What’s So Difficult About Being Profitable?

Businesses are made up of people, and people have minds of their own. For some business owners, that’s a problem. What many business owners haven’t figured out yet is how to use that to the advantage of everyone. How can you design the business so everyone wins?

Someone called me yesterday asking for my help with his business. He said he is a General Contractor, and then he proceeded to tell me the recent history of 26 years in business. Mostly what he related were his frustrations and problems with his employees, who have ranged from 35 total, down to 9 presently. He relayed that he has tried everything to motivate them, and nothing has worked so far, including profit-sharing plans.

My response to this: I have found the best way to motivate employees is to invite them to take on the leadership, responsibility, and accountability you would like them to have. If you want them to act more like an owner, you have to give them the freedom and opportunity to do so. How you invite them makes all the difference in the world, as many employees’ behavior is conditioned and institutionalized to keep acting just like an employee.

Why most change attempts fail

Most of the attempts I have seen to motivate employees fail because the basic structure of the change is command and control. Either an owner or a manager, in one form or another, is merely telling employees what to do. At its best, employees do exactly what they’re told, and at its worst they do only what they’re told, they don’t think for themselves.

In order to inspire a new way of thinking and behavior, you need to rebuild your company from the ground up. Put in systems and practices that encourage your key people to think for themselves, manage their work from an outcome orientation rather than a task orientation, and put in key performance measures everywhere to help clarify exactly what you expect from them. If you're interested in learning more about how to do this with your company, give me a call!