FIVE STEPS TO INCREASE PEOPLE POWER IN YOUR BUSINESS by Jan B. King
Take some bold steps and help your employees and business
partners open up to real change and help them start thinking
again to the longer term. Send a message that you are ready
to commit to new ways of thinking and that that includes a
commitment to the success of your employees in the changing
workplace.
1. Reconsider your company vision.
A vision statement uses the future to help analyze the
present. It must have a message that everyone from the CEO
to the receptionist to your freelance workers can understand
and put into practice daily. Vision is the match that lights
the fire of potential in people. To do its job, a vision
must be long-term, meaningful in a human context and appeal
to a higher purpose. Make several drafts of your vision and
circulate them to people who's opinion you value inside your
company and out.
Ask yourself and others these questions:
Does our vision lead to action?
What will your customers be looking for from your company?
Can you live with this vision? Are you willing to act in
accordance with it even if times get rough?
2. Devote more time to the management of people power.
People issues only seem to capture our full attention during
times of crisis. Give them the time they deserve by setting
up regular monthly staff meetings to discuss HR issues only.
Try this exercise: Managers rate the effectiveness of each
employee on a simple scale from one to ten. Employees you
rate 4 or below are clearly not making it in your workplace.
Take action to move them within the company or help them
move out of the company within the next 30 days. Employees
you rate 8 or higher should have ongoing leadership
development plans - they are your superstars. Spend more
time with these people than any others. Make sure they know
how you think about them and put them in coaching programs
to be sure they continue to develop.
3. Start a 360 degree performance review process.
Have employees reviewed not only by their supervisor, but by
their peer group as well. Make these reviews optional for
the first year, but mandatory for employees who want to be
considered for promotions.
A Caveat: It takes at least 6 months of preparation to
introduce a 360 degree review process effectively. Show
employees the evaluation materials you intend to use up
front. Train employees how to accept negative feedback by
giving them a system to take it in and process it before
reacting. Also train employees to give feedback that is
work-related and objective with factual examples not
feelings.
4. Have the employees review the company.
Ask employees to hold the company up against its own
standards. Do this survey annually and check the trend over
time.
Ask yourself and others these questions:
Does the company walk the talk of its vision and values?
Are management employees role models for ethical behavior?
Do you take short-cuts with safety?
Do you encourage honesty in reporting or do you shoot the
messenger?
5. Create action plans for each individual tied to your
vision.
Make a direct connection between employee actions and the
company vision.
Consider this process:
1. Develop a more specific mission statement from your
overall vision, by defining your focus to what markets you
are serving and balancing your commitments to quality,
value, and service.
2. Determine the factors key to your company's success and
focus on specific, but long-term, goals in these areas.
3. Create annual corporate objectives related to your
goals.
4. Have each department manager develop department
objectives derived from the corporate objectives.
5. Post the results of 1-4 and ask each employee to develop
individual objectives related to his or her department's
objectives.
Jan B. King is the former President & CEO of Merritt
Publishing, a top 50 woman-owned and run businesses in Los
Angeles and the author of Business Plans to Game Plans: A
Practical System for Turning Strategies into Action (John
Wiley & Sons, 2004). She has helped hundreds of businesses
with her book and her ebooks, The Do-It-Yourself Business
Plan Workbook, and The Do-It-Yourself Game Plan Workbook.
See www.janbking.com for more information.
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