Keep It Simple

Keep It Simple: From your first employee to your team of thousands.

My motto has always been ‘Keep It Simple,’ because keeping it simple continues to be the faster route to success with my employees …or as I prefer to think of them, my team. As an ex-retail warrior with thousands of employees on my team, I learned the hard way about developing a high performing, happy and synergetic team and it starts with your first employee.

Keeping it simple can be used in all aspects of your business, however particularly effective when leading your team. A continuous barrage of new initiatives, new goals, new programs or too much information can create confusion and your employees won’t know where to focus. If all of your energy is spread across several different areas, how productive can you really be in any one of them? BUT if your energy is focused on a few key areas, the impact on your business will be dramatic. Time and time again I have seen this technique work. Keep their eyes on the end result. Some fine tuning along the way is OK, but don’t change the goal until you achieve it.

Here are three simple rules to keep in mind when working with your first employee or your team of thousands.

Set clear expectations:

Set no more than three goals or objectives that are clearly stated and defined. Your team must be able to wrap their arms around what needs to be accomplished and feel that it is attainable, while also remaining challenged. Give them the WIIFM…what is that you may ask? WIIFM stands for What’s In It For Me. Make sure for each goal the employee knows what is in for them. If they attain this goal, the company will be more stable and so that everyone’s job will be at less risk. Or if you make this goal, an administrative person will be added so there will be less paperwork. Create their buy in by sharing why the goal is so important. How do you know it is working…ask anyone on your team the following question.

What is the #1 goal you are working towards and why?

You know how well they are being led by their answer. Your goal as a leader is to have them know it, believe it, live it and love it. It must be simple and repeatable. If they don’t know, then what are they working on?

Follow-Up:

You must decide how to best follow-up based on the individual and the objective. If you don’t do this piece well, you will get less than stellar results. Then, of course, comes the frustration and the desire to just do it yourself. The result? You have lost an investment in your resources of people, time and money.

This is the step, in this very simple process that seems to have the greatest degree of difficulty and failure…and is the secret to making your program successful when done well.

Make it easy and create a consistent system to keep you on track. Meet with each person weekly or bi-weekly to get an update as to their progress toward the goal, what their victories were and what they need from you. This does not have to be a 2 hour meeting. They may be longer at first, but trust me…it could be as much as 5 minutes and you would see a difference. This is also your opportunity to let them know what you would like to see more of and….less of. Let me also let you in on a little secret…create a simple one page form that asks the questions you want to know. Have your employee fill it out weekly or bi-weekly (even monthly works) and have them bring it to you for these conversations. Keep them in a binder. Guess what happens? Now you have a running record. You can use this information for writing their review and keeping track of the issues/victories through-out the year, ones that you may have forgotten when you need the information the most. Try it…you will thank me later.

Accountability:

When most people think accountability, they automatically think about a confrontation, with you asking, “Why is this not done?”

Accountability is about positive and negative reinforcement. This is the step that sounds negative, feels bad at first, and yet is really not that hard to do and do well. Many leaders drop the ball by moving to the next goal or objective without informing the team how they did. How many times have you let something slip by without dealing with a less than perfect effort only to be hit in the face with a huge issue later?

When done right, accountability is not hard or even painful. It can be the most effective training you have ever given. Use it as a tool to develop your employee, and don’t think of it for an instant as punishment. Ask simple questions as a way to hold people accountable, then PAUSE and wait for the answer. Don’t answer for them. Be direct and professional and you will find that the employee is blossoming under your leadership.

Sounds simple doesn’t it? So, drop the latest ingenious campaign to motivate your team, end the fancy and complicated techniques that are really a way of overcompensating for lacking the fundamentals of leadership… and get back to basics.

"Michelle Payne is a Master Certified Coach and Executive Vice President of Beyond Point B, a business coaching and leadership development company in Northern California. She can be reached at mpayne@beyondpointb.com or (916) 787-9909 x3."

Keep It Simple - To learn more about this author, visit Larry Mandelberg's Website.

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