The Internal Buy In.

What does this mean?

It means being accountable, being motivated to excel, being the best you can be, giving the best you can give.

Getting your team members engaged. Keeping engagement and maintaining the motivation to give a great service or product. Getting them to make themselves accountable.

On a number of occasions, I have worked with major franchisors to ascertain business viability. One business had a 40-year relationship with its franchisor.

They had lost their way and along with it their customers. They were no longer employer of choice and no longer the shopping destination they once were. Customers had voted with their feet and gone elsewhere. The quick reactionary path would have been to spend more money on marketing and to some extent that’s what they did. For a less than acceptable return on investment. Yes they were getting customers to the door. They were however, not turning those customers into sales.

Some would say this is a training issue and to some extent I would agree. The major issue was that most staff were not engaged in the business and didn’t feel it necessary to go that little bit extra for their customers. On the most part the overriding issues within any of these business were team engagement, team worth and Leadership that had not evolved. The churn and burn mentality. Get them in, if they are no good get them gone. But do it within their probationary period.

A far easier long term strategy is needed in today’s world. Recruitment You would have heard this before so I’m not telling you anything new. But it’s worth repeating and having an effective recruitment process is where the whole repair/growth starts. Once all staff are in there best position within any business, then you will get engagement. It’s a fairly simple thing to get engagement. It does take a plan and commitment. In some cases a major mind shift is needed within the leadership team. Don’t expect an instant result from this change. Forming success habits over time is key to sustainable repair and growth.

To make an external change you must first have an internal change. Now that’s the internal structure of your business and how we think of it. It’s the internal processes our mind goes though when we think about work, the job and where we spend most of our time. Re-map the internal business canvas. Your team is the key to repair and business growth. Decide what it is you want to achieve and bring them along for the ride. Be a strong leader, nobody wants to follow a weak manager. There is no belief in a soft indecisive leader without a real expression of direction.

Be clear of the goal and express yourself with true authentic clarity. The destination To understand where you are going you must have a point of departure. A sat-nav won’t know which direction to go if it doesn’t know where you are. You would not get on a plane with a pilot who didn’t have a flight plan. As is true with a pilot they must know where in the world they are and where they will steer the plane too. Then a “how to get there” plan. Be honest with yourself, be critical of where you and your business is currently at and most importantly understand your human capital and what that means. What is the current culture in your business? How is staff morale? How is your general demeanour when you are at your place of business? What are your true skills and what is your place in the team.

Have a full understanding of the asset that is your team. Make sure you have a complete understanding of who you have in your business what their strengths and what their challenges are. Make this your point of departure.

Dream a bigger dream.

Remember, don’t be afraid to dream a bigger dream. Don’t be afraid of what is deemed to be impossible. When the impossible become possible it becomes the standard. Think of a new-impossible. Dream with your eyes open and dream big. Why be average. When average is acceptable is becomes the norm. The dream will be a whole lot easier if your team share in that dream. Again, clarity is key to getting your team to have the same vision you have.

Be clear with yourself as to what you are saying and how you are acting and the direction you are going. The traditional mushroom management will not do. In this world you cannot do this alone. The fact you are reading this today indicates that you believe this also.

Make no little plans They have no magic to stir a man’s blood

Embracing difference As a leader or aspiring leader in your business. It is important to embrace the difference each of your team members bring to the table. Some will treat the role they have as a job, coming to work to do time to get home again. Others it will be their career. Both are valuable resources. A sure fire way to get engagement from all is to value their opinion and ideas. If all are engaged then success becomes a whole lot easier as all are going in the same direction. The destination becomes not so impossible and the fog that’s been hiding it will start to clear. An engaged team will bring greater benefits to your customers. That care factor will show though. An engaged attentive customer focused team will keep bringing your customers back, time after time. Again I will say. You can’t make an external change until you make an internal change. An internal mindset shift all heading towards the same destination with true clarity, motivation and engagement. We each have our own ideas of how things and our life should be. There are no bad ideas, only ones that will be implemented and ones that will not. As a leader, don’t be alone in your thinking. Grab at all the talent and experience that your team have. You are of course accountable for their success, so implement wisely. However, we all know that we are not alone in this world and a great idea might just be sitting in the mind of one of your team. As you are the sum total of your past experiences, they are the sum total of theirs. Who we are today and how we think has been accumulated from your experiences, relationships, a book or movie you may have read or seen or perhaps attendance at a seminar. So too your team. Use their past and experience in today’s world. To fully understand the motivation and true accountably of your team, make time to embrace their differences. Have a session with them to high light what direction you are wanting to take the business and how their input is not only valued but needed. Explain that you can’t do this alone. This brain storming session should be with the whole team, or at least the leadership team. They all have something to offer. Remember, there are no bad ideas. The not so good ideas might become the basis of something great. This will engage your team and build a respect in you that can’t be bought with a salary. How you lead one, maybe very different to how you lead another. We have all heard the differences in the generations and the challenges of each one. This is a good example of one size does not fit all. The real trick is to get them all working on the same project. Yes it’s your project, but it has a great deal of their input. Embrace the difference in each one of your team. Include yourself in that. Recognise that difference and alter your manner and leadership to suit. Be strong and decisive, but listen, evaluate then decide. Be open to change direction, be open to listen, be open to hear, and embrace your team and each of their differences. For me it was as much about my engagement as it was theirs.

I had to make sure of my own commitment to success. My own unwavering devotion to success and the success of those in the team. The Coach At an operational level and once the direction is set, you have your target and all are on the same path. I would encourage a daily meeting with the leadership team. This is particularly needed in the early stages of repair or your growth path. This will ensure continued engagement, and I include myself in that. This is on the most part an operational item and these meetings would be less about the numbers and more about the team aspect. They would keep everybody focused on the prize. Any issues arising from the previous day were spoken about at the time. These are short and should last no longer than 10 minutes. As time goes on these meeting will become less needed on a daily basis. These meetings should really be one of the only operational things you do. Do not underestimate your power as a coach, teacher, and in some cases therapist and councillor. As the coach you will need to encourage, to make decisions, to be fair but firm, to understand their position. As a coach you will need to show them the way, direct the way and keep them on the path. Going in the same decisive direction. Remember

you have already set the path to excellence and the goal that goes with that.

This is just a part of the job and goes with the territory. As the leaders, it is you who will ultimately set the direction and indeed the destination. It is you who will set the tone of the business the overall culture will also come from you. Is this a culture centred on the customer, the staff or the owners of the business? A question to ask on a consistence basis. By far the most influence in repair and growth is from you. You will need to commit to the plan. You will need to take decisive action, some of that action will involve some needed staff changes, yes that’s right not all people will want to come along for the ride. This is also a part of the job. Make the decision decide the destination, live it, breathe it, make it a part of the vision and mission of the business.

Do you want it bad enough, then you must do the work and take action? Who are you? If you are anything like me, I was defined by what I did for a job. It was my passion. The downfall of this is you can work way too much. Don’t confuse too much with too hard. These are very different things. You will get a more balanced outcome if you get out of your business. Who gets more inspiration when they are not deep inside their place of business? For me, the more time I spent away the more I seemed to achieve. The thought process flowed easier and I was not distracted by the operational workings. You must learn to empower your team. You employ them to do a job, let them do it. Of course, put in the time, be with your team, but make sure you have the time you need to yourself. Consistency I have one last little gem for you. I make sure I am level-headed at all times. We can all get an angry or frustrated moment. One very effective way to get an employee to disengage is to belittle, rant, or in general talk down to them. Sometimes, as leaders we see things that other people do not. It’s the boss radar working. It’s at this time that you need a calm approach. It’s at this time that you may need to walk away to collect your thoughts. Me, I would take a little walk and deal with the issue in private in a calm and decisive manner. Remembering that engagement is key to your success.

Having a business peer or coach is a great thing. This will allow you to vent and bounce ideas off. Don’t underestimate the value an outside party or partner to do this with. If you are the owner and there is not a team to work with. I would say that the most challenging thing you will face is motivation and keeping yourself accountable for that massive dream we spoke about earlier. Most will take the path of least resistance and settle for good enough. Are you up for the challenge? Are you able to change the way you think? And Are you prepared to do the work? Just some questions to ask yourself. If you have answered honestly with true conviction, you now must take action. All else will fail without decisive and determined action.

Remember to dream a bigger dream. But dreams are what you do while asleep, action is what you need to do in the waking hours.