A CEO hired me as for his $5M retail business in Seattle. During the interview process he had expressed how much he needed me to help lead and change his company. I found it interesting what he wanted me to do in the first week.
The To-Do list:
- Write a standard offer letter.
- Create a spreadsheet to track employee attendance.
- Compile a handful of new company policies into the employee handbook and give back to him for final review.
- Fire his marketing manager for him.
As I worked in his company and talked to his management team, I could see that he had a mountain of critical business and management problems. His supply chain was broken. He was bleeding market share. The website was terribly out of date. Employee morale was in the basement, and his management team was feeling disenfranchised. The company had nine Controllers in nine years of operation, and later that week his current controller resigned.
Think about this
Notice that on the first day this boss gave me solutions to work on. He missed a key opportunity to pull me in mentally and emotionally by sharing the problems he was working on, and why they're so important. He could've shared challenges and responsibility.
People love to help solve problems. Don't you?
There is something innate within the hearts and minds of most people: we want to help solve problems. We want to make things better and feel like we've made a tangible impact. Solving problems gets our head in the game. We'll invest ourselves in the work. We'll act like owners, not renters.
Try this:
- Look back through your recent to-do lists and assignments: See if you're giving only bite-sized tasks, or projects that are just part of something that you own. Or are you giving people full responsibility...do you invite them to participate in the whole process?
- Ask your employees for feedback: When you assign work, do you give people responsibility to run with the ball. Do you give mental challenges? Do you leave room to figure things out for themselves? Do your people feel like real players?
- Get people fully engaged: Even when you need to assign specific action items, you can still take a minute to share the problem that you are solving through this assignment. “Customer feedback says our website is not user-friendly, so I need you to…" Or, "My boss has given me a red-hot special assignment, and I could really use your help..." And look for opportunities to ask them for input.
Bottom line, treat your employees like they are real players in the business. Today you can do that by giving them problems to work on. Trust them with responsibilities and decisions, get them in the game.