48 / 52
Remember the “early days” of
your business? Everyone on
your team wore different hats
because you couldn’t afford to
hire specialists. They worked
hard, put their hearts and
souls into making the business
succeed, and thought of it as
“their” company. If this isn’t still
happening at your business,
read on.
When you started your business,
everyone was so passionate.
Maybe years have passed and
your start-up team is still there,
now in higher-level positions. Your
employees work less hours, earn
more, and have better benefits
and more vacation time. But
things don’t quite feel the same.
You’ve held staff meetings,
begged your leaders to help you
get things back to the way they
used to be, and had company
parties—nothing has worked.
Everyone, maybe even you, has
settled into mediocrity.
You have a gut feeling, though—
you know the culture isn’t what
it should be and you “wish”
things were different. Jack Welch
(former Chairman of GE) said,
“You pay a person for his or her
hands, but they’ll give you their
brains and their hearts for free.
All you have to do is ask!”
When is the last time you ASKED
youremployees for theiropinions?
Do you know how they feel about
the current corporate culture?
What they love or hate about
their work? What they would
change about your company, if
they could? What their goals are?
Does anyone know what YOUR
company goals are?
You can use a “
Team Member
Questionnaire
” to get every
employee’s “brain in the
game”. Here are 3 steps to
help you do this.
1
st
—
Create your own
questionnaire
. It doesn’t need
to be scientific—just think of all
the questions you have about
your team’s perceptions. What
would you like to know from
your team? Write down all the
questions you have for them,
and then put them in a Word
document.
2
nd
—
Make sure your team
knows what you intend to do
with the feedback
,
that you
really do want their “honest”
opinions, and that you won’t
try to figure out who wrote
the evaluations.
They should
not feel threatened in any way.
Get Every Brain
inthe Game
By Cindy Allen Stuckey
SOAR TO SUCCESS
/
A
pril
2016
/
Business Acceleration Strategies