Creating profits by bringing out the best in your people

www.Sapientbizsolutions.com

The Keys To Leveraging Your Team• The key to leveraging your team is to first

work only with great and capable people.– Hire on character more than on skill.• Skill can be learned quickly, character takes years to

mold.

– Filter your employee or staff selection based on the type of customers your employees will serve.• What type of personality traits would best fit your

ideal customer?


Building a Business, Not a Job• Who you work with to build your business at

one level may not be those who help you build for the next level for your business.

• Some people are great for operating your business (job), but not at helping you build your business.

• Establish the criteria of the characteristics you need for your ideal employee or staff person based on what your business' needs to reach the next stage.

• Establish a selection & hiring process based on these characteristics.


The Business Builder’s Hiring RoadmapLevel 1 – You.Early Stage Level 2 – You & your admin

assistants.Middle Stage Level 2 – You, admin assistants,

leveragers/”doers” (Self-Employment Trap).Advanced Stage Level 2 – You, assistants &

leveragers, leaders in 2 – 4 of key pillars.Level Three – You, & your complete team

including full leadership team.


Working With Existing TeamsIf your team is not living up your needs then you have three choices:

1. Reassign or replace your current people for candidates with the character you are looking for.

2. Focus your time, effort, resources and money on developing your people.

• Though a noble effort, unfortunately character takes years and a lot of time, effort, resources and money to develop.

• Good solution if skill is the only issue.

3. Set up the right systems, processes, procedures, boundaries that make it impossible for them to fail (provide them with the greatest chance at success).– Set up simple and detailed checklists, procedures, or scripts to

achieve the desired result.– If they cannot fulfill the step by step process you have set up, then it

is a character issue and justifies replacement of the person.


Creating Productive PeopleHow do you influence your people to be

more productive?Overcome the challenges to productivity.Creating an environment for success.Leveraging your team for maximum

results.


Goal of Developing People• Goal – Help your people be successful.• Establish what success is for them and what

success is for you.– These two things must be in alignment.

1. First clarify if they really want to be successful.- You can only hold people accountable to what they

have agreed to.2. Together, design the plan for them to achieve it. 3. Hold them accountable to it.4. Evaluate their progress.5. Give them feedback.


The Challenges to ProductivityDefinitions:• Productivity - People are able to produce

a desired result.• Un-productivity - People are not able to

overcome the challenges to produce a desired result.– The are able to produce the result, that is

why you hired them • Yet for some reason they cannot overcome the

obstacles that prevent them from succeeding.


The Consequences of Un-productivity• What are the consequences from working with

unproductive people?– Mistakes, errors – loss of resources.– Work has to be redone – loss of valuable time.– Inactivity – loss of money– The business owner has to be involved - loss of

freedom, valuable time.– Possible lost customers – loss of revenue, and

profit.– Low morale – leads to more un-productivity.– Etc.


The Benefits of Productivity• What are the rewards for working with

productive people?– Multiplication of effort.– Reach more customers.– Quality work.– Greater reputation.– Greater value.– Freedom for the business owner.– Build a solid business to sell, scale or own

passively.– More profit!


The # 1 Source of Un-productivityWhat prevents people from producing a

desired result?They want to be productive, and you want

them to be productive – What’s stopping them?


Apathy• Apathy is the number one source of un-productivity.• What is apathy?– Apathy = a natural human instinct that consistently

encourages us to seek a comfort zone in which nothing ever changes.

– Apathy has little to do with indifference, yet much to do with comfortability.

• People do not change because it is more comfortable to remain stagnant.

• In order to get people to overcome apathy we need to make it more comfortable, simple and easy to change and uncomfortable for them not to change.


How To Overcome Apathy• What shakes people out of their apathy?

1. Choice – They have to make the choice.2. Vision – They have a vision of the rewards of

changing.3. Courage – They have the strength to

overcome the challenges of change.• What shakes people out of their apathy?

– Internal or external motivation.– If they had the internal they would not need the

external, but obviously they do. – It is up to us help our people overcome apathy and

be successful.


Why Should We Care?Remember the consequences.Remember the benefits.If you are able to consistently create

productive, reliable employees, what result will you get?

Q: What could you accomplish with a business full of highly productive people?


Motivating Your People To Be Productive How do you motivate your people to overcome

apathy?1.Believe in and encourage your people.

– Believe in your people:• Tell them. - Q: How can we tell them?• Show them. – Q: How can we show them?

– Encourage your people: • Give them what they need - (Specific Personality

needs/Appreciation needs).• Praise effort, celebrate accomplishment, remove obstacles out

of their way. Exercise – Encourage your people daily (meet their needs)

for a month and see what happens to your productivity.


Motivating Your People To Be Productive – Cont.2. Stop sucking the life out of your people.

Stop being part of the problem.They have enough problems to deal with – they

have to deal with ours also.Remember: There are no such things as

bad followers only bad leaders (Patton). If they are a bad employee, it is because the

leader did not have what it takes to either help develop the person, or help the person find another job that was a better fit.


The Top 10 Employee Demotivators1. Responding out of anger and frustration to employees.2. Not listening to employees when they come to you with ideas or

criticisms.3. Making decisions without considering or asking the employees how

they feel about it.4. Criticizing employees in front of other employees.5. Not providing consistent employee feedback on performance.6. Continually having to have things done immediately, for your

convenience, when they are truly not urgent.7. Not responding well to correction from employees.8. Creating an unsafe environment by praising the employee one day

and tearing them down the next.9. Allowing moods to control behavior, thereby creating an unsafe and

unpredictable environment.10.Demonstrating hypocritical behavior by going against current

business values established by you. If corrected or criticized later on, not admitting that the behavior was wrong.


The Other Top 20 Employee Demotivators• Criticizing one employee to another

employee.• Promoting employees who do not deserve it.• Paying equal salary amongst all employees in

different job positions, different job experience, different job tenure, or who demonstrate different job performance.

• Comparing employees to other employees.

• Yelling, screaming, cursing or throwing things in order to control employee behavior.

• Making positive or negative promises that you do not keep.

• Sharing the possibility of bad news without confirming it later.

• Meeting all employees needs in the same manner.

• Promoting or demoting employees out of nepotism or discrimination (i.e.: promoting family members while demoting others; men getting better positions than equally talented women, etc.), rather than on performance.

• Demonstrating or allowing any type of behavior that creates an uncomfortable work environment (sexual harassment or sexual innuendos at work, or anything else).

• Using threats to control employee behavior.• Continually making last minute decisions

or changes that interrupt employee plans.

• Putting the wrong people in the wrong positions (ducks in eagle positions, and eagles in positions reserved for ducks).

• Cutting employee salary or benefits while you or your family members continue to enjoy exorbitant wages, benefits and perks.

• Telling employees the different salaries of other employees.

• Communicating private or confidential information of employees to other employees.

• Not resolving situations that can potentially harm employees at work.

• Demonstrating unethical or immoral behavior or asking, suggesting or demanding for employees to behave in unethical or immoral ways.

• Going against employee values when they have been clearly communicated to you.

• Constantly making changes instead of intermittently schedule changes when employees expect them (i.e.: Quarterly reorganizations, etc.).


Motivating Your People To Be Productive – Cont.3. Attract them to “buy in” to your

organization.– Be open to their ideas.• “I am open to their ideas, but they won’t work.”• Always survey your people.

– Be open to their critiques.• Have them do an periodic evaluation on you.

– Empower them to make their own decisions.• “I allow them to make decisions, but they make the

wrong ones.”• “When I want your opinion, I will give it to you.”


Creating an Environment For SuccessWhat kind of environment do your

employees need in order to be more productive?SupportChart the course (or lay down the track).ResourcesGrowth and learning.


Charting the CourseTo chart the course means to lay down

an easy yet firm path for them to follow.Make it impossible for them to fail

Or make it really easy to do what is right.How? By establishing simple and detailed

Processes and Systems.


Processes and Systems• What are systems? A system is any repeatable

business process that allows your business to get a consistently great result.

• Systems save us time, effort, resources and money by creating repeatable and consistent, quality results by multiple people in our organization.

• Systems must be well designed in its process and in its format to be effective.– Process – It has got to work by getting the desired

result.• No system is better than a poor system.

– Format – It has got to be useable (simple and easy to do).• Otherwise they will not do it, or do something else.


7 Steps To Building Effective Business Systems1. Clearly define the outcome or desired result for the

system.2. Find the best example or best person in or outside your

business to model your business system on.3. Observe them producing the result and freeze them as they

progress to write down each step and the order in which they take them.

4. Repeat step 3 a few times to make sure you have all the steps and the exact order.

5. Teach the system to someone new and see if they can use the system to get the desired outcome.

6. Make the system easier to use by filling in gaps with checklists, instructions, worksheets, scripts, samples, etc.

7. Simplify the system and refine it over time.


4 Keys To Effective SystemsSimple – the least talented person in your

organization should be able to do it.Detailed – It must enough detail that the

person can figure it out for themselves.Short – a 57 point system will never be

followed, while a 10 step system would. Accessible – It must be located somewhere

anyone can find it at a moments notice.


Creating an Environment that Inspires Growth and Learning• In order for your people to grow, you have to create an environment for them to grow.

– Ex: Green thumb or brown thumb.• We need to provide the opportunity, encouragement, and example that will inspire the desire to

learn in our organizations.– How?

• The best growth environment is when the leader is growing and changing.– Character, skill, experience, etc.

• Constantly training your people in new things.• Sending your people to conferences, workshops, etc.• Giving them books or articles to read, videos to view, webinars to attend.• Invite people into your organization to do workshops.

– We provide online workshops on various business topics - customer service, sales, productivity etc.

• Create constant brainstorming discussions.• Ask many questions - get dialogue going.• Ask your employees for advice (ask your kids for advice).• Make it fun - A day of knowledge (get your staff to research something and teach it).

– Provide the resources for them to learn.• If you are too busy or too cheap to help your people to grow - don't expect them to grow.• But if we create the environment for them to grow - they will surprise us with how much

they grow.


Provide Them The Resources That They Need.What resources do our people need to be

successful?Ask them:

If you cannot afford it, get creative. Borrow, JV, trade, thrift shops, e-bay, reimburse, etc.

They need to see that you take their needs seriously. “No matter what it takes, I will get you what you need.”

Check in with them - If you forget, you will lose them. Let them find it, and you help them obtain it.


Leverage Your Team For Maximum ResultsHow can you use your team to multiply your

results?• The key is synergy – more people working together

means more multiplied results.• A team can balance each other’s weaknesses and

strengths so that the whole is stronger than its parts.• Have a talent search (American Idol).• We must know and tap into every employees passions

and strengths in order to get explosive results.Passion + Strength = Explosive results


18 Ways to Leveraging your Team For Maximum Results• Use only your best people to run your most

valuable functions (i.e.: marketing, etc.).• Develop a script to help team be successful at asking

for referrals.• Establish system for team to track all your

marketing.• Develop a sales script for your team to sell, up-

sell or cross-sell.• Utilize your best people to manage your customer

satisfaction efforts.• Utilize your best trainers (not best sales people)

to train the rest of the staff in sales. • Establish step by step procedure to sell, or do

estimates like you do.www.Sapientbizsolutions.com

18 Ways To Leverage Your Team For Maximum Results – Cont.• Use simple detailed checklists and templates to get your team

to do exactly what they are required to do. Have them sign off that the work was completed. Then review the checklists daily, weekly or monthly.

• Cross train your staff on different organizational functions. • Find out your employee's hidden talents and passions and

inspire them to use them at the office.• Use workshops, webinars, books, certifications to develop people.• Run a best practices meeting so that team can share best

practices with each other.• Establish team discussion groups.• Utilize team to collect essential financial or business data. • Get specialized interns to help with marketing, HR, Financial,

etc.• Have your team involved in preliminary hiring interviews.• Select individuals for teams to take on special projects.• Establish a team advisory board or mastermind group for

business issues.


ConclusionHow do you influence your people to be more productive?• Overcome the challenges to productivity.

– Overcome apathy with vision and encouragement.• Create an environment for success.

– Make it easy for them to succeed. – support, systems, resources.

– Create an environment of growth and change.• Leveraging your team for maximum results.

– Focus on creating teams that balance each other’s strengths and weaknesses.

– Tap into people’s passion and identify and utilize their strengths.• Passion + Strength = Explosive results.


ConclusionBy investing our time, effort, resources and

money in our team;And making it our goal to help them be

successful;We will change the face of our entire

organization a get closer and closer to the vision that we have for it.

If we start now, we will see results within the next 30 days.


CommitmentChoose one thing are you going to implement

this week that is going to have the greatest impact on your team and your business?


For more information contact us: [email protected] us at: www.Sapientbizsolutions.comPhone: 714 694-5908


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