Bob and Alex celebrate the Fourth of July by talking about the courage it takes to get your team out of the mire and inspire them. Times that are characterized by businesses sacrificing customer service for the sake of reducing costs call for leaders to transform their teams.
It has been suggested that this scenario has arisen because it takes a lot of energy to make things better. At the same time, people want to be liked. Also, sometimes you business attracts less ambitious people. As businesses try to increase profits, one handle that is all too easy to grasp and pull is to pay lower salaries. This of course drives your best team members out the door.
Leaders need to avoid having crises of confidence and overcome the difficulty of making good choices as one sits back in their comfort zone. Uncertainty over the market and the economy tends to keep you sitting back in that chair. At these times it can be useful to recount the passion you had during the startup of your business and create a story that will inspire your key employees and create engagement. It suffices to say that maintaining this outlook from the start will keep you from having to spend additional resources later to recover that engagement.
If you find yourself in this situation, it is critical that you create a plan in simple components that you can sell to your team. It’s components must be measurable. You must be able to quantify success. The big payback is that you can then reward your key top performers and show them what they accomplished.
You can find James Kerr’s article on Mediocre is the New Black.