Fast forward to 2008. General Motors, Ford, Chrysler were making cars that few were buying. An economic recession reminded them that the products they make must meet the needs, values and interests of those they hope to sell to. So if you don’t want to make a car that gets exceptional gas mileage, includes the extra safety features important to your customers, or carries a cost that is prohibitive, then customers will go elsewhere. And they did.

In the August 13, 2010 New York Times article, “Detroit Goes From Gloom to Economic Bright Spot,” writer Bill Vlasic stated, “Detroit has vowed to change before, slimming down when sales slumped or pouring resources into vehicle quality to catch up to foreign competitors. Many auto analysts say the current makeover has a more permanent feel, largely learned from the near-death experience of last year’s bankruptcies at G.M. and Chrysler.”

This is just one industry where customer disconnect and management hubris sent the large players falling. What matters most are the lessons learned; here are several of the most important:

1. In a connected world, you are never the only game in town.
2. Always know your customers – what they want, need and value.
3. You earn the privilege of serving your customers by knowing them well, responding in an exceptional way, and by standing behind your product or service.
4. To be retained, employees must add value and make a difference; there is no right to employment – it must be earned.
5. Strip the excesses from the business – run lean, efficient and effectively.
6. Develop a “here today, here tomorrow” mentality; be strategic.

In today’s world, a company must stay connected its employees and customers, and all products or services must be responsive and responsible. We are rarely the only game in town. That is okay – it forces us to improve our game and constantly focus on greatness.

Please forward this to someone who can benefit from it and contact me to help you activate your employees to create sustainable value for your customers and organization.

o The employee is good at what the job requires; he has the talents and natural abilities and is capable and competent in the job.
o The employee likes doing the job; the job is well aligned to his interests and passions.

So, if you do a great job hiring the right employee who has the right combination of talents and passions, and you customize the job to create a strong emotional connection and investment in the job, you have now invested significantly in your employee. This employee is a critical component of your team, your service response and your ability to be profitable. The employee is a treasured asset of the organization.

And then the employee does something completely human like screw up an order or loose his cool with a customer. And you deliver your outrage and anger in your feedback by yelling, accusing and punishing the employee.

Stop. Isn’t this a valued member of your team? Shouldn’t you use the moment of non-performance as a time to focus on performance improvement and support?

Today’s managers must be coaches. Their jobs are to find the right talent, activate it to great performance, provide continual feedback to improve when needed, celebrate when performance and effort is outstanding, and to amplify the personal connection to performance. The better the personal contact between manager and employee, the greater the performance.

So the next time your employee needs feedback, do the following:
1. Start with a positive comment; win the employee into a discussion.
2. Describe the behaviors needing improvement or applause; allow the employee to corroborate facts and share perspectives.
3. Describe the impact and consequences of the behavior; find the “hook” that will encourage the employee to change something unproductive or continue something productive.
4. Create a plan; allow the employee to create and own a solution.
5. End with a positive comment; ensure the employee feels valued and sees the coaching (feedback) as a win-win event.

Not only are these five steps effective in changing behavior and improving the personal connection with employees, but they work great at home. Feedback done well is powerful. So watch both what you say, and how you say it.

Contact me to help you learn how to attract, hire and retain the best employees.

So consider this. Look at the roles and responsibilities in the organization that must be done by the core, fulltime staff. Then determine all other roles and responsibilities that can be hosted by flexible free agents – outsourced by people who are as talented about the particular role as your full time employees are in their roles. Flexible free agents are those who do a particular task for many companies – on a part-time basis. Think of flexible free agents as the half step between a fulltime employee and an entrepreneur. Many have been laid off from their roles and have strung several part-time, task-specific roles together to invent a new job. This creates a new and valuable type of contract employee in today’s workplace.

So, back to your workplace. Some roles are so core to the business that it is important to have them staffed by fulltime employees. Some roles can be done on a part-time or temporary basis by someone who is exceptional at the task (flexible free agents). This way, free agents are hired only when needed, do not incur additional overhead, and are extremely productive. This allows the full time employee to stay more focused on their critical responsibilities – those that drive greater customer loyalty, drive greater results or increase efficiencies.

Here are two examples:

Surveying customers is a critical responsibility of every organization; it is important that your organization always know what your customers think and feel. Though critical, it can easily be outsourced to survey organizations or to flexible free agents who specialize in this work for your industry. You need the information; you don’t need to gather the information.

Creating an employee handbook, a company intranet, or a company newsletter are all tasks that improve the quality of the work life but can be easily outsourced to allow your talented fulltime employees to stay focused on customer service and profit-generating tasks.

So what are the fixed roles for your organization? What roles can be flexible? You don’t need to hire full time employees for every role. Hire fulltime when the role requires it. Otherwise, use flexible free agents.

Please forward this to someone who can benefit from it, and contact me to help introduce how to maximize your employees’ performance.

Sixty-five percent of employees do just enough not to get fired, according to statistics presented in Marcus Buckingham’s book, First Break All the Rules. His work with the Gallup Organization looked to define what degree employees are thinking and engaged in the workplace. This means more than half of employees don’t actively think their way through the day – they just follow the rules, do what they are told and little more.

Most managers do not take advantage of the thinking power of their employees. They seem content to have their employees simply do their jobs; they do not actively tap into their ideas, thinking and creativity. This wastes one of the most significant assets of the organization – the intellectual capital – the thinking power of the employee.

So how do you get an employee to think? Get in the habit of asking every employee these two questions every day:

1. “What if…?”
2. “What are two ways to …?”

Here are some examples:
• What if we allow employees to work more flexible hours, what would that do to performance?
• What if we eliminated two of our products or services; what would the impact be on customers?

• What are two ways to improve our marketing to our customers?
• What are two ways to attract great candidates to our company using social networking?

The format of the question isn’t as important as the discipline to constantly ask employees what they think. Tap into the resources you fund every week with your payroll. You paid for their thinking, now get what you paid for.

So how do you help your team thrive and learn to welcome change? How do you build their confidence, energy and engagement when many of them feel like they are “running on empty?” I’ll share four ways in a moment, but see if you and your employees can relate to this situation:

You come from a meeting and are overwhelmed by new initiatives, new directions or added work. You look at the page or pages of notes, not sure where to start, or what is most important. Though you know the change is important, you can’t get your head around all that you need to do. You feel overwhelmed before you even start. And this directly impacts your attitude, effort and ultimately your success.

So here are four ways to help your employees stay confident and productive in a workplace of exponential change:

1. Provide absolute clarity of direction, expectations and results.
2. Divide responsibilities into smaller, scalable components; focus on the critical things, not everything.
3. Build in success momentum; find ways for to achieve small immediate successes to activate energy and confidence.
4. Be (more) available for support, training, dialog and applause.

In today’s smaller workforce, chances are better that those employees who remain are your better employees (and if they aren’t, why not?) – because you know you have to get more done with less. Though you have great people, they still can get overwhelmed by the amount of change.

Just presenting a new project, or informing your employees of a need to change, does not make the change happen well, or keep their energy high. Instead, it takes a new and more connected approach to managing to make changes when change is hard. Help them learn new habits that will activate their performance in any period of change.

Please share this with someone who can benefit from it and contact me to help you better connect to your employees to activate their passionate performance. Be sure to check out Switch by Chip and Dan Heath.

Then the world has changed. Today’s best leaders are those who activate the emotional connection and emotional investment of their people. They don’t do this by remaining distant from their people. They do it by being more human and more emotional with their people.

Regardless what you feel politically about Obama, he models both effective and ineffective leadership qualities. His thinking and analytical approach to the country’s complex issues allows him to successfully manage things at once. However, his even and non-emotional responses portray him as disconnected from the feelings of those affected by challenges such as lost jobs, lost houses and the gulf oil spill.

Today’s workplace needs leaders who share their passion for what they do, and the feelings they have for the people they lead. They must be more connected to both how they think and feel, and be able to be truly present with their emotions. Emotions are not a sign of weakness – they are a sign of humanity. And if today’s managers and leaders want to engage and inspire their employees to perform, then they must be comfortable with their emotions and the emotions of their employees.

I frequently reference the book, Human Sigma, by Dr. Johnn Fleming and Jim Asplund. In this book, the authors (Gallup researchers) present that the primary difference between a satisfied customer and a loyal customer is the emotional connection a customer has to a brand, product or organization. Emotions move customers from satisfied (maybe they come back) to loyal (they always come back).
The same can be said about employees. The greatest employee performance happens when they are emotionally connected to their work through a compelling purpose and an emotional/personal connection to their manager and team.

Accurate, though dispassionate, rhetoric does not inspire; emotional connectedness inspires. Empathy matters. Emotions matter. Maintaining a constant state of evenness confuses employees to what matters and what really matters. Life and work include race and rest, excitement and stability. Leaders create the tone by how they react. The monotone, emotional-less leader inspires the same bland response from his people.

How Obama is handling the response to the BP oil spill is very telling about his leadership style. Though applauded for his ability to be constantly stayed and even, there are indeed times when the emotions – the humanity – are needed to relate to what others are experiencing. Think about Churchill at the time of the bombing of London in the second World War. To activate emotions, you have to show emotions.

Leaders who share their emotions, share their humanity. Employees relate as people. Customers relate as people. Out of control emotions are counter-productive. The lack of emotions is also counter-productive.

Do your employees see you as human and passionate about things that really matter?
Do you openly and responsibly share your feelings and emotions in the workplace?
Do you inspire your employees to be emotionally-invested in their work?

In the industrial age, emotions were perceived as performance inhibiting. In a service and intellectual age, emotions drive innovation, responsiveness and performance. Set the emotional pace for you employees; they will then set the emotional pace for your customers. There are leadership lessons everywhere.

So I thought this week, I would help managers communicate this message to their employees. Here is a draft letter; consider editing and using this with your employees:

Dear employee,
We have been through some very tough times lately; this recession has taught us many things. We have learned to better watch our world and respond in a more value-building way. We have learned to better listen to our customers and refocus on loyalty, not satisfaction. We have learned that every employee must contribute in a significant way, or they do not have a place on our team.

Your manager

Times have changed. There is no right to a job. Employees earn their place by adding value. Be sure they know this. Help them achieve this. This will influence your success.

Please forward this to someone who will benefit form it and contact me to help your employees earn their place on your team.

In the workplace, there are so many variables that impact results. Sometimes there are factors that are beyond the control of our employees – just look at today’s volcanic eruption in Iceland that is impacting transportation businesses all over Europe.

This is not to say that we don’t and shouldn’t hold our employees accountable for what they can control – we should. But we should also be very aware of how our employees respond to the challenges in their worlds, how they make the best of what happens and what kind of effort they consistently provide. Effort is the power behind all results.

When you applaud not just results, but effort:
1. You build loyalty.
2. You activate an emotional connection between you and your employees.
3. You encourage employees to be resilient and to persevere.
4. You create a culture that values invention, innovation and creativity.
5. You encourage employees to take value-based risks to improve performance and responsiveness.

I know you want employees to achieve great results. But to consistently achieve results, you need employees who are fired up, passionate and committed to providing their best effort. Effort drives results. Notice, encourage and applaud the effort and you’ll get your results.

Please pass this on to someone who can benefit from it. Please contact me if you need my help to fire up your employees.

The Global Workforce Study (conducted by the global professional services company Towers Watson) – a biennial survey of employee attitudes and workplace trends – confirms that the recession has changed the way U.S. employees view their work. In the past, job opportunity, relationship with management and development drove employee performance and loyalty. Today, employees just want job security.

As summarized in The Last Word column by John Hollon in the April 2010 issue of Workforce Management Magazine, “(The survey) paints a picture of an American workforce that is hunkered down, risk-averse and hanging on as long as they can – until, they hope they can afford to retire.”

So I have to ask. What happens to our businesses if we allow employees to hunker down? Isn’t our success built into the clever, wise, risk-taking employee responses that invent, grow and create the next generation of products and services?

Your new challenge is to find ways to help your employees get their mojo back and get out of hibernation mode. Here are some ideas:
1. Reconnect with employees. Increase your presence, communication and responsiveness with employees. Be more available.
2. Clearly define or redefine the focus of the business. Be sure all emloyees are aware of their expectations.
3. Build in more fun. Tough times require a different response. Commit to more fun and a more personal workplace.
4. Deal up front with issues. Host a monthly meeting to bring challenging and troubling national, local and personal issues up; ignoring reality stalls employee performance.
5. Ask employees what they need to help re-energize and reactivate their performance.

Today’s managers are required to deal with more human and emotional employee issues – because they impact performance. Use the resources presented in www.LiveFiredUp.com to help you learn how to manage in an intellectual age, help employees overcome their fears of an unstable economy, and get them back to working in a way that builds a stronger company and economy.

Please pass this on to someone who will benefit from it.

What do your employees do when you are not around? How do they treat your customers when you are not watching?

I’ll give you an example. On a recent day out with the family, we decided to have dinner at one of the ubiquitous chain restaurants. While seated, we watched as the staff put napkins on their heads as hats and threw rolls at each other. My server approached, laughing, saying they have such a good time when the boss is away. We took our things and left.

Think of the babysitter you leave with your kids. When in front of you, she (or he) is attentive and effective. When you leave, she raids the fridge, calls her friends and spends very little time doing what you pay them to do – to watch your kids.

What does it take to have a great staff, particularly when the boss is away? It takes employees who act and think like owners.

Here is how to inspire owner-thinking:
1. Hire employees who are good at what the job needs and passionate about doing it. This engages them, and helps them to feel capable and valuable.
2. Build a culture that respects, values and holds each employee personally accountable and responsible for his/her contribution.
3. Include employees in discussions, challenges and opportunities; let them own their input, solutions and results.
4. Be available and approachable; earn employees’ respect.
5. Build fun into the workplace. We all work better when we get to have some fun.

Build a culture that helps employees think and act like owners and you will find they will impress you with their ability to make a difference, whether you are at work or away.

I know you think many employees will always be down about or disinterested in work. But consider this. What if your employees actually loved what they did for work? Wouldn’t their energy, creativity and performance be better?

Most companies are stuck in an outdated perspective that work is a necessary evil; it is only something you do to make money. But the great performers, those that Seth Godin speaks about in his book Linchpin, are those who know themselves well enough to identify roles that allow them to do what they are good at and passionate about. The result? They love work, find great personal value in it and consistently outperform others.

So managers, it is your responsibility to hire people who are a good “fit” – employees who meet today’s new definition of performance:
o They are good at doing what the job requires (it matches their brain hardwiring – their talents and intrinsic strengths), and
o They like doing it (it appeals to them).

Any job can be better completed by someone who likes what he does. A customer service employee who loves to work with people connects so much better with customers than someone who is not interested in connection or relationships. An accounting employee who loves details, reporting and analysis (and yes, there are these people out there) is so much more effective, productive and efficient than someone who would prefer to be around people all day. Fit matters.

Maybe there are some people who will always hate work. Well, let those people work for other companies. For your team, find people who are good at what the job requires and like doing it. Think “fit.” Then you’ll have employees who actually say, “I can’t wait to get to work.”

We can complain about how difficult things are, or we can realize that complaining just reinforces negative feelings. Nothing good is accomplished that way – at work or at home. So imagine if work were a place where employees were fired up! – excited, passionate and interested in what they do. Imagine the change in performance and how energy created in the workplace could then work its way back home.

So if you never felt it was your responsibility to fire up! your employees, it is now. Your employees are still in front of your customers, creating your brand, making an impression and impacting your performance. Energized employees consistently out-perform all others. Energized employees bring their energy home.

Consider the following ways to fire up! your employees:
1. Catch your employees doing something great, and thank them. Don’t focus on the negative; focus on the positive.
2. Add one thing (your employees love to do) to their jobs; employees who are emotionally connected to their work perform better and are happier in the job.
3. Have one “Fired Up!” event each week. It may be coffee and donuts, a copy of a DVD the team can borrow each night, a daily power saying, a daily joke, a personal story from a team member, etc. Give this responsibility to one of the team who would find the role engaging and fun.
4. Share more information and solicit more feedback. Employees are more engaged when they feel included, trusted and respected.

How we feel at work affects home; how we feel at home affects work. For many, home lives are challenging. Make their work life engaging, high energy – fired up! Not only can this improve their work performance but it will likely flow over into their home life. Maybe this is the change they need – and it could all start with you.

I am not talking about overworking employees; if you overwhelm them, they may stay for now but will leave as soon as things get better.

I am talking about having the right people in the right jobs – because when your employees are good at what they do and love doing it, performance soars.

The challenge for many organizations is the wrong people have been in the wrong jobs for a while. Today’s recession has created the need to make important changes throughout the organization to align talent to the right roles to better use the performance power of each employee. Each employee is now more critical; each must contribute his best. This can’t happen if they are in the wrong roles.

To start a meaningful realignment process, ask your employees these questions:
1. What are you great at?
2. What do you love to do?
3. What is your least favorite aspect of your job?
4. What is your favorite aspect of your job?
5. What do you wish you could do more of?

This gives you critical information about employee attributes and interests. Use this information to assess for employee “fit.” Realign as needed. Hire the right people from the outside from today’s extreme choice of unemployed talent if the talent you need does not currently exist. Create your A-Team – this team will need to get more done with less.

Here’s what I mean. When we were an industrial (make things) economy, workplaces were very impersonal. Your personality, interests, emotions and attitudes were kept out of the workplace; you had your procedures to do over and over – and that was work.

Today, our workplace is an intellectual and service workplace (much of manufacturing has moved offshore). Business happens in the relationships and connections our employees make with customers; employees are face-to-face and phone-to-phone with customers. Relationships, feelings, emotions and connection matter – in fact, these are today’s profit drivers. The humanity of your employees is what attracts and retains customers.

Consider the following ways to make your workplace more personal:
1. Spend time with each employee to learn his/her talents, values and interests. This will allow you to customize jobs around particular interests and strengths.
2. Ask employees not only what they think, but what they feel about events. Much of business is conducted on feelings; workplaces that encourage employees to be emotionally connected to their work encourage stronger customer relationships.
3. Appreciate each employee’s diversity. Think of your employees as M&M’s – you hire them for their thinking (the filling) but you celebrate and appreciate their diversity and culture (the candy coating). See my article “A Sweet Diversity Lesson.” Openly appreciating and celebrating employees’ diversity personalizes the workplace – they feel included.

Remember, how you treat your employees is how your employees treat your customers. Make it personal with your employees and they will make it personal for your customers.

To catch up and personally connect your employees, see the tools, resources and articles on www.LiveFiredUp.com, click “For Managers.”

Consider this: Not everybody is great at everything. No kidding, right? But this is important because it explains how to help you identify what your employees’ hooks or “performance activators” are.

The brief explanation, also supported by the new book Drive by Daniel Pink, is our hooks are based on what makes us feel capable and competent in what we do, and like doing it; we must be good at what we do and passionate about doing it. When this happens, we perform. When this does not happen, we are just not that interested in our work.

Picture this: a salesman in an accountant’s role. Death wish. There isn’t any hook – the role does not play to what a salesmen is fundamentally good at and passionate about doing – that is connecting with others, winning others over and making the sale. Okay, reverse the roles – an accountant now in a salesman’s role. Again, no hook – the sales role does not play to the accountant’s love of details, focus on control, order and analysis (more about details than people).

No competence, comfort or passion and performance suffers. When you are good at what you do and love doing it you perform better.

To find your employees’ hooks:
1. Identify what the employee is consistently good at (talents).
2. Identify what the employee’s passions and interests are.

Start a regular conversation with your employees to get to know them. When you know their talents, values and interests you will find their hooks. Then you can realign them to roles that activate their best performance. Your people are your profits.

For more information click on “For Managers” on www.LifeFiredUp.com.

You have just been confronted with an opportunity. Most organizations will complain and lament the loss, feeling betrayed. Some actually usher the employee out on the spot. But great organizations applaud the employee for his good fortune and use the event to develop ways to be better – they hunt for opportunities.

So back to our situation: here is one potential action to take and the opportunities that could result. The point is to develop a positive outlook and a commitment to finding opportunities for success in each event – whether the event initially appears to be favorable or unfavorable.

Action:
o Review the organization for a suitable replacement, focusing on fit and value creation.
Expanded value opportunities:
o Have remaining employees suggest ways to handle departing employee’s work without replacing the employee.
o Use the occasion to develop a talent and skill summary for each role, to improve the ability to hire the right employee based on performance and fit.
o Have remaining employees review their networks to identify viable candidates who exhibit the required talents and skills.
o Use the occasion to develop a hiring section of the company website, and give current employees the requirement to make it effective.
o Reassess all employees to determine best fit. Use the employee’s departure as a time to realign employees to better roles.

A departure of a good employee creates many opportunities. So do many of the things that happen in your business day. Get good at looking for ways to add greater value – at becoming opportunity hunters. To learn see my Hunt for Opportunities link; it includes articles, the new Hunt for Opportunities Success Manual, the opportunity card and idea center. Today, you need every employee to constantly hunt for, find and implement opportunities.

But most of us don’t play to our unique talents, passions and strengths. Instead we work hard to look and act like others; we blend.

Be aware in an economy where companies need more done with less, managers are not looking for employees who blend – who do average; they want employees who stand out. Stand out employees find ways to create great value for their company by using what they are great at. Stand out employees actively participate – they get noticed for their effort, energy and performance.

To develop your “Stand Out,” try this exercise:

1. List the things you are great at. Don’t be humble; be honest. What are your talents and strengths – these are your greatest ways to stand out.
2. Next, list what you are passionate about. What gets you excited, fired up and engaged? Passion gives you the courage and energy to stand out.
3. Now, look at your company. What can you do that plays to what you are good at, passionate about, and adds value to your company? Share these ideas with your managers.

As author Tom Peters says, “you can’t shrink your way to greatness.” If you blend today, you lose – you are the first one downsized or laid off. So learning how to stand out may be the best way to keep a job.

How will you “stand out” at work and what can it do for your career?

At the core of the “Starbucks experience” is a good cup of coffee. To make it great, you can add an extra shot, a sweetener, milk, cream, soy, caramel, chocolate, spice, whipped cream or a host of other things. Good coffee is still at the core – the other things move the experience to great by customizing and personalizing. We want things our way; we want things that match our tastes and preferences.

Now to the workplace. At the core is a good employee well suited to his or her job. But to help move the good employee to a great employee, you must customize and personalize the job.

Here’s why. What activates our best (good to great) performance is the emotional connection we have to what we do; when our passions are activated, we perform better (see research presented in Human Sigma by Dr. John Fleming). And each of us have a unique combination of things that fire us up – that activate our passions.

Great management in today’s intellectual workplace must first hire the core (great) employee (the great cup of coffee). Then, to make the experience exceptional (because this activates performance), the manager must know the employee well enough to know how to customize and personalize the job around the employee’s talents, values, interests and passions. This is what inspires the best performance.

Some examples:
o A salesman who loves to teach could create new product education for employees and customers.
o A customer service employee who is great at connecting to others may be interested in creating employee spirit events for the company.
o A company employee may be very socially aware and want to engage the team or department in Habitat for Humanity, work in a soup kitchen or in an animal shelter.

Start with good employees and move them to great by customizing and personalizing their jobs. Activate their passion for performance.

So who is on your team, and what do performance do you require?

Today’s workplace success is based on upbeat, engaged and fired up employees, constantly thinking and hunting for opportunities to help their company perform. Your people are your profits – and what kind of people you have determines you level of profits.

So in today’s workplace, you will find:

The “yes-butters” – these are the employees who constantly focus on what won’t work, what won’t happen or what won’t improve. They always have an excuse. It is always someone else’s fault. They focus on the negative. Why are these on your team?

The “not-knowers” – these are the employees who have no ideas. These employees are here physically, mostly just taking up space. Thinking and personal investment in their work is non-existent. Why are these on your team?

The “why-notters” – these are the employees who question; they are optimistic, open and resilient. They focus on “can do,” “how about” and “let’s try.” Why don’t you have more of these on your team?

What do you do to inspire a team of “why-notters”? How do you help your employees be optimistic? For help, click on our Hunt for Opportunities and the ways to help employees learn to be upbeat and looking for opportunities in any economy.

Some employees make things happen. They are engaged, passionate and connected to their work and workplace. They come to work excited to make a difference and are competent and confident in their jobs.

Some employees watch things happen. They are sideline employees who do just enough and little more. They are uninspired and bored. Their performance is average. Their customers are unimpressed.

What creates one type of employee or the other? Management.

Today’s management is responsible to hire employees who are a good fit for their roles. Employees who do not have the talents and passions to do the job, are quickly bored, uninspired and disinterested. They become watchers.

But hire an employee whose talents and passions match those needed in the job and they are activated, interested and fired up! They love what they do. They make things happen. They make a difference. They make an impact.

Right person, right job = maker. Wrong person, wrong job = watcher. “Fit” matters.

Take Action: Learn how to assess talents and which drive performance in each role. Focus on employee “fit.” Great people become poor employees when they work in the wrong jobs. At a time when we have to do more with less, we need makers not watchers.

What do your employees say about you? Are you on the naughty or nice list? And you can believe that if your employees think it, they say it – they text, Tweet, post and e-mail. The world now knows what it is like to work for you. It is now one of your best (or worst) marketing tools.

When an organization builds an employee-focused workplace brand (and to be customer-focused you must first be employee-focused), it creates a workplace that attracts and retains the best employees. Employees who feel cared for, treated fairly, are challenged, developed and appreciated, out-perform others. Once hired these employees stay. And when job seekers know you trust, value and appreciate your employees, they apply – this gives you the choice needed to be able to hire the right employee. The opposite is true for those without a powerful workplace brand.

So how “employee-focused” is your workplace?

Chapter 1 in my book, Fire Up! Your Employees and Smoke Your Competition introduces the 10 components of an employee-focused workplace. I offer this chapter as one of my free chapter downloads so click here to see my list and then assess how well you respond.

Employees talk. Help them become your best marketing by treating them with care, value and dignity, ideally the same way you treat people at home. People are your greatest assets – at work and at home.

We are almost through all seven steps…today I introduce Step 5.

Find the right job Step 5:
What careers, roles or jobs need what you are great at, passionate about and meet your definition of success? These are opportunities that play to your strengths and activate your passions. These opportunities will allow you to be the most connected and most engaged. This will encourage your greatest energy, performance and impact. You now know yourself well enough to know what are the right jobs for you – the jobs that “fit.” So go ahead and create a list of your “Right” jobs, roles or careers. Consider everything that meets your criteria. You may find that the best job for you does not yet exist and if created would add great value to an organization. Don’t be afraid to invent your ideal job. Be true to yourself – put yourself in a job that will show off what you are great at, and activate your passions.

Two final steps and we’re done. I introduce Step 6 tomorrow. Don’t miss it. And share these with your friends and families who are job hunting…learn a better way of looking for the right job – one that will give you a job you love (and will excel in). For more information see “Stand Out and Get Hired” . Know yourself, what you are great at and what you are passionate about. Then find a job that allows you to use these. That is the “right” job for you.

Remember that in today’s workplace, how you respond to your employees (your emotional intelligence) is critical to your success. So, to deal with the employee who seems to have trouble getting fired up, first look at yourself and be more self aware and socially aware (try the little softer side of management). Consider the following:
1. Sit down for an honest and open one-on-one conversation. Ask about how they “feel” about work (not what they “think” about it).
2. Sense their emotions and see if you can uncover any area of discontentment. Deal with it up front, with empathy and attention.
3. Invite the employee to create a response to improve things. Establish another meeting to review the plan. Set dates and action items. Assess changes to employee attitudes. Be open to changes in your behavior as they may be what is impacting the employee’s response.

In most cases, employees who are not fired up are working in the wrong jobs (they don’t feel capable or confident), they don’t love what the do (there is no passion) or they feel disconnected from the manager and workplace. Address each and employees quickly become excited, passionate and engaged. To solve this you have to get real, get human and get connected.

Join the blog each day to see my approach to solving this issue and check the earlier two weeks in May to see the other problems and solutions. Get good at assessing what stops your employees’ performance – and how to Fire them up!
Be sure to download chapters from Fire Up! Your Employees and Smoke Your Competition. Check out its tools and perspectives. It is a resource all millennial (intellectual-age) managers need. You will find the right way to activate great performance from each of your employees.

In many areas of the country there is a supply of employed talent. Many organizations now have a greater choice to fill openings or realign. But wait – you first need to know what you need. Learn how to create a Talent Matrix – a one page profile of the talents, skills and experience you need (presented in Fire Up! Your Employees). This means you need to know how to assess applicants for talents and how to define the talents needed in each job. Define it up front and the interview process is easy – you know specifically what you need and you can easily match your needs to the attributes you find in your applicants. Hiring made simple.

Review the free chapter downloads and order your copy of this new hands-on, step-by-step guide to attract, hire and retain the right employees. Fire Up Your Employees and Smoke Your Competition – get your copy today.

The  first reaction most (industrial-age) organizations have when things get tough is to cut expenses. But we are not in the industrial age any more…manufacturing has moved off shore. Today’s workplace in an intellectual workplace; that means the greatest expenses we have are employee related. So when times get tough, most companies cut their people – their human capital – the intellectual capital. They dump great talent into the market place. Bad for them; good for you. Now is the time for you to redefine your needs, realign employees to roles that better use their talents and then look to the choice in the market place for any missing talents. We all have to do more with less – that means we need each employee to perform better. Use this site and the Fire Up! book to learn how to define your talent needs by role, how to realign and then how to source the right new talent. In today’s economy, “one-size-fits-all” jobs don’t exist. Have the right employee. Have the best team. Update now when you have a better choice.You will be ahead of everyone else when the recession ends.