16 things keeping SME owners awake - 2. I’m worried about the team.

Although your people are quite rightly referred to as your greatest asset, they also regularly show up in a different column called your biggest headache. Do you know why? Because unlike raw materials and computer systems, you can never be quite sure what they’re going to do next.

Rather than fretting about that, try some of these ideas –

In almost any situation between people, keeping clean and clear lines of communication open is your most important task, especially if there are real things to be concerned about.

Make sure you are giving regular updates about what is going on in the business. Your job is not to freak them out with the worries you carry, but to give them brief, factual snippets that are sufficient that they don’t feel the need to make up their own stories about what is happening.

When things are tough, it is common for business owners to assume they have to take on the mantle of all things, but in fact, setting clear expectations around what your team can do provides them with purpose and a sense of having a stake in the outcome.

Nothing beats training and development as a way of getting and keeping people’s engagement and attention. It doesn’t have to be expensive. It just has to be relevant. In fact, sometimes the best of all is when you use your own skills and expertise to upskill others. It costs nothing and it makes you human and showcases that you are someone that matters.

Acknowledgement is something that some people do none of, others do too little of and some do way too much of. At the tiny end, people feel small and unrecognized. At the other it feels like participation medals for all. You want to find the things that are truly important, make them clear to the team and make a real fuss when they get acted on. Feeling special is something that never gets old, especially when it is genuine.

Being at work all the time, starting early and finishing late is part of a phenomenon called “presentism” and is toxic and destructive. You may be the worst offender, but encourage your team to find the balance where their home life supports their work life and vice versa. The more kindly your people’s family view you and the business, the better results you will get.

Unless it is absolutely not going to work for your business, offer some flexibility around working hours. It’s a whole new world now and being in the office isn’t as critical as it once was. Having said that, it needs to be managed. Having a crew together and united is great, but if it comes at the cost of someone’s baby needing to be farmed out so Bill can be at the office is not going to give optimal results.

In any workplace there will be conflict. You’d certainly hope so, because if there wasn’t you’d be looking at a pretty disempowered team. The trick is how you manage it. Set up recognized processes for resolving issues. Often, creating something of a ritual that has elements of theatre and fun are excellent. Solving serious things is way easier if everyone knows how the process works, everyone gets to be heard and there is room for new understanding to emerge.

Find excuses to involve people in decision making. Stony silence followed by edicts coming down from the corner office as if they were tablets from God is over (or should be). Recognise that contained in your team is knowledge and perspectives that you don’t have, so if you truly want to make a difference, give people the opportunity to contribute.

I know. You hear the term “wellbeing” and your eyes might start to roll. Why can’t everyone just get on with it? Well, the answer is that humanity has moved on. If you employ people who are Millennials or younger, they don’t think that way. They absolutely think of “wellbeing” as being every bit as legitimate as the right to public holidays. You can fight it, you can rubbish it but in the end, if you show a genuine concern for the intangible things that affect the lives of your people, you are doing yourself a huge favour.

If you’re a parent and you’re asked – “who’s your favourite child?” you will (or you absolutely should) say, I love them all equally. Well, in the workplace the same rules apply and you should really take a good hard look at yourself and your reactions to the team. If you do have a favourites, stop treating them differently. It hurts them, it hurts you, it hurts the others and it sure hurts the functionality of the business.

One of the biggest causes of people not staying with an employer is that they see no career path. No future to keep them engaged as they grow professionally. Look at it like this. You spend who knows how much money and time training up a competent senior operator that someone else will get the value from. Stop nickel and diming people and if they deserve a promotion and a big salary increase, do it. I promise you, finding a replacement for them will cost you exponentially more than keeping the one you had.

Team meetings. Waste of time or critical element. The truth is, that depends how you treat them. If you schedule short, sharp “toolbox meetings” that have a tight agenda covering off health & safety, successes, failures, opportunities and challenges and you make it a participation game, they are absolute gold.

When someone comes to you with a concern, regardless of what it is, take the time to listen and engage. It doesn’t matter whether it is a work-related thing or not. What is happening here is that you are in the privileged position to be someone’s confidante and you will either demonstrate humanity or confirm that you’re an arse who doesn’t care.

There is nothing a leader can do that is more potent than leading by example. People can see straight through anyone who declares to believe strongly in thing A and then sneaks off and does thing B. Be like Mandela – be the change you want to see.

Finally in this section and this shouldn’t even need saying, but be legally compliant. Despite the bitching and moaning about employment law in New Zealand and its complexity and bias towards the employee, I say bollocks. Much of it is rooted in a basic maxim – don’t be awful and sticking to the requirements of employment law don’t require anything more than being a fair, reasonable and decent human being.

If at any stage you would like to reach out and talk in more detail about any or all these issues, or even ones that aren’t mentioned, please call me on +64 275 665 682, email me at john.luxton@regenerationhq.co.nz or book a time to talk, either face to face or by Zoom. Any call will be free, confidential and with no obligation to do anything else.