He is getting ready to retire from the same firm he was working as a sales representative. He is now the sales manager of that firm for the west coast division, living in a large city working in the corporate office. He and his wife love horses and are purchasing a small ranch out in the country where they plan to live when they retire. We had a great chat. He wanted to know what each of my employees were doing today. It was a very amazing conversation that revealed about how much has changed in this world of business today.
I have mentioned in an earlier post on this blog that most of my key employees from the past have moved onto some very big employment positions with some very successful business firms. Those previous employees were some very good employees. At one time our family owned and operated five separate business models, located in four different cities. In order to make that kind of business package work well we needed to have some very good employees, and we did. Those are the employees this old friend remembered well. His conversation about them included some very kind words. He and I discussed some of the best traits these previous employees possessed. We had some serious laughs about some of our best experiences. The reminiscing about old times was a load of fun.
Yesterday, I made a product check call to another old business I previously managed. The person who answered the phone was one of my previous top employees. She and I had a great conversation about current times. She was having a challenge with some computer problems at her business when I called. I took the time away from the search I was doing for a product I was trying to find for a customer and asked her what the computer problem might be. After a few minutes of discussion about the computer hang up she was experiencing, I offered some advice to help her repair the challenge. It worked. When the computer challenge was fixed she said, "Boy, I miss you. It is just not the same around here without you."
How do you treat your employees?
I have noticed that I do not need to hide from the people I have employed in the past. Regardless of how tough our relationships at work ever became, I do not need to hide from the ones I encouraged and pushed through the work we needed to perform in those times. As a boss I love to employ people who perform. I expect performance and will gravitate to those who will perform well. I will search for people who want to perform. Do you see old employees? How well do those chance greetings become received? They will be good experiences in your path if you treated your previous employees with respect.
If you find you need to duck out of sight when you bump into old employees you likely did not treat those employees with a lot of respect. I am not talking about becoming friends with your employees. I never spend personal time with my employees. Never. None of them have set foot on my personal property. After business hours, I go my way and they go their way. It is a clear line. No exceptions. Our personal lives are physically removed from each other. I have never believed I should employ people to become a part of my personal life. Even though my personal life is deeply intertwined with my business life, I do not believe it is a good idea to mix the two concepts together with the time I spend with my employees. I work hard to keep them separate. The leadership waters stay much clearer with this type of approach. How muddy is the water you share with your employees? Think about it.
When I was hired to manage a dying business a few years ago I was employed to 'fix' the problems they were having. The business model they were operating was fighting to avoid bankruptcy. In the first two days of my time at that place of business I immediately could tell which employees were the performers and who were not. I also recognized which employees needed to eventually go away and who were the ones that needed more responsibilities. Those assessments were easy to complete. In a matter of a couple of days I knew where I wanted the kind of work I needed to have done to go to the ones I wanted to do the work. The employees at that business may not know what I was thinking, but I was sure of how it was going to be done. I knew which way to turn in less than five days. Three employee assessments were in my certainty the first two days.
How well do you know what kinds of strengths you need to employ? Do you truly know what you need the employees to do? Do you know what kind of employees you need? Do you know how you want those employees to perform? Do you know who you can trust? Do you know why you can trust them? Do you 'test' the integrity of the employees you serve? I do and you should.
Yesterday I was working the sales register with some customers. It was busy and the customer lines were stacking up. I personally knew some of the people waiting in one of the register areas. While I processed a few sales, I visited with each one as they moved through the counter area paying for the stuff they were buying. One of the young men who finished paying for his stuff was a regular customer we see a lot. He stepped back to allow the next customer to move through the line when he was finished, but he stayed and chatted some more. A lady came through the line next with a small purchase. Her sale total came to $3.97 for a few items. While I was still chatting with the young man, she told me she wanted to get rid of some quarters. I told her good, we needed more quarters. She had stacked four quarters on top of each other in four piles on the counter. I may have been talking to the young man but I could see the four stacks of four quarters each with the corner of my eyes. She was standing away from me far enough to make sure the quarters were out of my range to reach. When I completed bar coding her products I recited her total, "That will be $3.97." I knew by the pre-arranged stacks of quarters she placed on the top of the counter she knew what the total would be long before she came to the counter. My mind flashed these thoughts. Being too far away to reach the stacks, she put both hands together and pushed all of the coins together into a group and cupped them closer to me so I could scoop them up. They were now in a small pile. I noticed one quarter had slipped behind and did not make it over next to me in the pile she slid my way. I also noticed she picked it up and held it aside as if to wait and see what I would do with the pile she gave me. She did not immediately offer that quarter to me. In fact, it was obvious she slightly tried to hide it.
I decided to re-build the four stacks on the counter before I threw the quarters into the cash tray. It was a quick decision. It caught the young boy by surprise. He teased me for not being able to count well as I stacked the quarters counting them one by one. He missed what I noticed and what I was doing. When I completed the piles, one of them was short a single quarter. I asked for the quarter, politely. She slid it over to me without a word spoken. I would never hire her. Period. She is employed somewhere, but never by me.
When the customer lines were gone, the young man mentioned how he thought the lady had slid over to me four dollars in quarters. He said he could see them. This was my answer to him when he questioned the event. "Now you know what she is capable of doing. She knew she was short a quarter and did not volunteer it to me." I walked away to go do some other work. As I walked away I said, "Integrity reveals itself everywhere if you are paying attention. You never know, she might apply for a job here and hand a resume' to me. Do you want her working your change at the counter?" I am not sure he considered that comment as a lesson to absorb. It was for me.
How do you treat your employees? What kind of employees do you employ? How do you spend time with your employees? What do you honor when you spend time with your employees? What kind of respect do you work to maintain with the time you spend with your employees? Do they steal your time? I think that lady with the quarters would have no problem stealing your time when you are not looking. I only had a few minutes to share with her, but I learned a lot about how she was mentally made up. She is forgiven, but she will not go to work for me. Even if it was a mistake, which likely it was, she did not have the courage needed to ask and check it out. I need employees with courage. It counts big when it is needed.
I love to bump into employees from the past. The experiences are very fun. Some ex-employees commonly go back to the places I once managed and look me up. Every month I receive calls and comments about them from the current leaders of those business models. Some of those comments I hear about well after I have been gone. How do you treat your employees?
It is especially rewarding to hear how much an old friend, from many years ago, can come into my life and perfectly describe the people by name and character who once worked as employees. It is a signal worth considering. Do you hire people filled with integrity? Do you treat people with complete integrity? Do you care enough to treat your employees well enough? Do you expect them to reach higher levels of personal performance? Do you teach them how to have great experiences?
If you do not think for once that all of this stuff is necessary, shame on you. When a business sales representative comes to you twenty years later and shares what his occasional experiences with your previous employees was like, with a passion towards enjoyment, you have discovered just how important this stuff has become to the people who thread through your business models. It matters.
How do you treat your employees? It may be time to check it out. It seems to matter a whole bunch.
Until next time...
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