Manage-Wise

Make your team multi-skilled

By ensuring your team is multi-skilled, you can cut down on costs. You won’t have to hire a temp when one of your team members takes leave or is off sick. Other team members will easily be able to cover for them.

Not only does this save you money, but it also provides your team with variety. They will then appreciate more fully the magnitude of the business and begin to feel more useful. This, in turn, will have flow-on effects as far as productivity and morale are concerned.

Provide team training

Team training really is one of the best investments you can make. Give people real responsibility and they will rise to the challenge. They will view it as an investment in their own futures. But don’t expect them to do something they feel ill-equipped to do.

Building team spirit

Team training is also an excellent way of building team spirit. Make sure it’s fun too.

Let me give you an example: One of my coaches, Graham Dunkley, was working with a Harvey Norman store in Maitland, New South Wales, recently. This store was the smallest retail outlet in the group and was underperforming. Glen Gregory, the store’s owner, was very ambitious and wanted to do better.

Graham promised that he would be able to achieve greater results, but it was ultimately up to him. Graham would give him the tools to grow the business, but he would have to put in the hard work.

Graham then talked him into putting his entire team through a one-day sales course. Needless to say this included Glen too! The team members suddenly realized they could do other things besides discounting!

They came back all fired up.

Glen then had his coach put them through team training, and once again he included himself in that team. He suddenly realized that anyone can manage, but it takes skill to be a leader and to communicate well.

He began learning all about leverage in business.

Glen and his team were taught that all the national advertising in the world only gets the prospect to the door. What the team does from that moment on, to make it a memorable buying experience, is what explodes a business and takes them all to the top.

They learned that treating their clients with honor, respect, warmth, and empathy creates a long-term, trusting relationship, which then spawns greater opportunities for profitable sales than all the incessant giveaways that are traditionally featured in TV advertising.

Suddenly their conversion rate, transaction rate, and profitability climbed, and best of all, this “new” team started having fun!

Within a short period of time, Glen’s store had become the group’s number-three performer!

Another great benefit you will receive from training your team members is that they will begin working like a real team. What do I mean by this? Let me explain by changing track for a while.

All too often the cry is heard, “you can’t get good people”, or “why can’t I get my people to do as I tell them?” Well, life could be a lot easier for business owners if only they would train their teams.

Consider, for a moment, the business owner who, despite having 10 people working in the business, ends up doing all the work. Sound familiar? If it is, then what’s the point of being in business?

Importance of systems

First, get back to basics. Most people in business will understand how important systems are. Systems usually allow a business to run smoothly (and profitably). With systems in place, it’s simply a matter of employing people to run those systems. A good example of this is, of course, McDonalds. With a food product that, at best, could only be described as average, it is their systems that keep it a hugely successful entity.

Implementing systems and then getting your people to work as a team are the basic foundations of any business. Understand this: the result of these two equals more than the sum of the parts.

So, the systems have been built and are clearly defined, and now it’s a matter of having the right people to run those systems. However, the real challenge lies ahead. It’s not just a matter of having people who come in follow the system and get the job done. What you are looking for now is synergy.

Common goal

Synergy comes from having people who are committed to a common goal. If people are involved in setting the common goal, they are generally more likely to commit to it. If you, as the business owner, dictate to your team members what the goal is, don’t expect much commitment from them. If your team members have ownership, they are much more likely to achieve.

Finally, be aware of what you are teaching your team. Think of it this way: if a baby cries and its mother comes running, what will the baby learn to do after a while? Exactly. Let out a cry and in rushes mom. All I ask is for you to be very aware of what you are teaching your team. If your attitude is that no one can do the job as well as you can and you jump in and do it, your team will learn from that.

The dream team

Putting together the dream team for your business can be as easy as taking an action approach rather than an information approach. With the plethora of training options available to employers, it can often be puzzling to find the strategies that are going to achieve results.

There is one basic rule to apply when considering your next team-building exercise. Dream teams are not built through information or training alone. Seminars, competency training, reading books, and watching videos as all helpful strategies, but as the age old adage goes, action speaks louder than words. Being able to perform tasks during training is not the same as applying them on a day-to-day basis. And remember, information alone does not automatically change behavior. For example, we read about the dangers of smoking but many people still smoke.

Environment is one of the key factors in influencing your team’s success rate. People base their behavior on their beliefs about themselves and their environment. Can they have a positive impact on their environment? Does this environment support positive behavior? Team members should feel that they have the capability to contribute in their current environment. This means that giving them the right equipment and environment to be effective is essential. It also helps if they feel safe to contribute, if they have supportive environment.

But how do you find this out? You simply have to ask. Ask your team if they think there are factors in their environment that could be improved to help them be more efficient, productive, or happy. Perhaps they may prefer music while they work. Or better lighting or more flexible hours. Many organizations have realized the importance of employee satisfaction to the bottom line. Progressive workplaces now include childcare facilities and ergonomically designed workstations.

Beliefs are the key motivators in people’s behavior patterns. However, changing your team members’ beliefs in not an easy or swift task. Recruiting the right people through personality instruments and team interviews can be one strategy, and understanding their beliefs can be important in identifying others.

Excerpt from ‘Instant Profit’ by Bradley J Sugars. Reproduced with permission © 2007, Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company Limited. Price: Rs 299. E-mail: Vishwanath_Ghanekar@ mcgraw-hill.com