by Beth | Apr 24, 2024 | Good Management
Several years ago, I was in Boulder with a client, interviewing for a Salesperson. This was a software technology company that had been in business for a while. A man came in for an interview with us, and he had some really unique experience to bring to the table. I was excited to interview him!
Before we got started, he asked me if I needed references, and I said that yes I did. He had a FedEx envelope with him that was sealed and it had a pull tab on it. Instead of pulling the tab, this candidate pulled out a knife, pushed a button and the blade popped out. He sliced the envelope open, put the knife on the table, pulled out the reference sheet, and handed it to me. He picked up the knife, pushed the button again, the blade disappeared, and he put the knife back into his pocket.
You could have heard a pin drop.
The man starts describing the references on his sheet. No one moved. I guided him through a few questions and then informed him that he would have answers by Friday. He seemingly was never aware of how his actions affected everyone in the room. He thanked me profusely, saying that you never hear from companies when you apply for a job. I walked him to the door, shook his hand and he left. I locked the door behind him. After that, I eventually quit doing first interviews in person. It just felt like too much of a risk.
I am writing this on Saturday April 20th. It is the 25th anniversary of Columbine and I am reminded of how vulnerable we really are in our daily lives. We think that it can never happen to us, but it can.
Please don’t let another day go by that you don’t review your security policies for safety in your office. None of us want to think about the unthinkable, and yet, thinking about the unthinkable can save lives.
POWER THOUGHT: Think through the unthinkable and put a safety policy in place.
by Beth | Dec 13, 2023 | Company Culture, Employee Retention, Good Management
I just received an offer from Chase Bank to open a new bank account with them, and they would fund said bank account with $600.00. What a deal! I open an account, and they give me $600.00? I am IN!
A bank account functions like this: You make a deposit, then you make a withdrawal that is LESS than the deposit. This is also what a healthy employee/employer relationship looks like. Think about it: You make an investment in your employee, and they make an investment in you and your company. The bank account is healthy. But what if an employee starts making withdrawals that are more than deposits? For example, they start taking more time off than allotted without a legitimate reason. Or they start missing deadlines. Or you have many clients complain about them. What then?
Most of my clients don’t want to have conflict with their employees, so they will ignore the overdraft fees for a long time. The fact is that an overdrawn bank account is a BIG red flag in relationships. If you feel drained after dealing with an employee, and you can’t get the balance in the account to be in the black, it is time to cut them loose.
In addition, if you aren’t training your people, if you aren’t conducting regular reviews, and if you aren’t honoring people that are doing a great job for you, then you are the one draining the bank account.
The bottom line is this: Both the employer and the employee have to make regular deposits into the joint account in order for the relationship to be healthy, and if that isn’t happening, a change in status MUST be made. You can take THAT to the bank!
POWER THOUGHT: In order to have a bankable relationship with your employees, you must both make regular deposits.
by Beth | Nov 15, 2023 | Good Management
When I bought my restaurant, the former owner signed a non-compete agreement for a 5-mile radius around the area. One day I was talking to some of my restaurant neighbors, and one of them casually mentioned that the former owner was opening a new restaurant down the street. I felt SICK. I immediately started to panic! I was crying hysterically, because I was so afraid that the new restaurant would steal from me…that we wouldn’t make money due to the competition.
So, I picked up the phone and I called my primary investor. I told him all about what was going on, and then I asked him for advice.
He said, “Let me ask you a question: Is everything perfect within the four walls of your restaurant?”
I said, “Well, no! Of course not! Why?”
“Until everything between the four walls of your restaurant is perfect, then under no circumstances do you pay attention to what is going on outside those four walls. What other people do is none of your business. Quit worrying about what others do. Just worry about yourself and your business.”
That piece of advice changed my life, and it changed my business. I started really organizing my people, my product, my policies. We had less problems, and we had more consistent staff, customers, and I felt more confident in my abilities. But in addition, I have taken that advice into my personal life: quit looking at what others are doing and focus on making everything within my four walls operate at the highest level.
On another note, the owner did open another restaurant, and it was out of business in six months. A testament to focusing within my four walls.
POWER THOUGHT: Once you put your walls up, focus solely on what happens between them BEFORE you focus on what happens on the other side.
by Beth | Sep 20, 2023 | Good Management
Fostering animals is so rewarding! This past month, I fostered dog number 51… a plott hound mix named Stella. We are fairly certain that Stella had never been in a house before. She was super skittish, hid in the corner, and flinched when I would pet her. It was heartbreaking.
Walking her was an adventure! I don’t think she knew what a leash was and that it was mostly for her protection. She tried to lean on my leg as we walked, she hid behind my leg, and once when we encountered another dog, she turned around and ran home with me flying behind her!
After a few days, she got the hang of it, and she walked out to the end of her leash. She began sniffing bushes, exploring her environment, and her tail even wagged! Her transformation was a beautiful thing to see.
Many of the CEO’s that I work with will say, “I need this person to just jump in immediately. I don’t have time to train them!” These CEO’s don’t want to invest in training new employees, because they consider it a waste of time. It is easy to understand why: 2/3 of all hires are found to be a mistake within the year, so why invest in employees who aren’t going to stay?
Here is the problem with that line of thinking: Even the best employees can’t be great if you don’t train them to walk out to the end of their leash. You must coach your people to know the boundaries of their role and push beyond those boundaries while simultaneously respecting those boundaries. It is a gray area that must be explored together.
Every dog must be trained to be a great dog. Every employee must be coached to be a great employee. There is no getting around it.
POWER THOUGHT: To prevent ruff experiences, train/coach/mentor your people.
by Beth | Oct 5, 2022 | Good Management
As many of you know, this past April I became a proud graduate of the Mikki Williams Speaker School. I flew to Naples, Florida and attended three days’ worth of speaker tutelage. In addition, I met some of the most amazing people in my speaker class. I returned to work the following week with a new lease of life and my work and with brand new connections with incredible new people.
Why am I discussing this with you?
Because professional development of your people is one of the most impactful ways to keep your employees happy and working for you. Read this article for the 15 benefits of professional development:
15 Reasons Why Professional Development Is Important?
All of my clients are worried about keeping their good employees, especially in the era of The Great Resignation and professional development is a great way to ensure loyalty to you. In addition, you have employees with new and improved skills, like public speaking. With well- rounded, highly skilled employees on your team, you can accomplish any goal you choose. What could be better than that?
POWER THOUGHT: If you want to keep your people, teach them something new, like how to speak in public. Win/Win
by Beth | Jun 29, 2022 | Good Management
When I owned my restaurant, we would have really busy times, and in those busy times, I would jump behind the counter and help my staff serve our customers. I was notorious for making margaritas by the bucket. I would go into the basement, get out the tequila, lime juice, triple sec, and apple juice (our secret ingredient) and literally create buckets of margaritas to serve with our amazing enchiladas and nachos.
While my staff was thrilled to have me help them get our customers served as quickly as possible, it was a short term fix to a much larger issue. When we would get hit with a rush of people, as the owner of the company, my time was NOT best served by helping out my staff in the moment… my time was best served by getting more staff on the floor in order to help the customers get their orders. In other words, I needed to focus on the bigger picture… why we were short staffed at all in that moment.
Three years into owning the restaurant, I quit making margaritas. I refused to step back behind the bar to help, but instead I would begin calling to get more people on the floor. When I hired a general manager, it became his job to make those calls, and my job was to make sure that we had enough staff trained and ready to go for the busy times.
I see this all the time with my clients. They spend their time doing the extra work when they should be spending time looking at the business as a whole. In other words, make your margaritas on Saturday, and focus on your whole business during the week.
¡Olé!
Power Thought: Observe the margarita makers.
