Lisa Temperley, writing at Small Business Talk, suggests that the attitudes and behaviors of the owner are reflected in the business. No real surprise there, but she makes a good point about how your attitude towards your employees affects their performance.
Like Temperley, I’ve often heard from business owners that it’s hard to get good help. I also know dozens of small businesses that have excellent staffs. The difference? Maybe it starts with the word “help” itself. It’s always seemed kind of demeaning to me. Who wants to be thought of as “help”? ” Staff ” is a good word. “Associate” is nice. “Team member”, though overused by many managers, is better than “help”. I know one company that refers to its employees as “family members”. I like that one, though I suppose it could be confusing if the owner has actual family members working for him.
Temperley speaks about trust. Your people want to be trusted. If you let them know you don’t trust them, you may find that you’ve created a self-fulfilling prophesy. People tend to act the way you expect them to act.
Finally, your attitude about compensation has a big effect on the amount of work you can expect from your staff. Minimum pay usually leads to minimum performance.
To quote Temperley, “Successful owners pay to get the best people they can and then train them well. This means their staff can deliver top class service to customers and owners can happily delegate whenever possible.”
That’s excellent advice!
Filed under: Human Resources | Tagged: compensation, small business, trust | Leave a comment »