Planning is not about always getting it right

Two of the most important actions leaders take in a business are hiring and terminating employees. The talent a leader brings into their organization is either the lifeblood or the poison. This critically important aspect of growing a business becomes even more challenging when the talent pool in the marketplace is tight. Leaders at the hiring level may tend to adjust the standards they use to evaluate and hire talent in such a market. This isn’t done with any intent to shift performance expectations, but without checks, it can lead to investing more time in managing employees rather than helping them develop and contribute.

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Hire talent to contribute, not to manage

Two of the most important actions leaders take in a business are hiring and terminating employees. The talent a leader brings into their organization is either the lifeblood or the poison. This critically important aspect of growing a business becomes even more challenging when the talent pool in the marketplace is tight. Leaders at the hiring level may tend to adjust the standards they use to evaluate and hire talent in such a market. This isn’t done with any intent to shift performance expectations, but without checks, it can lead to investing more time in managing employees rather than helping them develop and contribute.

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Holding people accountable is not toxic

Contrary to popular social perception, holding others accountable and being accountable is not toxic. Granted, some individuals prefer a fly-by-the-seat-of-their-pants approach and do not see rules, laws, and standards as guidance systems to operate within.   As we live in a representative republic in the United States and many liberties and freedoms abound, this area of responsibility and accountability has tended, especially in the past few years, to be highly subject to individual interpretation. These personal interpretations may play out in society, but within the realm of your business, the overarching framework of purpose, vision, mission, core values, principles, and standards is not subject to individual interpretation.

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Are you selling to solve client challenges or just taking orders?

In doing a quick internet search for information on best practices in selling or sales, the number of options was overwhelming. There are so many books, audio, videos, training, etc., that you might think everything and anything about this topic has been written and rewritten hundreds of times.  In fact, you are mostly correct.  The information on many of these access points is a rework of some approach with a particular author’s spin on the topic. In this week’s insights, we will do a bit of the same.

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