As a CEO, business leader, or entrepreneur, are you looking for a distinct competitive advantage over your competition? Can you recruit valuable talent with minimal effort and retain your people once they’re on the team? Is your workforce energized and productive, with bottom line results to prove it? A common thread that runs through long-term, viable organizations that deliver returns for their shareholders year after year is their determination to treat employees with trust and respect.
A positive and energetic teamwork environment does not develop by accident. A winning people strategy requires an honest and sincere commitment and involvement from the CEO and his leadership team to create this force of nature. Here are some winning people strategies for taking your business from just a going concern to an energetic and wildly profitable company.
The CEO as Champion of People Practices: When the CEO champions the cause of excellent people practices, the organization’s chance of success is much greater. With the right leader, a workplace built on trust and respect will withstand both positive and negative economic conditions. Companies cannot buy the admiration of employees; it is earned over time through the actions of truthful, ethical and intelligent business leaders.
Show sincere appreciation: A winning people strategy is to show employees sincere appreciation for a job well done. Simply being thanked for completing a project or being praised in front of peers are basic human needs that go unmet in most workplaces today. Employees today feel overworked and underappreciated. Recognition can be in the form of a handwritten note or company-paid team lunch. Showing appreciation doesn’t have to be expensive, but feeling appreciated is priceless.
We’re Family: “We’re Family” was not only the theme song of the 1979 World Series champion Pittsburgh Pirates, it should be the mantra of every company today. You are allowed to treat your employees like family. It doesn’t make sense for leaders to worry about getting too close to someone at work. Conservative corporate thinking has led us to believe that we really can’t care about those with whom we work most of our waking hours. When employees see their business partners as family members, people who genuinely care about their well-being, they will go the extra mile and be much less likely to leave the company.
Stop Unnecessary Stress – We all know that stress is a normal part of life. A certain amount of stress should be expected. However, unnecessary “stupid” stress, created by poor management practices, organizational politics, etc., stifles productivity and must be avoided at all costs. Pointless repetitive or disorganized meetings create unnecessary stress. Artificial deadlines that cause people to jump through hoops to complete tasks only to wait days or weeks for approvals create unnecessary stress. Think before you make people jump.
Allow employees to unplug: The widespread use of 24/7 technology has created a certain amount of connectivity stress. Even when employees go home, they are typically connected to the office via mobile devices or home computers. Certain organizations have an expectation that employees be available all hours of the day and night. The Associated Press recently reported that many crackberry addicts have reported phantom vibrations in their side where the phone is normally kept, even when the device isn’t there. Our bodies have become so used to the vibration of phone calls and emails that we vibrate even when we’re not using a phone. When your body starts vibrating without a device, something is terribly wrong.
Enforce the no jerk rule: Pulls are destructive to your physical health and bottom line. Even if the idiot is a rainmaker or is considered very valuable, get rid of him/her. Period. Suckers bury themselves within the organization and slide up the corporate ladder leaving a huge body count on their way up. How do they survive? Idiots massage the egos of their superiors while terrorizing and instilling fear in their subordinates. Do not be fooled. Your bipolar management techniques will eventually get your company into trouble. Idiots are like bunnies; They multiply rapidly by hiring people like themselves who will soon overtake their organization. A growing number of high-performing organizations are embracing policies without a shake-up.
HR does not create culture: A common misperception is that the HR team creates the culture of the company. In reality, corporate culture is filtered from the top, based on the behavior and personality of the CEO and his leaders. A few years ago, a headhunter called me to hire me for a vice president of human resources position. The recruiter said that the company needed a dynamic person to create a great work environment because the CEO was very rude and habitually yelled and insulted people. I politely passed on the offer, explaining that an HR team wouldn’t be able to change the culture if the CEO of the company was Scrooge on steroids. By the way, that company went bankrupt a few years later and is no longer in business.
There are many other people practicing strategies to consider. There is no magic formula or smart program that a company can follow. Each organization has its own personality and must follow its individual path to greatness. However, the path to greatness begins with sincere concern for employees.
