How Do You Motivate Employees?

One of the most frequently asked questions is how to motivate employees?

How do you do it right? When you get frustrated with performance, how do you figure out which ways are best to guide and encourage your team to do what you want?

In the technologically agile world today there are countless examples of tools that are designed to make it look like you’re being productive and working, when you’re not working.

There is an extension for Netflix that opens up a window appearing to be a conference call. It allows employees to see multiple video bubbles, like you’re used to viewing on conferences, along with a tiny window in the corner which of course is playing the show or movie you want to watch. So when your boss or manager walks by your workstation, at a glance it appears like you are diligently contributing and attending a call.

March Madness is a time of year when we can all expect productivity to go down a little, as everyone is...

Stop Killing Your Employees’ Confidence

The following is adapted from The Problem Isn’t Their Paycheck.

As your team works every day, every week, and every month, they’re wondering, “Am I doing this right? Is this what I’m supposed to be doing?” At the end of the day, your employees want to know how they’re doing—especially the high achievers. 

Too often, as leaders, we leave our employees in the dark. Worse, we purposely create the impression that they are not performing as well as they should be. Following traditional advice, we set goals that are just outside of what is possible for them, to encourage them to strive for more. 

These tactics can kill your employees’ confidence, which will have a direct impact on their performance—and your bottom line. In this article, I’ll share my own story of making this mistake with my employee Mike and explain how you can avoid doing the same.

How I Destroyed an...

How To Hire Your First Employee

How exciting! It is a fantastic place to be in when your business is growing so much that you have an absolute need to hire more staff. After your first steps of Googling hiring best practices you’re faced with a choice of what type of person to hire and for which role.

What is the role you hire for first? Sales people, administration, or some kind of other support role? Before you can decide of who you hire first, you need to do one thing.

Staff Your Weaknesses

This is something Donald Miller says all the time, and I am one-hundred percent in agreement. Before you can even think of hiring your first employee you need to make sure that you are evaluating your own weaknesses.

In order to do this, you must know yourself. Become aware of what you’re good at, what you’re bad at, what you enjoy doing, and what areas of your business that you really tend to put off. Maybe they’re areas where you have some increased friction, or where...

6 Questions to Evaluate Your Company’s Purpose 

The following is adapted from The Problem Isn’t Their Paycheck.

According to a LinkedIn Workplace Culture report, 71 percent of professionals would be willing to take a pay cut in order to work for a company with a mission they believe in or with shared values. Millennials in particular, who now make up the largest portion of the workforce, are highly driven by purpose.

Even more than money, people want to do work that matters—and you can give that to them.

A purpose is created when you can tie the service you provide or the product that you sell—as well as all the other tasks, activities, and things you do as part of your business—to a positive impact that’s made on people. 

To help you evaluate whether you’ve created an effective company purpose, I have created a simple purpose checklist. Answer these questions to determine whether you’ve created a purpose that will...

Leaders Hold Back Organizations

Inspired by something frequently said by Dave Ramsey, the provocative thought of what actually can hold back growth and opportunity within a business is something I agree with.

The quote I’m referencing is “organizations are never held back by opportunities or their team, organizations are only held back by their leader”. While I have to admit Ramsey can lack some humility, at times to the detriment of his reception, there’s no arguing that he has a track record of being an exceptional marketer and successful business owner.

Limited Leaders Can’t Grow

Why I agree with what he had to say is because I believe that as an owner you’re the one who is ultimately responsible for your team and their opportunities. Since within an organization a leader is both the last line of defense and the first line of offense in maintaining a positive trend of growth, there’s one business development strategy that you need to...

How To Increase Employee Performance

When talking about boosting employee performance, the solutions are never rocket science; while simple, they’re never that easy to follow through with. Today I want to introduce one thing you can do to help make sure you’re increasing employee performance that most people aren’t doing.

Tell Them How To Win

Speaker Dr. Henry Cloud is a psychologist that travels around the country, who basically helps organizations get stronger. When addressing leaders he often makes them look in the mirror, challenging them, to make sure that they’re actually growing. One of the questions he asks is “Does your team know how they are going to win?”.

This idea is different to one we wrote about a few weeks ago, which was about ensuring your team know what a win looks like and where they are going. Instead we’re going to help you establish steps and tactics to get your team on track to learning that how.

As managers or...

Increase Employee Performance and Simplify Your Life with a Unified Company Purpose

The following is adapted from The Problem Isn’t Their Paycheck.

In a Psychology Today article titled “The Power of Purpose,” Steve Taylor writes: “The need for purpose is one of the defining characteristics of human beings. Human beings crave purpose, and we suffer serious difficulties when we do not have it.”

As individuals, we need purpose. By creating a purpose for your company, not only do you give your employees a way to find meaning in their work, but you also unify them as a team. 

In The Performance Factor, Pat McMillan, who is a big leader of teams doing amazing things such as climbing Mount Everest, says that a clear and compelling purpose is, in fact, “the single biggest factor in team success.”

In this article, I’ll outline how a unified purpose increases employee performance, which ultimately simplifies your life as a business...

What Is The Best Recruitment Strategy?

One of the best recruitment strategies is actually something that can be fun, and also create a positive impact on your existing team and company culture. As business owners and operators we all want high performing employees, and part of that is being capable of recruiting awesome people that want to be a part of what you have going on— finding people that want to be a part of your team and your business.

We have discussed other methods of recruitment before, but today I want to highlight a specific method that I’ve practiced myself that really yielded positive results. This concept is built upon a psychological phenomenon that has been recently come to light, and is something that most businesses aren’t doing.

FOMO. The Fear of Missing Out.

Defined as anxiety that an exciting or interesting event or opportunity may currently be happening elsewhere, and it’s often aroused by posts seen on social media or a website. FOMO...

Passion vs. Purpose: Which One Does Your Company Need?

The following is adapted from The Problem Isn’t Their Paycheck.

“Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.”

This oft-repeated advice means that you should be passionate about your business, right? Not exactly.

When we hear the word love, we often think about passion, but it is possible to love something and not be passionate about it. My business, Stewardship, is a mortgage, insurance, and investment management company. I love my company, but trust me—I am not passionate about mortgages, insurance, or financial planning. I love my company not because I’m passionate about it, but because it fulfills my purpose: loving people through finances.

As I’ll explain in this article, purpose, not passion, is far more important to building a company. Passions may come and go, but purpose provides a lasting vision for your company that your team can rally around.

Passion:...

What Does Employee Conflict Resolution Look Like?

Sometimes in a company culture or any office environment, there’s conflict. So what does employee conflict resolution look like within a healthy company culture? How do you manage conflict resolution within a team of people?

According to a recently published Forbes article about this very topic, and they listed four ways to deal with employee conflict. You need to make sure you have the right timing, you know your boundaries, respect differences, and confront tensions.

While those little steps are helpful, they don’t really deal with the primary issues when it comes to conflict in the workplace— especially with employees.

Don’t Fear Conflict

Above all when it comes to the possibility of employee conflict, you can’t fear it. Too often as managers and owners we are scared to dive into conflict. And when there’s some pressure and grinding between team members we want to just step away and duck out.

...