We owners frustrate the hell out of our employees.
Sometimes we ask them to do the oddest things.
We dump stuff on them just because we don’t want to do it.
We haven’t gotten around to assigning someone to do it.
Or we don’t want to pay someone to do it.
That’s the miser in us, or the unplanned man in us, or the guy who just doesn’t know what he is doing.
But I gotta give it to my staff. They are patient with me, they really tolerate me and they truly care about me. In fact, they care about my purpose and my business, and what having it all means to me. And for that, I’m very grateful.
The truth is it wasn’t always like this. For many years, something was missing between my employees and me. We were talking to each other, but we weren’t connecting.
And quite frankly I was clueless. I didn’t know or care. And the employees could feel that. How did I know this? My human resources consultant who was working on another assignment happened to bring it to my attention
My gut told me that if I could connect with my employees on a deeper level, it would create magic.
And I was right.
That magic contributed to boosting my sales 2.5 times (2.5X).
But I had no idea how to do it until I started my daily ritual of meeting my staff by asking first a simple, “How are you?” (To learn more on my daily ritual click here)
Everybody gets a moment to share about the latest in their life. Then they move onto what their job’s going to look like for the day, how they’re going to go about it, what challenges they’re facing, if they’re stuck anywhere, and how/where can I help them.
This show of support and care ignited our connection. And the way my employees began to show their respect and gratitude was by doing their job much, much, much, much better.
So my sales skyrocketed. And I didn’t have to come up with some ultra-unique way of promotion or spend more money to boost revenues. I just had the same customers come back more often because they were so well taken care of.
It was when my employees felt cared for and supported, that they, in turn, took care of my customers.
And more than that, it brought more joy to my work. Today I consider this connection between us a gift. I’m honored and grateful for the people who work for me. And as time went on we created and implemented more ways to foster connections within the team. We were all finally working together as one team for the same goal and purpose. And as an owner, this made me feel comforted and taken care of. I wasn’t alone and it felt like the responsibility of this business wasn’t just mine. That felt so good.
And so these systems helped me align us to what mattered the most—giving our customers the best damn experience, getting them to come back again and again, and making lots of money.
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