Labor Solutions: Sept. 2001 - HUMAN NATURE: Enhancing Company Culture

My advice to you is don’t even try. You cannot change your employees. We, as individuals, can’t change people. It is against our human nature to be changed, and almost impossible to see our own faults and shortcomings.

In the last 12 years, we have interviewed more than 10,000 managers, middle managers and front-line employees, asking such questions as, "What are the strengths and weaknesses of your company?" For strengths, I often hear things such as great people, talent, good customers, excellent sales representatives and designers, great equipment, etc. For the weaknesses, I always hear the top five: communication, sincere appreciation, reviews, training and a vision for the future. The one thing that I have never heard from any person interviewed is, "I am one of the weaknesses here."

If hardworking people can’t see their own shortcomings, odds would have it that none of your staff can either.

SHARPEN STRENGTHS. So, what is a leader to do? The following points will help you work with your team of employees to enhance company culture.

• Find out what employees enjoy. Hopefully you meet with your staff on a regular basis. Ask the question, "What do you like doing the most here?"



• Note projects or tasks in which employees excel. What type of project is finished on time? What do they seem to approach more enthusiastically?



• Train them in areas they enjoy. Focus training efforts on enhancing the areas in which employees will excel. If they enjoy it, they will learn; if they learn, they will become more effective at those tasks and managing those areas of responsibility.



• Allow employees to teach others. As individuals share knowledge, they also grow in knowledge and self-respect.

MINIMIZE WEAKNESSES. Coach John Wooden of UCLA basketball fame said, "Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do." Setting employees in positions that they do not enjoy sets them up for failure.

• Put the right person in the right job now. Lou Holtz, a famous football coach, explains his strategy in placing players in different positions with the example of the tight end that ran a 4.9 second 40-yard dash. This is slow for a tight end, but if that player is put at the tackle or guard position and can run a 4.9, 40, he is now "fast" and can excel in that position. Take a close look at who you have filling positions.



• Be slow to criticize but ready to critique. If an employee is attempting a task for the first time and making a good effort, don’t ruin enthusiasm with destructive criticism. Destructive criticism takes place in front of a group of people, with a loud voice, and without firm basis for statements. Critiquing, on the other hand, takes place one-on-one, with positive phrases such as, "I appreciate your initiative," "Excellent try," "Next time give thought to this," "Keep up the good work," or "You’ll get it."

ENVIRONMENT TO EXCEL. The Herzberg Theory of Motivation states, "Motivation comes from supplying the individual with one or all of the following: recognition, added responsibility, job enhancement, a sense of achievement and opportunity for advancement." It also states that money is not a motivator.

• Share information. It has been our experience that information is motivation. Share with your employees how sales are going, feedback from clients, technical information and profitability.



• Continue to involve them in trade organizations, where growth will come from learning more about their industry. Develop a library or "university" in-house where they can read books and periodicals on everything from technical information to leadership and management skills. Hold open houses for clients and families and allow them to show off their team.

If you have been courageous enough to implement the team building concepts that were so popular in the last decade, you are to be applauded. As Winston Churchill said, "Never, never, never give up." Continue to build your team and it will make you a greater company.