If you have worked in an office in the Western world in the past 25 years, you will probably have sat through a PowerPoint presentation. But there’s a problem. “They’re often boring“, writes presentation expert Max Atkinson. PowerPoint has become a crutch for ineffective presenters.

Inspired By PowerPoint?

“In the past 25 years,” says Max, “I’ve asked hundreds of people how many PowerPoint presentations they’ve seen that came across as really inspiring and enthusiastic.”

“Most struggle to come up with a single example, and the most optimistic answer I’ve heard was ‘Two’.”

So what are the main problems in Max Akinson’s eyes?

Screens Are Eye Magnets

Beware of anyone who says that they’re “just going to talk to some slides”. That’s  exactly what they’ll do – without realising that they’re spending most of their time with their backs to the audience. That’s a real turn off.

Eye contact plays such a fundamental part in holding an audience’s attention that even as brilliant a speaker as Barack Obama depends on an autocue to simulate it.

Favour Simplicity

Remember that the more slides – separate screens if you prefer – you have and the more there is on each slide or screen, the more distracting it will be for the audience. Whereas the fewer and simpler the slides are, the easier it will be to keep them listening.

Reading And Listening Distracts Audiences

If there’s nothing but text on screen, people will try to read and listen at the same time – and fail to do either very well.

If the print is too small to read, they’ll get irritated at being expected to do the impossible. And it’s no help when speakers say “as you can see”, or the equally annoying “you probably won’t be able to read this”.

Slides Shouldn’t Just Be Notes

Few speakers are willing to open their mouths until they have their first slide safely in place. But all too often the slides are verbal crutches for the speaker, not visual aids for the audience.

Projecting one slide after another might make it look as though you’ve prepared the presentation. But if you haven’t planned exactly what you’re going to say, you’ll have to ad lib. If you start rambling, the audience will switch off.

Avoid Rambling

To avoid this requires careful planning. Do this before thinking about slides and you won’t need as many of them. And the ones that you do decide to use are more likely to help clarify things for the audience, rather than just remind you of what to say next.

You should be using PowerPoint to help your audience understand what you’re saying, not as a memory aid for you.

Information Overload

Do you think bullet points make information more digestible? Think again. A dozen slides with 5 bullet points on each assumes that people are mentally capable of taking in a list of 60 points. If it’s a 30 minute presentation, that’s a rate of two per minute!

This highlights the biggest problem with slide based presentation. Speakers mistakenly think that they can get far more information across than is actually  possible in a presentation. At the  heart of this is a widespread failure to appreciate that speaking and listening are fundamentally different from writing and reading.

Writing and Reading: Speaking And Listening

The invention of writing was arguably the most important landmark in the history of information technology.  Before writing, the amount of information that could be passed on to others was severely limited by what could be communicated in purely oral form. The ability to write meant that vast amounts of knowledge could be communicated at previously unimagined  levels of detail.

The trouble is that PowerPoint makes it very easy to put detailed written and numerical information on slides. It leads presenters into the mistaken belief that all the detail will be successfully transmitted, as if by magic, through the air into the brains of the audience. Sadly this magic rarely occurs.

The Bullet Point Problem

Max points out that an executive recently told him that one  of the best PowerPoint presentations he’s ever heard had no slides with bullet points on them. “This didn’t surprise me at all,” he says, “because we’ve known for years that audiences don’t much like wordy slides and don’t find them as helpful as pictorial visual aids.”

He continues, “What does surprise me is that so many of the programs’ standard templates invite users to produce lists of bullet points. When the program’s main benefits lie in the creation of images. If more presenters took advantage of that, inspiring PowerPoint presentations might become the norm, rather than the exception.”

Who’s Max Atkinson?

Max is a trainer, coach, speechwriter and author. He runs courses and coaches speakers. And he is the author of four books about presentation.

The Flip Chart Comparison

I’ve worked in presentation for many years. My basic ground rule is this. If you can’t use a flip chart successfully and professionally, learn how to do so before you try any “advanced” technology. Far too many presenters forget that the prime purpose of presentation is to help the audience to understand and perform in their terms. If your presentation fails to achieve that it’s your problem.

Conclusion

The PowerPoint problem is an excellent example of the problems that confront subject matter experts who are not trained presenters. It seems to offer a simple method to enhance presentation quality. Unless you know how to use it, the reverse will be the case.

What To Do Now

Have you been bored stiff by a dull, wordy PowerPoint presentation? If you use PowerPoint make sure you avoid the pitfalls I’ve mentioned. And if you have to make presentations take some lessons in how to do it.

Complaints about time management are common. “I just can’t find the time”. “I’m just too busy”. “I work 12-14 hours a day and I still can’t get everything done”. These are the sort of things I hear all the time. If you have time management  problems try these tips.

1.  Stop saying, “Leave it with me”. Are you making a rod for your own back with this phrase? Stop using it. Say, “What do you think I should do?” when an employee tries to dump his or her problem in your lap.

2. Never permit an employee to bring something into your office and leave it there: unless you’ve asked for it. If they bring something to you, make sure they take it away.

3. Stop agreeing to take up an issue with another manager or specialist or manager. If an employee wants advice about, say, maintenance, don’t say, “I’ll talk to Roy, Maintenance Manager, for you”. Say, “Go and ask Roy. Tell him I asked you to see him.”

4. Decentralize day to day decision making. Give employees authority to make certain decisions without reference to you. Lay out some broad guidelines and ensure they keep you informed. If you don’t trust employees to make routine decisions, you’ll always have time management problems.

5. Set priorities and stick to them. You’ll always be likely to be distracted by others’ demands when you yourself aren’t absolutely certain about what’s most important to you.

6. Start meetings on time. Confine meetings to an absolute maximum of say, 60-90 minutes. Stop when the time’s up. Never repeat discussions of agenda items. Punctuality should be rewarded not punished by repeating discussions for latecomers.

7. Make sure every employee knows exactly what performance you expect from them and how you’ll measure that performance. They can’t give you what you want if they don’t know for sure. And they’re far more likely to interrupt you if they’re uncertain of your expectations.

8. Make sure that your business has a crystal clear business focus and a specific, narrow, target market. Convey both the focus and target market to every employee. Stress that they’re the core of the business.

9. Actively encourage what used to be called “completed staff work”. Don’t accept half-baked ideas from staff. Always encourage ideas for improvement. But ensure they’re well developed before being raised with you.

10. Your job is to manage the business. You can only do that successfully if your staff are competent to handle all day to day routine matters.

Interruptions And Interference

Remember

• If you won’t delegate you won’t manage your time
• If you continually interfere and hinder staff from doing their jobs well, they’ll learn to let you do their jobs for them
• Most time management problems occur because managers lack focus, clear goals and priorities
• The words of Ricardo Semler, “You cannot make a successful business by arriving early and leaving late.”

Conclusion

There will be times when you are forced to work excessive hours under excessive pressures. The manager’s job is to ensure that such times are most unusual, not normal. The more effective the staff, the more effective the manager.

What To Do Now

Which of the ten tips can you apply today? Which is likely to be most helpful in the shortest time. Let me know what you think. Please leave a comment or ask a question.

In staff selection, sadly sometimes the new employee “just doesn’t work out”. You’re probably aware of my unconventional views about staff selection: no resumes, put interviews last, test for on job competence, ignore references and the rest of it.

“Insulation” Not Capitulation

With the best will in the world from both parties, staff selection errors occur. When this happens you need to “cut your losses” not give in and “wait and see how it goes”. Staff selection’s very expensive. Insulate yourself against poor choice.

Competency Testing

Part of your staff selection process must include some form of competency testing. Short-listed applicants must actually demonstrate, to your satisfaction, that they can do the job. But that may not be enough.

Reasons For “Not Working Out”

New staff “don’t work out” for many reasons other than lack of skills. They include:

• The demands of the job change unexpectedly due to market force or unexpected staff movement
• The new employee simply doesn’t “fit”
• Change of personal circumstances of the new employee
• Some behaviour deficiency that emerges after appointment
• Inaccurate expectations of the job by the new starter.

Whatever the reason, if it’s apparent that the new hire “isn’t working out” then “something must be done”.

Keys To “Insulation”

The key to insulation is to remember that it’s about performance. You need a performance plan. You must decide the exact, measurable performance you’ll be satisfied with after 6 months. Remember you must describe what you want the new employee to be able to do. Selection isn’t complete until he or she is settled and competent on the job. Then, decide what you want the new employee to be able to do

• after five months
• after four months
• after three months
• after two months
• after one month.

Next, decide how you’ll measure the desired performance at the end of each monthly period.

Finally decide which experienced employee will mentor the new person and discuss the performance goals with that employee. You’re ready to welcome the new employee.

Incidentally, if you expect the new employee to be fully competent within 3 months use a three month rather than a six month plan.

On Commencement

Sit down with the new employee and explain the performance goals and standards. Start with the six month goals and work backwards month by month. Introduce the mentor and go through the goals and standards again.

Where’s The Insulation

The insulation is in the plan. You see, if someone “isn’t working out” you need to know about it as soon as possible. You need to take action as soon as possible too. The plan provides that. It also gives the new starter the opportunity to raise concerns too. By meeting monthly with him or her and the mentor you can take remedial action before a minor issue becomes a major problem.

Performance Not Personality

In conducting reviews, ensure that you focus on performance not personality. It’s easy to misunderstand or even disapprove of some behavioural characteristic. If the new employee is meeting performance goals, that’s what you want.

Why Bother?

Staff selection’s very expensive. It’s simply dumb to make a poor appointment that you have to terminate because they “don’t work out”. You want every new employee to “work out“. You need to monitor their progress carefully, regularly and professionally. And you need to reassure the new starter that you want them to succeed.

Conclusion

You can only do your job well if staff do their jobs well. The more time and trouble you take to ensure new staff to meet performance standards the better it will be for you in the long run. And you’ll save a lot of unnecessary expense too.

What To Do Now

Review the process you currently use when a new person starts. How could it be improved? Recall any time you’ve “had your fingers burnt” when a new employee “didn’t work out”. What did it cost? Please leave a comment and tell us about your experience.

Please remember to click on the “Resources” tab in the navigation bar to find out how else we can help.

Rewards and incentives of some kind are a valuable form of reinforcing desired staff performance. It’s important that they’re part of a system that makes sense to employees. But cash isn’t the only option available.

Some Definitions

A Reward is just that. It’s something an employee earns for say, meeting or exceeding a target. The employee must do something specific to receive the reward.

An Incentive is an inducement to do something. An incentive is offered in order to create performance.

The Difference

Let’s say you want an employee to obtain 10 new business referrals each month. You could offer an incentive to the employee to be paid if he or she obtains 10 new referrals in the next 30 days.

You could offer a reward for each referral more than 10 in the same period.

Rewards, Incentives And Slings

Rewards and incentives are part of your business system. They are part of your normal policy and practice. It’s known in advance to all involved.

A “sling” is an incidental action taken within an immediate time frame. For instance, a retail store manager may say to staff, “I’ll give each of you a $50 cash bonus if we sell 20 sleeping bags before midday”. You might say to a group of tradespersons, “Today’s the last day of the month. You’ve worked 29 days without any machine downtime. If you can maintain that record until close of business today, you needn’t come in until 1 pm tomorrow”.

These are one off events in response to particular business conditions. They’re not part of an incentive and rewards system.

Two Examples

A client employing tradespersons had a problem with “callbacks”: tradespersons having to return to a job to fix something or correct a mistake they’d made. The customer didn’t pay for the callback. It proved very expensive for the client.

The client offered an incentive: if a tradesperson worked for a month without a callback he or she could have a half day off on full pay. Callbacks reduced by 90%.

Another client ran a business based on an assembly line process with 15 stations. Operators had very specific performance targets. They received both individual and group rewards for meeting those standards.

They were very successful.

The operators approached the manager with a proposal. This occurred during school holiday period. The operators requested an afternoon off on the last working day of the month provided they met all monthly targets beforehand. The manager agreed. This is now part of the regular reward system.

Cash Or …

Rewards and incentives can be in various forms, not just cash

• Relaxation of normal start and finish times
• Paid time off as described above
• Gifts of special importance to particular employees
• Payment of bills and accounts of employee choosing
• Trips or “nights out”
• Major prizes for long term successful performance
• Profit share.

Choice of the form of reward/incentive you use should be done in collaboration with employees concerned. The more the incentive/reward satisfies employees’ real needs the more successful it will be. And remember, employees see things differently to managers.

Profit Share

Profit share is probably the most successful reward/incentive system. It’s successful because

• It’s clearly performance based
• It’s clearly related to business results
• It gives employees a profit focus
• It enhances a long-term rather than short term gratification
• It requires employees to be well informed about business operations
• It places managers and employees as equal participants
• In includes all employees.

Some Core Issues

• Reward performance only, not behaviour, attitudes or anything that cannot be measured
• Reward both team and individual performance
• Make crystal clear the connection between your rewards and incentives and business success
• Ensure transparency: who gets what and how should be clear for all to see and understand. Successful reward/incentive schemes have no secrets
• Ensure that the business can afford to pay the reward incentive
• Make sure employees understand that it’s a scheme for superior performance

Conclusion

While profit share may be the most satisfactory and successful form of reward/incentive, it’s not the only system.

Providing you follow the core issues, the form of rewards and incentives is limited by only two things

• Your imagination
• Employee acceptance.

What To Do Now

If you have a scheme, is it working satisfactorily? How could you improve it? If you don’t have a scheme, why not? And please leave a comment or contact me direct.

Please remember to click on the “Resources” tab in the navigation bar to find out how else we can help.

Here’s an inconvenient reality. Personal success at work can only be achieved with help from others. You simply can’t “make it on your own”. The personal success myth is inimical to effective teamwork. It’s the Great Staff Performance Heresy.

The Big Mistake

We extol Jane’s or Jack’s virtues in rising from backroom researcher to Director of Advanced Technology in less than five years. It’s easy to forget that without lots of help and co-operation from other employees Jane or Jack may not have made it.

The Core Of Great Heresy

The individual employee, no matter how clever or skilful, can’t achieve much within a business by acting alone. But we’ve been taught for decades that the individual is the basic human unit in the workplace. That’s the core of The Great Heresy.

The Reality

The basic human unit in the workplace is the group or team. That’s the reality. In the corporate world where most of us dwell, it’s simply not enough to be a successful individual. The greatest rewards go to the most effective team members and leaders.

The Social Manager

Corporations are made up of individuals. But they are all members of teams. The more successful you are in the corporation, the more your success is depends on others. A senior manager is a social manager. He or she is a member of a number of teams and the leader of at least one. Everyone’s a member of at least one team: from the lowest paid employee to the highest.

What’s A Work Team?

A workplace team is identified by three simple characteristics.

• If one person in the team doesn’t do their job well, someone else can’t do theirs well either.
• Individuals depend on the help of other members to achieve their work goals.
• The goals of the overall team are more important than the goals of the individual members.

When I use the word “team” that’s what I mean.

Take care. Merely because we call a work group a team, doesn’t mean it’s effective. It may not even be accurate. For instance, the “sales team” includes support staff. But some salespeople don’t see support staff as equal members.

Personal Relationships

Work isn’t a “love in”. Unfortunately many attempts to develop “teamwork” are concerned with developing better interpersonal relationships. I’ve experienced many examples where close interpersonal bonds interfered with effective team performance. In these cases, individuals were not willing to risk upsetting a personal relationship for the good of the overall team.

It’s About Team Effectiveness Not Friendship

I’ve worked in team development for years. My first book about it was published back in 1984. Since then I’ve become more certain than ever that developing effective teams at work is not about “getting on well”. It’s about working well together to achieve business goals. And when people do this, they’ll learn to like each other. At the very least they’ll learn to accommodate each other’s personal foibles. I suspect that good interpersonal relationships are a consequence of effective teamwork not a prerequisite for it.

Heresy And HR

To some HR people what I’m suggesting is heretical. Whether you agree or not is totally unimportant. But even if I’m only “half right” what I’m saying has major implications for managers and HR practitioners.

You Can’t Build Teams

The team or group is the basic unit, it simply exists. It can’t be built. You’re stuck with whom you’ve got. Managers are expected to develop the people they’re given. Forget individuals and team building. Concentrate on development. When a new person joins a company, he or she automatically becomes a member of at least one team … maybe more.

Staff Selection

By this stage you’ll know that I don’t think it’s very important whether team members “get on” personally. But I believe that it is most important that

• they’re competent …. and demonstrably so
• they respect each others’ competence
• they value team effectiveness above their own
• they’re prepared to share roles with other members.

Are these major criteria in your selection practices? They make a formal “probation” after appointment a necessity. And they extend what should be developed during probation.

New Mindsets

Effective staff performance demands new mindsets. Managers need to recognize the importance of teams in achieving corporate goals and in developing competent performance among members. Individuals need to understand that being a “star” performer isn’t as important as being an effective contributor to a “star team”.

A Simple Example

Once you see the team as the basic human unit in the workplace, it’ll help you clarify and improve relationships between teams. One of my client companies seeks what they call a “seamless” customer service experience for any client, new or old. “Seamless” means that from the time a prospect or client contacts the company each team member commits to making their company contact smooth, continuous and unfailingly satisfying. Each team accepts that they have an obligation, not only to the customer, but also to other teams to ensure that the “seamless” experience is a reality.

Bite The HR Bullet

I’m an old fashioned bloke who believes that the role of HR is to assist managers to achieve business results. It is not part of some Great Individual Self Actualization Crusade led by The HR Brigade. Emphasize the importance of team development over individual development in interactions with managers.

Other Issues

The team development mindset requires a rethink about

• management development
• management training
• reward and incentive schemes
• effective performance systems
• performance standards
• inter-team effectiveness

and a lot of things that fall generally within the HR “tent”. This is a blog post not an eBook. But I trust you think about these issues too.

Conclusion

The team is the basic human unit in the workplace. Understanding this will give focus and impetus to your people management. And it will ensure that you don’t overemphasize the development or the achievement of individuals to the detriment of the overall business.

What To Do Next

Are you a captive of The Great Staff Performance Heresy ? Do you recognize the disadvantage of stressing individual development. Let me know what you think. Pleas leave a comment or ask a question.

Please remember to click on the “Resources” tab in the navigation bar to find out how else we can help.

Everybody agrees that sound staff performance is essential for business success. And you need to do certain things to get the best from your staff. But in many cases what gets managers into trouble isn’t what they do. It’s what they don’t do.

1. No Proof Of Competence

There are two common errors. We don’t demand that job applicants demonstrate to our satisfaction that they can actually do what they say they can do. We talk to referees, conduct “in depth” interviews and ask “probing” questions. But we don’t ask “likely” appointees to actually do anything. We rely on words not action.

The other case is training. We send someone for training, either internal or external. Before they go, we don’t conduct tests to see if they can already do what the training is designed to achieve. And when they’re finished we don’t demand a demonstration that the training’s been successful.

Make Sense?

2. Rigid Working Hours

Why on earth do we demand rigid start and finish times? I know the history. But the reasons are locked into the practices of the Industrial Revolution, over 250 years ago. Isn’t it time we changed? Of course, some jobs require rigid hours. But they are few. 21^st Century technology provides flexibility to satisfy both personal and workplace needs.

Does 9 – 5 make sense anymore?

3. Lack of Transparency and Openness

Managers today have access to vast amounts of relevant and important information about the business. But they fail to share it adequately with employees. We complain about lack of co-operation and initiative but fail to communicate the very information to enable staff to make a greater contribution.

Secrecy doesn’t make sense.

4. The Individual Performance Obsession

The workforce is comprised of individuals. But each individual is a member of at least one team at work. No individual succeeds at work without help from others. Yet when assessing performance we largely ignore team membership and contribution.

Does denying the nature of the workplace make sense?

5. Behaviour Blindness

You probably know my feelings about this. But it’s so important. Managers still become over-concerned with behaviour rather than performance. Behaviour can be irritating. But it’s performance that counts. Behaviour matters only if it causes poor performance.

Putting behaviour first never made sense.

6. Devaluing Daily Communication

Employees talk to each other lots of times every day. Smart managers understand that daily chit chat can be used as a performance improvement tool. If employees learn some basic face to face communication skills their daily chit chat can become far more focused, effective and performance specific.

Does it make sense not to use this vast resource more successfully?

7. Restricting Decision Authority

Employees should be empowered to make decisions about day to day issues. Routine decisions should be made as close to the employee as possible. Call it “empowerment” if you like. But you can’t refer everything to “the boss”. Clarify decision authority so that customers get the service you claim they deserve.

It makes sense that you aren’t bogged down in minor decisions.

8. Absence Of Future Focus

We can learn from our mistakes. But business success is about the future. Yet there’s a convention in staff management that suggests that we spend time talking to staff about past errors. Past errors are recalled as a sort of warning that the employee concerned has some limitations.

The fact is, history is history. Managers can do nothing about the past. But you can do something about the future. You want employees to concentrate on achieving future business goals; not concerning themselves with past errors that can’t be restored. Learn from mistakes: don’t repeat them.

Makes sense, doesn’t it?

9. Rewarding Superior Performance

It’s so simple. Yet many managers simply don’t do it. They don’t reward superior staff performance across the business. They may pay salespeople extra when they succeed sales targets. But do support staff have the opportunity to participate in the rewards?

Every employee should have the chance to be rewarded when they exceed performance standards. The rewards may not necessarily be cash based. But they should be tangible and attractive to staff. And every employee should be eligible to participate.

It’s just good sense … and good business.

10. Everybody Doesn’t Know That

I wish that I had a dollar for every time a manager has said to me, “But everybody knows that” or “They know what I want” or “I don’t need to spell it out for them” or something similar.

Every manager needs to tell every employee and team exactly what performance is expected of them and how it will be measured. That’s the minimum you should do. And you should specify each in definitive, measurable terms. To get the performance you want you must specify what you want precisely. Leave nothing to chance. Remember: you’re the one who’ll be most disadvantaged if employees don’t perform well.

If only in your own self interest, it makes sense to do so.

Conclusion

Back in 1988, Dr Thomas Gilbert put it this way. “If we are going to improve productivity dramatically, we must …. get in front and give some guidance …. step by step procedures and proven designs; a genuine methodology free of parlour games and amateur psychology.”

What To Do Now

Please leave a comment below or send your question direct to me. Consider which of the “10 Things” you need to attend to now. Which would provide you with most benefit. If you need my help, just ask.

Please remember to click on the “Resources” tab in the navigation bar to find out how else we can help.

Effective staff performance is essential for the success of every small-medium business. If you’re an owner or manager in such a business, you know that. This article introduces a simple 7 part system framework for combining business needs and employee development for superior business results.

It’s called F-I-S-S-A-M-E

1. F–Focus

Focus means what it says. Your business must have a crystal clear focus, the narrower the better. The focus must answer the question, “What business are we in?” Your answer must be precise and specific. Shoe retailing is too broad. So is teen-30s shoe retailing. Sports shoe retailing for teens to 30 year olds is more precise. Retailing of track and field sports shoes for males and females between 15 and 30 years is a precise, narrow ….. and superior focus.

You must know what business you’re in and whom you’re aiming to satisfy: target market. A clear target market results from a specific business focus. If you don’t know those two things you’ll struggle from day one.

2. I–Inform

You need help in many fields. You’ll outsource or use consultants in some areas. But you’ll need good reliable dedicated staff to help build your business. They must be well informed. They need to know your business focus and your target market. Tell them. They also need to know exactly what you expect of them. I repeat, “exactly”: no broad generalizations: no sweeping statements.

You must decide precisely what you expect of them, especially the performance you expect. You must inform them of all these expectations. And tell them how you’ll measure their performance.

3. S–Standardize

You must express your expectations as performance standards. A performance standard is simply a statement. It states how you’ll be able to measure your progress towards a goal. It also tells how you’ll measure whether or not your goal has been achieved.

A performance standard must, yes must, be measurable. “Complete all small home appliance repairs by 4 pm each working day” isn’t enough. You need something like “restore all submitted irons, electric knives, blenders, electric kettles, toasters and coffee makers to working order to the customer’s satisfaction by 4.30 pm on the day the appliance is submitted for repair. No customer complaints or warranty claims are acceptable within 90 days of collection of repaired appliance. All safety and regulatory requirements to be observed fully. Observe all customer service protocols and practices”. That’s a performance standard. Anything less is inadequate.

This degree of detail may seem pedantic. It isn’t. Detailed performance standards till employees exactly what you expect of them and how their performance will be measured.

4. S–Systematize

With your staff, develop systems that enable you to reach your performance goals and performance standards. One management writer told me once how highly he regarded system development. He regarded a manager’s most important job as developing systems that ensured employees were unable to fail. “A poor system will beat a good performer almost every time”, he would say. “If the systems are poor the people will fail”. The word “system” is merely the word we use to describe “the way we do things around here”.

All routine work of any kind must be systematized. That applies to all operations, administration, marketing, customer service, maintenance … everything. By the way, when developing systems, start with the performance goal – the result– and work backwards from there. Systematized routines free you to manage.

5. I–Implement

Just do it. Put your systems into practice to achieve your goals and performance standards. Monitor and modify until you get it right. A client once described to me how he strove for a “seamless” customer service system. From the moment the customer contacted the company until he or she completed a transaction with the company, the customer’s experience must be seamless: smooth, unbroken, complete and satisfying, leading to absolute satisfaction.

6. M–Measure

As you operate, you must measure effectiveness and success. You have performance goals, performance standards and performance systems. Measure how well they’re working. Are the systems adequate? Are the standards being met? Are the results being achieved? Are the customers satisfied? If not, make the necessary adjustments until they are.

7 E–Empower

Hand the whole responsibility for routine operations over to your employees. There’s little risk involved. Your goals are clear. Your standards are set. Your systems are in place. And you have a well established method of measuring success. It’s your job to manage the business. It’s their job to implement, monitor and improve.

Ensure you have inbuilt measurement systems that enable both you and your people to know “how they’re going” at all times. If you’re a little apprehensive, introduce some simple weekly or monthly reporting systems. But remember. Until they’re doing it well, you won’t be able to manage it effectively.

Conclusion

OK: OK. I’ll be the first to admit that running a business isn’t quite as neat a fit as F-I-S-S-A-M-E suggests. Crises occur, things overlap, people come and go, economic circumstances ebb and flow. Some aspect or project in your business may be only at “standardize” while others are in full bore “empower”. That’s normal. There’s also a lot of detail involved. But you need a framework system to systematize your business operations. That’s what F-I-S-S-A-M-E provides.

What To Do Now

Do you have a crystal clear business focus and a narrow, specific target market? Everything stems from that.  Check that first. Then ensure that you have performance goals and performance systems in place to satisfy the target market. These are the essential things to do. Please leave a comment or contact me direct.

Please remember to click on the “Resources” tab in the navigation bar to find out how else we can help.

Six single syllable words! That’s all it takes! Six little words formed into a question to ensure that our repeat successes and don’t repeat failures in staff performance.

The Six Single Syllables

“What did you learn from that?” Who hasn’t got time to ask that question? Or are you just too busy: or too preoccupied with day to day problems to form these six single syllables into a telling question?

Self Interest Symbols

The six syllables are a potent example of positive management self interest. Look at it this way:

The sooner that you’re confident that your staff are competent, the sooner you can concentrate on your main work: running the business. The less distractions you have from day to day problems and irritations, the more benefit you’ll gain from using the six single syllables.

Workplace As A Learning Environment

The workplace is a centre of learning. It lacks classrooms and teachers and most of the accoutrements associated with learning. But huge amounts of learning take place. New staff learn their jobs. Other staff learn new methods. All staff learn how to work effectively together and how to gain respect and recognition. They learn how to discuss differences, satisfy customers and resolve work related problems.

The Problem Is …

You and your staff are often so busy doing what you’re paid to do, that you forget that you’re learning. You make the same mistake twice because you learnt nothing from making it once. No one asked, “What did you learn from that?”

The Support Questions

The six simple syllables is only the first question. It opens the door to other questions such as

• “Do we need to change or review any systems?”
• “Does that mean that our system worked well?”
• “How can we avoid making this mistake again?”
• “Was the customer satisfied with the outcome?”
• “Who else needs to know about this?”

Why Start With Six Syllables

It’s preferable to seek employee input before continuing with support questions. You want them to develop the habit of regarding the workplace as a learning environment. Ultimately they should be asking the Six Syllable question themselves.

Using The Six Syllable Question

Use the question whenever a project is completed, a problem is resolved, after events such as a product launch or the introduction of new systems. And encourage staff to ask it constantly about their own performance.

Conclusion

Outstanding staff performance isn’t as complex or difficult as some specialists would have you believe. Sometimes, small, well chosen words do have a very important place in your management repertoire.

What To Do Now

Please email a comment or contact me direct with a specific question. And feel free to pass on this post to a friend or colleague. Most importantly, start using the Six Single Syllables today.

Please remember to click on the “Resources” tab in the navigation bar to find out how else we can help.

Have you been conned by the Charisma Conspiracy? If you have, you’ll have problems with staff performance. You simply wont be able to live up to your expectations of yourself.

The Charisma Conspiracy

The Charisma Conspiracy demands that all managers are good leaders. The conspiracy says all good leaders all possess certain personal qualities that lesser men and women do not. These manager/leader types are themselves inspired to greatness and inspire others to greatness.

Charisma And Gurus

In many instances, the gurus who propose this approach run personal development courses for managers in order to turn them into leaders. If you fail to attend or fail to follow the guru’s notions, you’re obviously not “leadership material”.

This is all arrant nonsense.

What Other Gurus Say

“My job is to make the whole executive team good enough to be my successors. So that’s what I try to do.”   Steve Jobs

“As a leader, my main job is to motivate them so they can go home and be proud of their work….” Richard Branson

“No management works like self management. What’s better in the long run: a charismatic central figure or a sustainable business?“   Ricardo Semler

“No institution can possibly survive if it needs geniuses or supermen to manage it. It must be organized in such a way as to be able to get along under a leadership composed of average human beings.” Peter Drucker

Self Development Is OK

I’m not saying that self development isn’t valuable. I am saying that what matters for a manager is how well he or she runs the business. That, as Ricardo Semler says, is what counts in the long run.

Leadership And Staff Performance

The  Charisma Conspiracy values personal development above all else. It tells managers that if the they “get their personal act together” they’ll be better managers and leaders. There is simply no evidence to support this.

Your staff will not perform better merely because they’re in awe of your personal qualities and psychological “balance”.

If you don’t believe me, consider this: teens of thousands of managers have attended charisma conspiracy, self development programs over the last 25 or 30 years. But how many of those managers are running genuinely successful businesses?

The Core Issue

If you aspire to be an outstanding manager running a successful business remember what Dr Thomas Gilbert said back in 1988.  “If we are going to improve productivity dramatically, we must …. get in front and give some guidance. We mean what we said: step by step procedures and proven designs; a genuine methodology free of the parlour games and amateur psychology.”

The Absolute Essentials

You can read more in my previous blog posts. But if you want effective staff performance you must have four essentials in place

• Know precisely the performance you expect from your staff
• Know precisely how you’ll measure that performance
• Convey details of both the performance and the measurement to your staff
• Put systems in place that make it impossible for your people to fail.

These essentials cannot be replaced. And they do not depend on a charismatic leader to make them happen.

Conclusion

Permit me to quote Ricardo Semler of Semco again. “Concentrate on building an organization that accomplishes the most difficult of all challenges: to make people look forward to coming to work in the morning.”

What To Do Now

Leave a comment. Contact me if you have any queries. Reread the quotations included in this post. Ask yourself: “Have I been swept up by the Charisma Conspiracy?”

Please remember to click on the “Resources” tab in the navigation bar to find out how we can help.

Anticipating customer needs is a key element in staff performance. Your staff are uniquely placed to do this. Asking customers themselves isn’t the best option.

Henry and Steve

“They’d have wanted a faster horse.” That’s what Henry Ford is alleged to have said when asked why he didn’t ask his customers whether they wanted his motor car. And Steve Jobs didn’t care much for surveying customers about possible new products. “By the time you build it, they’ll want something else,” he said.

Customer Needs And Staff Performance

It’s agonizingly simple. If you don’t have a product or service that you target market wants, staff performance will be poor. If customers don’t want what you offer, it’s very hard to sell.

Needs?

Don’t get too concerned with what customers actually “need” either. It’s our job to create what they want. If you’re assessment’s right you’ll create a need. Remember, no one was clamoring for a horseless carriage a hundred years ago or for an iPad fifteen years ago. And that’s where your staff have a unique role to play … if you let them.

Why Staff Are Important

It’s simple. Your staff have daily, even hourly, contact with customers. They talk to them, listen to them and interact with them as part of their daily work. Staff know what pleases them, upsets them, excites them and bores them. It’s simply a matter of finding a way to harness the unique information that staff already have and continue to accumulate.

What About The Figures?

The “figures”, sales, revenues, advertising responses and the like will tell you “what’s happening”. The information that staff have will help tell you “why”. And not only salespeople have this information. Staff involved in returns, repairs, complaints and after sales service have a gold mine of information. You need a system to dig it out.

It’s A Systems Issue

You need systems in place to glean the customer response data that’s valuable. It’s not about customer service or customer relations training or interpersonal skill development. You need systems to enable staff to find out the “why” and the “how” as well as the “what”.

What Sort Of Systems

You’ll need systems that deliver information about issues such as

• What was the thing that pleased you most when dealing with us?
• Where do you believe we could improve the quality of our service?
• What do we do that other similar companies don’t that you feel makes us good to deal with?
• In your opinion what makes – name your product or service – desirable to use instead of competitive products?
• What’s the best thing for you about dealing with us?

Notice that these questions are about opinions and feelings. They’re not about measurable effectiveness. The “figures” will tell you that. In the final analysis people don’t “buy quality”. They buy “value” in their terms. And staff are the people who can best help you determine whether your idea of “value” matches that of the customer.

Immediate And Personal

Let me make something clear. The sort of system I’m writing about is both immediate and personal. Sending surveys for completion is laudable. But it’s impersonal and delayed. Surveys are probably better used two weeks or a month after the sale or interaction.

Staff Are Ideal People To Use

Whether it’s a retail salesperson, a repairman, a consultant, a technician or an installer, these are the people best placed to find out “why?”. They’ve established a relationship with the customer. And they’re “on the spot”.

It’s About Service Quality Not Product Quality

You’re trying to ascertain whether you and your people are pleasing customers and prospects. You are not trying to establish whether your product or service “works” well. Your figures tell you that. When someone says, “I want the best”, don’t imagine for a moment that what they mean by “best” is what you mean by  “best”.

A Quick Case Study

Among my long standing clients is a domestic maintenance plumbing company. They are market leaders. Ten years ago they did all and any maintenance plumbing they could get. Today they do only domestic maintenance plumbing. They’re totally focused. They also understand that they’re one of hundreds of maintenance plumbing companies in Sydney. Apart from focus, they have only one thing that differentiates them from their competitors: service. They offer two major guarantees: “If we’re late you don’t pay” and “We’ll leave your worksite cleaner than we found it”.

Not a word about “better plumbing”!

Another Example

I can’t tell you where the following event occurred. But the company is a major white goods manufacturer. They were having major problems with refrigerator doors that stopped sealing properly after relatively little use. The conventional, customers service, complaints form, “fix it” meetings didn’t improve. But their records enabled them to tell which assembler put together each door. They started connecting the angry customers direct to the assembler who’d made the door. Door problems virtually disappeared within a month.

The Unspoken Advantage

When you and your people establish the sort of relationship I’m describing with your customers, there’s another major advantage. You won’t need to do surveys about what your customers want or need, you’ll know. Your relationships will see to that.

Customer Service And Complaints Staff

I’m about to upset some of you … sorry! You do not need specialist customer service, customer relations or staff carrying similar titles in your business. Your staff have daily customer contact. They are your customer relations experts. Who could be better placed?

Conclusion

I know that what I’ve suggested isn’t regarded as “best practice”. But if you want your staff to be fully engaged with your business and your customers, make customer relations an important part of their role.

What To Do Now

Leave a comment below. Contact me direct with questions or queries. Most importantly, sit down now and review your current system for asking those “why” questions I mentioned. How well are you using your staff to get the answers. How could you do it better? What benefits would be in it for you? And abandon any plans for formal customer surveys about prospective new products or services. You’ll get that information when your staff fulfill their customer relations roles.