Get focused on business

How is your focus in your business? Does your team understand the real rules of engagement? Have you set the rules so the business will be the best it can be and get noticed in the marketplace?

Consider having your team meet the “new” you for 2016. Here are the rules of engagement:

·      Second place is not an option.

·      Have a team mentality above all else.

·      Everyone will be held to the same high standards of work ethic, client care and character. Beyond that, I will treat you in the manner you have earned and deserve. I will not run a welfare state.

·      You are expected to prove yourself over again every day. Tenure credentials and years of experience don’t substitute for results.

·      I will work with you as long as you continue to make measurable progress in a reasonable amount of time. However, if you reach a point where you hover at or below average performance levels with no upward trend, I will lose interest in you. I do not endeavour to become a savior of lost causes.

·      Our pay plan will reward above average performers and above average results only. I will not subsidize or legitimize mediocrity by rewarding unworthy performance.

·      I expect you to focus on what you can control and never develop a martyr’s mindset to explain failure. Regardless of outside conditions, your inside decisions will determine your success. Even in the worst of times you can control your attitude, your discipline and your character choices, and I will expect you to do so.

·      I measure loyalty by performance, not the number of years you cash our paychecks. The most disloyal thing you can do is stop getting results. Loyalty is not the amount of time you put in; it’s what you put the time into.

·      I will give you consistent and brutally honest feedback on performance. If you are great, I will tell you; if you are failing I will tell you. If you are ever unsure of where you stand, ask me.

·      I expect you to choose the truth over harmony. Make the right decision, not the convenient one.

·      I will not tolerate skunks that get the numbers. Thus I will measure you on two metrics: performance expectations and behavioral expectations.

OK, now that you are shocked about the new you, what is your alternative? Don’t want to go to this level as an owner or service advisor? The fact is competent people make a company very good money and earn above-average personal incomes. Competent people don’t mind accountability at all; in fact, they demand it for everyone. Remember that good people leave a business because bad people stay. It is not the employee — it is management that allows that standard to happen.

What standards have you set for your company and its future?