carlo, a Mercury Sable, a Renault Encore, a Ford Escort, and a Suzuki Forenza. All of them were replaceable but none were disposable… well maybe the Dart, but I only paid 200 bucks for it and it was a LOT of fun – three on the tree transmission! But I digress.

Just because something can be replaced doesn’t mean it should be treated as disposable. I’ve got a coffee cup I refill every morning on the way to work. It saves me fifty cents and saves the convenience store a cup. One day I’m going to lose this cup as I do and I’ll get another one. But until then I take care of this one. I don’t throw it on the ground and I don’t leave it unwashed. I treat it as if I intend to keep it for the long term. I really do hope to do that. But history tells me that at some point something will happen to it. I may lose the lid. I may leave it somewhere and not be able to find it. I may leave it in a hotel room. Sometimes people and jobs grow apart just like me and my coffee cup. But that doesn’t mean I hasten either one of those things along.

My employees and I can be replaced. My guess is that in a year nobody would notice we were gone, I may flatter myself. It probably wouldn’t take that long, but hey, I think I’m great so go with it. But that doesn’t mean they’re disposable. I want them to stay for the long haul.

Employee retention is a money saver for a lot of reasons. It saves us money in training and it saves us money by the employee knowing more than their replacement will know. The mall here has a book store in it that has had the same 3 core employees for at LEAST 10 years. I know if I ask them a question about a book or an author they’ll know the answer. If I see a new person there… I typically wait until I find one of the lifers. I like getting the old timers. They just know things. I want my stores to be the same way.

I want my employees to be the ones customers wait to see. There will always be some turn over. It seems every store has one position that rotates through someone every three months. For the life of me I can’t figure out what it is that causes it (I have a theory). I work every day to try and convey to my employees the value they bring to me as an employer and to the company for whom they work. I set my expectations high and then try and help them live up to them. I give them too much credit and then let them show me I was right to do so. Most of the time that works. It doesn’t work for banks or mortgage brokers, but it can work with managers.

So yeah, we’re all replaceable but we’re not all disposable. Today is Earth Day. Make sure your people know they’re not disposable today and every day.

Today is Earth Day, and while I’m not a fan of fake holidays or one day events that are supposed to draw attention to a topic but don’t effect actual change, I’d have to live in a hole to not comment on it. It’s expected. Earth day. Great American Smoke Out. Black out hour or whatever it was called where everybody turned off their lights for an hour. I can’t even remember the name. All these events are things that draw attention to something without actually DOING anything. Reminds me of the Brown Vs. Green episodes of Dirty Jobs. (Big fan of that show.)

So, Earth Day to me is a made up non-holiday where I still have to go to work, but also am required to feel guilty for not composting my own waste and growing my own food from said compost while living in a cave with no electricity or in any way impacting the native wildlife… if I’m understanding it correctly. If I can do this from a Hollywood jet in clothes I only wear once in front of a battery of lights and cameras all the better.

Earth Day to me is about stewardship. Now, stewardship is something I only ever hear talked about in church which is odd. I would think I would hear about it at management seminars, round tables, and in books about management. But it’s not referred to that way if it’s talked about at all. I think the word’s been co-opted and ppl are afraid I’m about to throttle them with some good old fashioned religion. I’m not though. Stewardship isn’t necessarily about religion. It is primarily, in all it’s incarnations, about responsibility. Our responsibility for how we act in regards to stuff. Whether it’s our stuff or someone elses stuff is dependant on which definition you’re using.

Earth day is about our responsibility to our stuff and all of our stuff, everything you own and everything everybody you know owns probably came from good old Terra. With the exception of moon rocks it’s all from earth… even plastic came from here. We don’t import that stuff from Jupiter. I’m not talking about that stuff though. I’m not talking about Styrofoam cups vs. reusable coffee cups and I’m not talking about hybrid cars vs. pure gas cars. Those things bore me. We all know the right thing to do already.

What is our responsibility to the planet is a daunting question and a little intimidating. Let’s start smaller though. What are our responsibilities to our employees. Not the responsibilities on the current Labor Law Poster that’s posted in a Common Area. Those are duties imposed on us by the State & Federal Governments. What, beyond that, are our duties to our employees. What makes us good stewards of THEM?

To be good stewards of our employees we should treat them fairly, and fair does not mean “the same” in spite of what Human Resources will often say. It’s not “fair” to expect a person with no legs to put stock on the highest shelves. They’ll never be able to do it. Making that part of their job is cruel, not fair. (You think I’m making that one up but I’m not.) It’s not fair to expect the same speed and quality of work from a brand new employee as you would get from someone who has been there ten years. How could they be as good? Human Resources departments will often insist on “same” over “fair” as a way of protecting from law suits. But I argue that a) If an employee is treated fairly they won’t sue and 2) employees who are treated unfairly will sue, whether it’s “same treatment” or not.

Today is Earth Day and we’ll all be pounded with requests to recycle, not litter, drive less and walk more, eat less meat, and turn off an extra light. Those are all good ideas for saving the environment. But what good ideas do you have to save your employees? They’re a resource you’re responsible for developing and conserving.

If you’re the employee you are a resource with value. Make sure you’re giving your best effort and best value for an employer who values you. If they start treating you like a Styrofoam cup don’t stick around forever, keep performing, but look for a job where your best effort will be recognized and rewarded. Find a new boss that recognizes your worth. There’s nothing so depressing as working at a job, or any relationship actually, where the other half of it thinks you’re a Styrofoam cup. Don’t put up with it at home or at work.

Seriously, it’s Earth day go save something.

UPDATE: Here’s another run at the same subject. I’m trying to figure out how to say something here and I think the second attempt was closer.

I have a thing for hills. I knew it early on and haven’t really tried to stop myself from indulging myself when it comes to hills. I like to know what’s on the other side of them.

When I lived in Germany one of our houses (we moved, didn’t have multiple houses at the same time) was at the bottom of a hill that seemed to go forever, covered in wheat and vineyards. I remember climbing forever to get to the top of that hill. The other side was just like the side I’d climbed up. But it didn’t haunt me any more. I didn’t need to keep climbing it. Once was enough.

I went to a park this weekend and went hiking and was surrounded by hills to climb. I couldn’t have been happier. I ran up one… not all the way up, and while it started as run, slowed to a jog, and ended with me panting and gasping for breath like a trout on a pier. I got there faster. And the other side was pretty much like the side I was on already. I don’t climb the hills because I believe the grass is greener or because I intellectually believe I may stumble through a wardrobe into Narnia. I don’t hate not knowing what’s on the other side of the hills. I always am just excited to discover it. The discovering something is the thing. I like going to see. I like exploring. I like finding something I hadn’t found before. this weekend I found this wind-tortured tree on the hill as I came around it out of the shade of the woods and into the small clearing at the top. There was a hawk sitting on the tree branch when I hove into view. But my breathing scared him off. This was the hill I ran up.

I was going to go on to talk about how people and what they can accomplish is something similar to me. I like finding out what people are capable of, and how far they can go if we let them. It’s a different kind of discovery to see how far your employees can go. But it’s part of what I most love about management. I’ve said many times I’d love whole stores full of people trained and poised to take my job and capable of it. That would be an excellent position for me to be in. I’m not afraid of where they might go. I’m thrilled at the prospect that with an army of people I’ve trained up around me ready and willing to move forward I’m freed up to move anywhere I want. Having a replacement isn’t a threat. It’s liberating! It’s what allows me to go explore the next hill top.

So what hills have you left unclimbed because you didn’t have a great crew to watch the shop while you’re away? Away on business meetings, developing customers, taking a vacation, climbing hills, or whatever. Have you made yourself indispensable to your employees? Why would you do that? Get out of their way. Help them to find out what is on the other side of your hill. Be a way for them to get up, and not a thing that blocks their view.

Twitter, 140 characters (letters, numbers, & spaces) to convey an idea has no trouble coming up with some great, short, one-liners.

sayalakai RT @aycangulez Mgrs aren’t hired 2 contribute a linear amount of work, they’re hired 2 amplify the value of those around them ~Scott Berkun

The hardest fire I ever had to do of a manager was not because he was a bad employee but because he was a terrible manager. I couldn’t convince him that doing the entire job himself was what I was after. I wanted him to have his employees help out around the store a little. After all, we were paying them to do more than show up and collect a check. He was always busy. He was the hardest working manager I had except he was never doing HIS job but always doing his employees’ jobs.

He wasn’t developing his employees or empowering them or allowing them to grow. He was creating a store full of place-holders and people who held the counter down during a shift. He never left them anything to do. He was an outstanding Sales Associate, but he was so afraid someone would challenge him he never challenged them.

When I lost him after doing everything I could to help him, honest, I tried to convince him to let them do their jobs, I didn’t lose the store. I lost one more employee after the manager. One person who had become so used to doing nothing that they were content to do just that and resented any opportunity to do more. The rest all stepped up with a degree of relief. They were waiting to be asked to step up and do something and when they were they were good.

None of them had stepped up when they weren’t asked to though. While there was a leadership vacuum none of them stepped up to fill it. While there was no to-do list and no delegated duties not a one of them consistently tried to shine or asked for more to do. None of them got the manager’s job. Managers are developers of other employees, but they must also be self-starters to a large degree. And while these employees turned out to be salvageable, they hadn’t shown the spark that said to me they were the right choice for management.