How Do We Convince Our Executives of the Value of Its' Employees?

QUESTION:  I am the senior member of a company “steering committee” that is have a difficult time convincing our president of the results of our due diligence, dedicated research and other investigatory tools with reference the growth of our company within our marketplace.  He has an outside mentor whom we suspect unwittingly undermines our work because the mentor is only hearing one side.  We are an ESOP company and this committee believes our work directly impacts all of our employees.  Can you offer us any suggestions?

ANSWER:  I am going to make the assumption that your skills in presenting the materials to the president are not flawed.  Because many times emotion takes over from logic when it comes to the decision making process.  Your team sees it as being “all right” and he sees it as the unknown or unclear.

It all comes down to the relationship the president has with the committee.  If he doesn’t believe in your work then another path needs to be taken because that would be a grave injustice to the employees.  Or even worse, he and possibly his mentor are just not willing to allow change, which of course is a monster from within itself.

Because you are the senior member of this committee, it appears that it is your place to get behind closed doors with your president in a meeting that has no interruptions and get it all on the table.  Offer facts, times, dates, places and any other details that bolster your position(s).  If the evidence is compelling for or against any given decision, then you must help him understand your position(s) in his decisions to grow the company or not.

It is interesting that he has a mentor, yet he has allowed a steering committee in the organization which acts a great deal like a mentor or counselor. Because I have not been personally witness to his actions or lack thereof, it is very difficult to put my finger on the cause. 
But my suspicions are that he is possibly a micro-managing president that doesn’t embrace change.  Micro-managing comes is two forms…subtle and blatant.

It is way too easy to do the same old thing over and over even if it gets him or the company no farther down the road on Friday than it did on Monday.  It is like rewarding a bad decision by doing it all over again next week.

If his inaction's, actions or limited decision making processes become detrimental to the organization, you probably have an avenue available to you.  Employees in an ESOP have the ability to vote executives in and vote executives out. 

Regards,

George F. Mancuso, President
Client Growth Consultants
Grinnell, Iowa

Related articles

• Management Accounting in the Decision Making Process (thinkup.waldenu.edu)

Retain Your Employees Before You Hire Them

I have read in your past articles that we should “RETAIN YOUR EMPLOYEES BEFORE YOU HIRE THEM.”  What did you mean by that?

I’ll bet most of you are thinking to yourselves, “…What did he just say?”  It is important to recognize that the most critical step in retaining employees comes before the hire itself!

Good leaders commonly state that they surround themselves with the best people.  In turn, high-performing business cultures are fueled by employees who deliver productivity, innovation and profitability.  But first, an organization needs to view and understand its job candidates as individuals, rather than as simple resumes.

A recent survey claims that ONLY 20% of companies are taking proactive measures to ensure that their best people stay put.  The alternative is high turnover which costs an estimated 1.5 times the salary of each employee who has to be replaced.  As an example, if a manager was making $70,000 plus an additional $25,000 in benefits (which is industry standard) it would cost approximately $142,500 to replace!  This is staggering!

Resumes represent a static list of skills and job duties, but cannot speak to how well the person performs unsupervised or on a tight deadline.  Reference checks can also be tricky for various reasons.

To begin with I highly recommend that you stay away from questions that encourage “smooth-talking” (i.e. “where do you see yourself in 5 years) instead of a candid self-critical evaluation questioning.  Ask questions regarding the prospect’s essential nature, and the preferences and attitudes that make him/her an individual.  These types of questions predict job performance and satisfaction.  The more job performance-relevant information employers have, the greater the likelihood of building, and retaining, and engaged, productive worker.

Employers need to be clear about their needs and expectations for any given position up front – before the hiring process begins.  Put a variety of measurements together to create a good hire.  We offer to our clients a professional online assessment to maximize person-job fit so that the individual hired is CAPABLE of doing AND is WILLING to do the best job possible.  And I do recommend utilizing a professional assessment ONLY as an additional tool in the hiring process.

I could easily spend hours writing pages on the subject of retention.  It continues to be the number one topic of questions from you the readers of our weekly newsletter.  Hopefully this small tidbit of information will be of assistance to you.  If not, call or write and I will respond immediately!

Regards,

George F. Mancuso, President

Client Growth Consultants

Related articles

• How to Measure Employee Retention Costs (brighthub.com)
• How Do Companies Recruit Employees? (thinkup.waldenu.edu)

If Business is Bad, When Are You Going To Do Something About It?

I recently had the opportunity to meet with two couples; each couple owning their own distinct business in a town that has about a population of 10,000.  They were both a referral to me and because the four of them were lifelong friends they asked that we meet as a group and I agreed.  It is with their permission that I provide you the short version from that 3 ½ hour conversation because so many people are still in this identical situation.  Hopefully you will find this interesting reading, especially the final results.

CLIENTS:  George, business is bad.  We’ve even considered closing the doors and just walking away.  Seems like everything we try brings us to another crater in the road to success.  Our business lives are in serious peril.

GEORGE:  Think back with me to a time just prior to you opening your businesses.  Do you remember your original dreams when you first opened the doors?  Remember all the ideas, plans and goals that you had?  Do you recall the excitement, enthusiasm and drive that you generated to friends, family and potential customers?

Do you know what has changed?  Today you have much more experience at running a business.  You have employees today when originally you had none.  In general everything has improved with one exception…..you’ve lost your drive, your enthusiasm and excitement to welcome people into your businesses.  I think you all have stopped dreaming LARGE!

Before this meeting I visited both of your establishments.  I was hoping that your “business face” would be calling my name and offering a proverbial welcome in handshake.  I hoped that you and or your employees that I spoke with had excitement in the tummies and wanted to transfer that excitement to me so I’d make a purchase.   

But here is what I saw;

A.      Your outside signage is the typical antiquated word sign.  Absolutely no graphics, which means nothing to really catch my eye.  The International Sign Association says that 1 in 10 people read word signs as they drive by.  Where 85% notice and recognize graphic signs.

B.     Both of your store fronts have 8 ½ X 11 papers taped all over the front windows, trying to tell customers about specials or events.  As I drive by, how would you expect me to read that?  

C.    Potential customers judge your inside by what they see on the outside.  Stand across the street or drive by and pay serious attention to your business.  Is this a look that says, “Hey folks, come in”?  I firmly believe that 95% of the people who pass by might just wonder what goes on inside of your business because they can’t tell from the outside.

D.    Next I would ask you to look hard at your current housekeeping inside your businesses. Look at your displays, your clutter, and your flash, your DREAMS, your EXCITEMENT and your ENTHUSIASM.  Is all that coming through when a customer walks in?  Do you and your employees act welcome to see me?  Are you transferring all of this excitement to the potential customer?

The conversation ended something like this:

“All four of you have readily admitted the pain that you are in.  If business is bad, what are you going to do about it…. TODAY?  If you don’t do something, no one else will!  You need to face the reality that only a few people truly care if you make a success of your business or not.  They include your family, a few select friends…AND ME!  I care, I really do and I want to help you if you will allow me to.  You need to make a decision tonight because if not NOW then WHEN? And if not ME then WHO?”

RESULTS:  Both couples allowed me to help them starting with the front of their buildings.  We fixed the “first impression” rule and make a few subtle changes inside that made a monumental change in their business and we did it all for about $12 to $15 dollars a day.

One business realized a 16% improvement in the first 30 days.  The other enjoyed a 22% improvement in the same time frame.  And today, business is great and growing.  For my two new clients, life has again been filled with Excitement, Enthusiasm, and Dreaming Large!

I am always working to improve my customer base.  If I can be of any assistance to you or you might know of someone who could use our services, I would welcome and appreciate any and all referrals.  You need only call or write and I will respond immediately!

Regards,

George F. Mancuso, President

Client Growth Consultants

Grinnell, Iowa

You Don’t Want to Grow Your Business? Really? Are You Kidding Me?

A couple of weeks ago I experienced a very unusual day that I would like to share with you.  I was given 3 references from an existing client who told me these folks truly need your help.  He suggested that I tell them he sent me and to “warm” up the prospects he was going to send them an Email.  Almost a sales call dream come true……but sadly, there is much more to the story.

Turns out all 3 prospects businesses are somewhat depressed.  Probably not to the point of one foot on the banana peel and one foot in the grave, but just not doing as well as they could.

First Stop:  Husband and Wife; He had one retail business; she had another and both in the same building but different entrances.  It was immediately obvious that the only signage they had was stick on letters.  Nobody knew what was going on inside their businesses.  After a short discussion about this issue and others the husband said to me, “….I am really not sure just how much I want to grow this business.”  It was a good thing I was sitting or I might have fallen to the floor.  The sad part is he was serious.

Second Stop:  The owner welcomed me in, we visited for about 20 minutes and the next thing I knew he stood up and said, “….I’ve always done things one way and although business is quite tough right now I just can’t believe that if I may any sweeping changes it will improve.  Bottom line is I can’t afford your services.”  Considering we hadn’t even discussed money it was a bit shocking. But more shocking was when he left the room and went back to work.

Third and Final Stop of the Day:  Walked in, asked for the owner and he came to the front and said, “Ya whadda need?”  I introduced myself and company name and before I could tell him that his friend suggested I stop by and introduce myself he said, “…we don’t need any” and he walked off and left me standing in the lobby.  Now considering I was planning to make a purchase of one his products, that revenue into his cash register went south as well.

Now folks, if that isn’t a day of rejection, I’d like to know what is.  I almost took this personal but then realized that this world is filled with people who are just not good business men and women; business owners that have poor people skills; business owners who are petrified of what tomorrow might bring; business owners that never really step outside of the building to see what passing customers see;  business owners that just don’t reach out with a proverbial handshake the says welcome;  and business owners that would rather go broke and stand in the bankruptcy line than open their minds and swallow their pride to accept help.

Have a wonderful week.

George Mancuso

Is There An Easy Method to Offering Suggestions?

Whenever I am presenting an idea or making a recommendation, I'm often uncertain of how it is going to be received. I'm fairly certain that my recommendations are solid. Do you have any suggestions?

Here's something to keep in mind: when you introduce any idea, recommendation, or proposal - the "opening line" can help set the mood for you audience and thus impact the likelihood of acceptance, rejection, "piggy-backing", or the request for further investigation or testing.

For example, here are a few different examples of strategically-placed opening lines to help illustrate the point:

· “Here's how we might want to approach this problem."

· “I would bet my reputation on this approach."

· “After a careful and thorough analysis of the relevant data, the key to solving this problem lays in the following area:"

· “I'm not certain there is any one elegant solution to this problem."

· “Here's what I have seen work very effectively at other organizations."

· “There are a number of effective ways to address this issue."

How confident do you think you would be in accepting the subsequent solution after hearing each of the above opening lines?

Tip: The next time you are planning to suggest, present or recommend something think carefully about that opening line. Be creative and be certain to have your main objective in mind when choosing it. Here is wishing you a fantastic week!

Related articles

• Searching for Certainty (new.exchristian.net)

Regards,

George F. Mancuso