Thursday, September 6, 2007
Copyright 2006 The Janitorial Store
Whether your cleaning business has 2 employees or 20, it is important that your staff works together as a team. Working together as a team helps to create a more positive workforce, is valuable for sharing ideas and energy for problem solving, and provides more bodies to share the work and responsibilities. Even though your employees may have specific jobs and responsibilities, they realize they are contributing to the overall success of the business by being a team player. Being part of a team helps your employees feel they are a part of the "big picture" and not just there for the paycheck.
In order to have a successful team, you need to start with an effective team leader. Your role as leader is to make sure the team has the means to get the job done. The means can be supplies, training, equipment or just general support so the team members can perform the tasks they need to. As team leader you need to:
Help each team member reach his or her potential Develop each team member's talents through proper training Have trust that each team member will do their best Feel comfortable delegating assignments and trusting in the decisions made by the team members Break down any barriers that exist between individuals becoming effective team members Effectively communicate with the team members
How do you hire employees that will make good team members? When hiring employees look for character traits that suggest the individual has good interpersonal skills. Individuals should be willing to fulfill their team responsibilities and not get hung up on individual contributions to the team effort.
How do you build your team? A team is a group of people who are working together as a group. Use team-building techniques to improve how the group of employees work together. To build your team you need to:
* Set goals and priorities
* Create a task list and decide the best way to assign those tasks
* Examine how the team should work together to carry out assigned tasks
* Look at the relationships between the people who are on the team
Holding team building workshops or training exercises can promote better cooperation among employees, increase communication skills, and help to remove conflicts.
The team leader plays an important role in keeping the team motivated and on track. Coaching is an important part of the team leader's role. Your employees will contribute more to the overall team effort if you coach them to make the best use of their strengths. Use the following principles when coaching employees:
* It is important to know the skills and strengths of each employee on the team.
* Employees should be coached, not told what to do. Coaching helps them to develop their abilities and helps them to understand how to analyze and solve problems.
* Provide specific feedback, be supportive and encouraging.
* When coaching, ask questions that encourage employees to find the answers such as, "What problem are you trying to solve?"
* Let the individuals on the team know that you have high expectations.
How do you motivate your team? Once you have your employees working together it is important to motivate your team to achieve team goals and not individual goals. As teams learn each individual's skills and weaknesses they will discover ways to do tasks faster, which leads to cost savings. These savings can then be passed along to team members in the forms of rewards or bonuses.
Give rewards such as pay raises, bonuses, and recognition, to individuals that engage fully as team members. Examples of effective team behaviors include: training others on the team, sharing information, working to resolve problems and issues as they arise, and mastering new skills to help the teamwork more efficiently.
Once you have your team in place your employees will share a sense of camaraderie. Being part of a successful team is a satisfying experience and helps all the individuals on the team feel like they are an important part of your business. Grow your business and your profits by making sure that all of your employees feel like they are a part of your "team".
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Steve Hanson is co-founding member of TheJanitorialStore.com, an online community for owners and managers of cleaning companies who want to build a more profitable and successful cleaning business. Sign up for Trash Talk: Tip of the Week at http://www.TheJanitorialStore.com and receive a Free Gift. Read cleaning success stories from owners of cleaning companies at http://www.cleaning-success.com/ .
Overcoming Defensiveness in Employee Performance Evaluation Discussions
There sits Sally on the other side of the desk during her performance evaluation. She's scowling. Her arms are folded tightly across her chest. Her lower lip is turned out in a way that communicates both rejection and contempt. She's flipped the performance evaluation she just read upside down on your desk as though it were some loathsome bug. She slowly shakes her head back and forth in a model of negativity. Looking you straight in the eye, she says, "Do you call this a performance evaluation?"
George is exactly the opposite. His employee performance evaluation, like the one you wrote about Sally, also told the truth about the fact that the quality of his work in the past twelve months wasn't all that you expected and that immediate improvement is required. But George isn't arguing; he isn't negative in the slightest. In fact, he's bafflingly positive about the negative review. He says that he agrees with everything you've said and tells you that you don't have to give him any details or examples. You're right, he says. He understands. He's so contrite and remorseful, you almost feel apologetic about having written such a negative — but honest — evaluation. He promises to turn over a new leaf immediately and asks if there's anything else you need as he gets up and starts walking out the door.
These are two entirely different responses to a negative employee performance evaluation. But both reactions can be described with the same word — defensive.
Defensive reactions come in two forms: fight or flight. Fight responses — what Sally displayed — show up as angry rejections of what the appraiser has said or written. The individual may deny the accuracy of the appraiser's information or blame others for problems and shortcomings. Non-verbal indicators of fight reactions are usually clear: the person may pound the desk or point his finger. She may raise her voice or fold her arms defiantly across her chest. He may glare and refuse to engage in a normal business-like conversation.
Flight reactions — what you saw in George — are entirely different. Here the individual's voice becomes quieter, not louder. He looks away, turns away. He speaks softly and agrees easily in order to change the subject. While the individual displaying a fight reaction may discount having any responsibility for the problems identified, the individual manifesting a flight reaction may take far more responsibility for a problem than the truth of the matter actually warrants.
Fight and flight reactions are hard-wired, genetically-based, normal human defense mechanisms for dealing with threatening situations. If your stone-age ancestor stumbled upon a testy mastodon, his alternatives were flight, fight, or get trampled. Defensive reactions served a survival purpose but they are out of place in the contemporary office. Here's how to deal with them.
Fight reactions during an employee performance evaluation are best handled by allowing the individual time to vent. Encouraging the full expression of opinion is actually a wise approach, since many of these storms will blow themselves out if they're allowed to.
Active listening is critical in dealing with fight reactions. Ask the individual for examples. Listen to what she has to say.
Here's a key point: In dealing with a fight reaction, your behavior should be the opposite of the individual's. As her emotional temperature gets hotter, yours should get cooler. As the employee starts to speak more rapidly, you should allow more pauses in what you say. If the individual's volume increases, you should lower your voice.
Flight reactions are more subtle. The individual seeks metaphorically to flee the threatening situation. The easiest way is simply to agree with whatever is being said, change the subject, and move on. The challenge to appraisers in an employee performance evaluation when flight reactions arise is to continue to focus on the performance deficiency until there is complete understanding.
Too often, though, the appraiser feels just as awkward and nervous about confronting George with the fact that his performance was less than acceptable as George is in getting the bad news. The result is that the appraiser doesn't drill down to the hard realities and allows the immediate defensive acceptance to bring the discussion to a premature end.
For example, as soon as he's presented with the truthful evaluation, George says, "Yes. You're right. I really did do a bad job this year. And I appreciate your bringing it to my attention. And you can count on me to do better in the future. I promise, I really will."
We tend to be so relieved about not having to go through an unpleasant confrontation that we may accept George's hastily offered, doubtfully sincere assurances and move on. But if we accept his statement as presented, it's unlikely that there will be any real understanding or genuine commitment to change. That's why during the employee performance evaluation the effective manager says something like, "Thanks, George. I'm glad we both look at it the same way. But let's actually go through analyzing what happened this year. If we do that, then you can make some plans that will really make a difference in the upcoming twelve months."
Fight and flight reactions aren't the most common reactions to employee performance evaluations. Since most people perform well, accept honest feedback, and possess a high degree of maturity, the likely response to a performance appraisal is understanding and acceptance — even to those parts that aren't totally flattering. If we realize that defensive reactions are part of the essential human condition, and have the patience to continue a business-like discussion of the performance evaluation in spite of any initial defensive reactions, we're likely to break through the defensiveness and end up with a productive conversation.
Dick Grote is one of America's most well-known speakers, authors, and consultants on employee performance evaluations. His company, GroteApproach, offers a web-based performance evaluation system. On the web at: http://www.groteapproach.com
IT Marketing Sales Copy That Delivers
IT marketing requires effective copywriting in order to get your prospects to the next step. In this article, you'll learn some tips on how to maximize the impact of your IT marketing materials.
Long sales copy is fine if you're writing a letter as long as it's a compelling read. In fact, you can go on for several pages. Also include endorsements and testimonials.
Never use jargon. Stay away from anything that even remotely resembles IT speak. Make sure it's got a strong business focus because, in almost all cases, with small businesses, that's who you're mailing to; a business owner or business manager.
Show that your business has a satisfaction guarantee.
Look for a way to personalize it as much as possible. If you have a common connection there, make sure that's very high up on the letter so they know that.
Don't Let Your IT Marketing Materials End Up in the Circular File
A big percentage of the population reads their mail right next to the garbage can. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that if your IT marketing piece doesn't catch their attention immediately, it's gone. You've completely lost that opportunity, and in the U.S., you're 39 cents poorer plus the printing costs and the list rental costs.
Giving people a way to respond by phone, fax, a website, or an email is very important. In fact, the best thing to do is to give them multiple mechanisms. That way, they can respond in whatever fashion they're most comfortable with.
IT Marketing Requires Urgency
Be sure to use a deadline and give your mailing campaign a sense of urgency. Otherwise even if they're interested, it's going to get filed in their computer file. Guess when they're going to look at it again? On the 12th of never.
You need to light a fire under them. You need to have some kind of call to action or special offer. Call before X date to book your free, no-obligation security checkup or whatever you're offering to get people to take action. You need to give them a reason to act on it immediately.
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About The Author:
Joshua Feinberg has helped thousands of computer consultants around the World get more steady, high-paying clients. Learn how you can too get more steady, high-paying clients. Sign-up now for Joshua's free Computer Consultants Secrets audio training.
