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| Excellence Is A Continuum |
You have developed habits to do things every day that consumer your time. Those things you have included in your daily habits are a direct link to how well your day will be completed. If you sluff off on your work responsibilities, your day will end up undone in many areas. If you sluff off enough, you will have a lot of days that are left undone. This kind of approach to your work will lead to poor maintenance and a lot of missed opportunities. Poor maintenance habits will lead to high cost replacement expenses which will unfairly eat into your profit structure. Missed opportunities will shorten up your revenue streams. Running a business with higher expenses and lower revenues is not a very good combination to manage. Quit it.
Get a plan in place how you will personally do your daily work.
Your plan should included finishing what you started. Do not develop the habit of leaving your tasks before they are finished. Complete them. Become a completer, not a starter. Starting is easy work. Completing is usually difficult work. Become good at doing the difficult stuff. Complete the tasks you start.
Good performers complete what they started. They do not walk off the stage in the middle of the show. They finish their performance. Once you learn how to finish a project you started, you will eventually learn how to do them very well. Doing excellent work takes time and a good mind will learn how to start a project, do it excellently and make sure it sees an end that provides an excellent show. Once you get this habit down well your work performance will improve tremendously and your business profit picture will begin to improve.
My wife handles two small business affairs. She does not take them lightly. I watch her make sure she does excellent work. Her habits have become so serious about doing good work she will not take on any other project until those duties are completely finished. Period. She has developed the habit of doing excellent work and completing her tasks that she starts. On those two subjects, she does not skip a beat. She finishes what she starts and she does excellent work on the tasks she starts. It has become her trademark for her operations. Here is the reward...she continually makes a profit on both business models. She always wins.
Winning is a habit force. It has nothing to do with luck. It requires hard work, consistent work, serious attention and high levels of single-minded focus. My wife does all of these duties very well. It helps her to win the games of business she performs. If something she was doing gets interrupted and takes her off her 'project point' she will be bothered by that until she gets back to completing what she started. It is as if a reminder list is flying around her face like an irritating fly. An undone project will bug her until it gets finished. She is a completer. It has helped her to become very profitable in what she manages. Her small business models make money. They always win. She sees to it that they always win. She is a performer and makes sure she performs excellent work. She will clearly protect that habit pattern. If you work for her, you will immediately notice how serious this stuff is to her. Her demand for excellence in her work habits is not a secret.
I love to listen to Dave Ramsey speak. He is a celebrity evangelical business adviser. He has a radio program I catch once in awhile. On one program he described my wife perfectly. He said he expects everyone to work as hard as he does. He said he has about 310 employees in his business models and the work they perform will appear as if he employs 700 people. My wife and I are two people that do the work of 10. We are not strangers to performing a lot of work every day. I can relate to Dave Ramsey's performance descriptions. My wife is a good model for what he professes is necessary for success. Maybe that is why she is continually successful in her small business models. She does the right work, in the right amount of time and exceeds her performance goals continually as a habit force. It has become the same as breathing to her.
Dave Ramsey said if you work for him, you better get yourself ready to work hard every single day. He expects no less. He will not tolerate less. He does not care to employ people who want to sluff off. They can go work for someone else. He said there are plenty of other bosses that will tolerate that kind of approach. He is not one of them. Do not apply for work with his organizations if you plan to sluff off at work. It will only lead to a day when he will can your fanny. Dave said he has no problem firing people who do not work hard. He said he is tired of people asking why he fired them when they made no mistakes at work. He said when you do not work hard all day long, you made the biggest mistake there is to make. You failed to work hard all of the time. I like Dave's philosophy. I notice my wife could work for Dave. Profit is a planned event. You have to make it happen. Profit is the by-product of doing a lot of things well, completing what you started and making sure you stay at it every moment you are in its area. Profit is a lot like Dave Ramsey, it will can your fanny if you sluff off.
I have terminated many workers in my life of business leadership. I have had conversations with some of those workers I fired that sounded like I was suggesting that they go work for someone else. I have told some of the ones I fired that they are nice people but their work habits are under par. The position I needed them to fill did not require it to be filled by nice people. It required them to do some consistent hard work. I practice what I call one, two, three. When I notice an employee not performing well in an area, I give them number one. Number one is they apparently did not know what was expected. I give them number one, I describe what is expected, again. I tell them, that is number one. Number two is when I suspend them to go think about their future working with my business models. Some have never come back. A lot of times number two has done the trick. Number two also protects my liability. I am giving them an official chance to correct how they work. It is very difficult for anyone to cry bloody murder or mistreatment when they are given a second chance to mend how they work in my models. When I give out number two I usually suggest they consider coming up to speed or consider working for someone else who is a lot softer.
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| Excellence Is A Non-Stop Proposition |
I carry a token coin in my pocket every day. On it is inscribed these words, "Expect to win." Every time I touch that coin it reminds me of how winning is performed. It is the by-product of a plan to win. I show it to the employees who do not understand this pattern of thought. The ones who do not relate and the ones who do not like this pattern of discipline need to go work somewhere else. They will become very uncomfortable working with me. They need to become performers and they need to do excellent work. My business results are better when that kind of stuff takes place. I reach number three when they do not 'get it.' I let them go find another place to go to work. I have removed many sluffers in my life of business.
My wife would not be one of those people I let go. She has the habit down well. She works hard, performs well and completes the tasks she starts. All of the time. The point I am making is that there are people out there who are happiest when they work in this fashion. Those are the people you want to employ. Go find them. Get rid of the ones who do not believe what you believe. Your business model is not a social affair. It is not a school about how soft you can become for the way you treat your employees. You must expect yourself to work hard, perform well and complete your tasks. Once you get yourself in order with performing excellent work, you have all the right to expect the same from your employees. Excellent performers are out there. Go find them.
One thing I know for sure. You cannot expect excellent performance from your staff if you do not perform with excellence. They will eventually 'jump ship' and go somewhere else. If you sluff, your employees will sluff. Period. They will only work as hard as you permit them to see and do. They need a good role model and you are it. You need to bring it and become their best leader on performance. You need to be a completer. The ones who feel uncomfortable around an excellent worker are the ones who will sabotage the work environment. Pay attention to them and make sure you have them completely understand how one, two, three works. If they try to change how you feel about your business model, get rid of them. It is your model, your risk, your income...not theirs. Do not permit them to take control of that picture.
I distinctly remember one time when an employee of mine was working harder to destroy my leadership than he was in doing his tasks. He was disrespectful in his employment role and was not supportive of the hard work ethic I desired to employ. I remember the day I walked him to the front door of my business model and we stepped outside of the entryway. I remember asking him to look up at the sign above the retail store. I remember asking him, "Who's name is on that sign...yours or mine?" We paused for a long time. I continued, "When you put your name on that sign I will listen to you about how you want your business to be run. Until then, it is mine and we will run it the way I want to run it. If you want to run a business your way, by all means go pony up the bucks to go get your own one. I will not stop you. In fact, I will help you. Until then, you work for my business. You are here to help me achieve what I want done. That is how it works here."
My wife practices this same philosophy. She does not expect anyone to disrupt her business performance, including me. It is very clear to her what she needs to get done and how much time she needs to make that happen. I have come to respect that about her performance and get out of her way when she is performing. It is important to her and likely the main reason why she runs her models profitability. She is not a person I would need to take to the front entryway and describe who's name is on the sign above the business model. However, she might pull the same stunt on me if I try to destroy her good work.
Success is a habit. It is a planned event. It is a process that must be managed constantly. It is a performance level that drives work to become completed. It is the protection of that hard work that makes someone very successful. The tolerance for success is high and the tolerance for sluff work is almost nil. Do not abuse your great workers. Take excellent care of them. Just do not tolerate the ones who you pay to destroy what you are trying to achieve. I have spoiled many great workers in my life. I have been embarrassed with how hard many of them work. They have exceeded my expectations continually. These are the people you want to employ.
Be a performer. Deliver excellent work. Once you reach that level of habit, expect it from others. You will have grounds and proof to stand firm on that offer. Make sure you take care of those who believe and do what you believe and do. Treat them well, compensate them fairly and give them great opportunities to grow. Your business model will then learn how to break volume and profit records on a continuous basis.
Sluffers will suck the life out of your great efforts. Do not become one of them.
Until next time...
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