80 hours a week, 14 days in a row..leads me to a very hard learned lesson.
What is the lesson? If you are a manager, general manager or business owner who develops, hires and/or trains employees the lesson is always be recruiting.
When you’re not always on the hunt for new talent that’s when the old talent is going to leave you hanging. Have you ever noticed that when you don’t have extra money sitting in the bank the car breaks down, the roof needs to be replaced or your kid needs braces?
Big financial problems seem to be the worst when you don’t have any money. It works the same when running a business. As soon as you start to have one employee issue or a shortage it can very easily spiral out of control.
If you want to avoid this sticky situation in the future than check out my top three to always be mindful when it comes to your team.
Whenever I get the opportunity to hang out with people who successfully run more businesses than me, have a ton of money or in some fashion have killed it professionally I try and pick their brains as much as they will let me. I forgot where I heard the “they all go lame” line but the longer I run businesses the more I believe it.
At first it can be a very hard pill to swallow. Just saying it out loud makes me cringe. If it’s not something you can get on board with right now, than let it sit in your noggin and percolate for a while and let me know if it starts to ring true.
The biggest lesson I gleaned from this statement is, even your most loyal, dedicated, great at the job employee will someday not do that job anymore (that includes you). Some factors in this world that have absolutely nothing to do with the business, owner or manager can almost overnight change that employees ability to function and operate in their current position. Marriages, boyfriends/girlfriends (worse if they have both), divorces, births, deaths, etc. can and inevitably will impact performance. I think the key here is knowing and accepting these facts of life and prepare for unexpected changes.
Previously how the western world was set up was an employee worked in the same company the majority of their life. 25-30 years of hard work and loyalty would get them two weeks paid vacation, health insurance, 401k’s and a pension.
It worked for both sides of the coin. Companies had dedicated, well-trained workers for years and employees had stability, benefits and eventual retirement benefits for their loyalty. Besides working for the US government now rarely to ever find this to be true. If I hear of someone working for the same company for 10+ years plus it almost seems like a radical idea.
The lesson here? Don’t count on employees sticking around forever (refer back to #1). If a better offer comes up they are out of there. If it benefits them you may be short staffed within minutes or days.
The silent despot of leadership teams throughout the world.
Oh well Susie has been around for x amount of years and I know she isn’t performing like how she used to be but I really like her. Yeah she does gossip sometimes, or she doesn’t get her work done or the numbers for the business are declining under her watch but we are friends and so I just can’t let her go.
This example above has gotten me into more trouble than I care to mention. I try and treat everyone on my teams fairly but it’s still a two way street. You can give someone all the support, training and tools they need to be successful but it’s still up to them to do the job correctly and perform at the level you’re asking.
I swear, I wasn’t angry when I wrote this.
Think of this blog as a cautionary tale. Maybe a little far-fetched and you know this couldn’t possibly ever happen to you, with your employees or your business but the best way to prevent a disaster is to watch for the signs of one in progress. If you are getting even an inkling of trouble it maybe time to consider putting an ad on chirorecruit.com and seeing what possibilities are out there.
Kassandra Schultz D.C