“If only I can get my staff to work as hard as me, it will be a great season.”

Have you said this? Heard it? Thought it?

You are not alone. Every small business owner has the dream of hiring hard working employees that do the work so you don’t have to. They do the heavy lifting, you count the money.

Here is the reality check. Your staff will never work as hard as you do. Why?

They aren’t the owner. They don’t have a stake in the business other than a job. And they can get another one of those.

Oh, some might work that hard. You might get one or two workaholics so dedicated to your success that they work their tails off for you. But they will be the exception to the rule. Collectively your staff will probably work at about 60-70% of the level of dedication and efficiency you put forth. That is just human nature. Plus, if they were any better they would be running their own store.

The first most important point to take away is this. The more you slack off, the more your staff will do the same. If you are only giving 90%, their efforts will go down, too.

Yeah, sucks to be you.

But then again, it really doesn’t. You get to control the level of effort your staff puts out. It starts with the model you put forth. Raise your own bar. Show how you are striving to get better and improve. Model the kind of behavior and effort you want through your own actions and your staff will fall in line.

Monkey see, monkey do.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS There are some other ways to get your staff to perform almost as hard as you. Most importantly, treat them as human beings. I’ll tell you more in the next post.