Attracting and retaining talent is essential to scaling your business successfully. This is especially true for your “A” Players. Let’s continue visiting with our friend Frank.
Frank was sitting in his office feeling great about his team and the company in general. “I love working here!” he thought to himself. “I probably need to spend more time at home, but I’m having so much fun here that it’s hard to leave. I’m excited about the mission of the company, I have lots of autonomy to do my job, and I have great people to work with. What could be better?”
Pipedream? I don’t think so. During my career I’ve heard “work ethic” cited as a desirable quality for team members more times than I can count. To me this always translates to “I want a team member who will do their job even though they hate it.”
This way of thinking assumes that people are basically “lazy” and that they only respond to “the carrot and the stick” to shape their behavior. My experience has been that, if you’ve hired the right team members, they love a challenge and are excited to contribute to a worthy mission, i.e., it’s fun for them. A tip of the hat to Douglas McGregor for his Theory X and Theory Y work on this topic.
Wouldn’t it be better for all concerned if you have team members who love what they do and are fully engaged in doing their best for the team? Then you could spend more time doing strategic leading instead of tactical managing. How cool would it be if you didn’t have to chase along behind people nagging them to do their best work?
Don’t be a stranger. (770) 993-1129, tdockery@TheResolveFirm.com
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