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Training Room: Choose your team now
1 Jan, 2007 By: Bill Hoopes Landscape ManagementPeter Drucker, the architect of the American business management model made our leadership mission clear. "Your business," he said in a recent PBS documentary, "is to develop and lead your people." The rest is less challenging.
I saved the quote. I refer to it in my presentations. I understand that, to operate successfully, we must begin with a realistic business plan. I understand marketing, then selling delivers customers and meeting expectations keeps customers. But with each passing season, I'm more convinced that, without the necessary service delivery team in place, all the planning in the world won't produce success.
 To be on our team |
Now, while the snow flies in the north and many of us are taking time off, think about what will matter most in 2007. You've made growth projections, and some of you have budget and marketing plans. But unless I miss my bet, many of you are hoping your staff will show up and get the job done as the weather breaks.
Is this your mindset? Many managers don't take the vital step of making sure that the people they rely on to execute their company's plan are willing, prepared and ready to do so.
Don't wait until spring to make the tough choices about who stays and who goes. Do yourself a favor. As early as you can this winter, evaluate your staff.
Here's what we know for certain; one negative person on your team can be as destructive to your plan as a hand grenade with the pin out. Have I overstated the case?
You and I have both seen what happens when, behind your back, some disgruntled, negative person slowly but surely dismantles all the positives you have worked so hard to instill in your workplace. I see it everywhere I go. I hear comments like, "I can't seem to hang on to the right kind of people. Every time I think I've got the problem solved, something happens and I have to start all over again."
Or, "How can I get this guy to care more about his job so I don't have to keep reminding him and pushing him?"
Finally, "I don't have anyone I can depend on to back me up."
Often, the owner simply needs confirmation that the only way to improve the problem and return the operation to one in which people want to produce, is to face facts and lose the people who are holding the company and the rest of the team back.
Bite the bullet now, while you still have time. Evaluate your staff and determine who stays and can help you get the job done. And who needs to go on their way.
— The author is founder of Grass Roots Training in Delaware, OH. Contact him at
hoopes@columbus.rr.com
or visit
www.grassroots-training.com.
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