The Leading Edge - Winter 2009 - (Page 7)

performance-improvement consulting, training and publishing firm. His clients include Fidelity Investment, Universal Studios and Black & Decker. “What great employees crave most is to be part of something exciting, something that moves them,” he says. “They want to be involved in work that challenges their abilities and pushes them to reach their potential.” Great employees are passionate about their work—they perform at a higher level because they are committed to their organizations and derive greater satisfaction from their job, Chang says. “They don’t just want to enjoy their work, they want to be passionate about it,” he says. Chang says passion-driven organizations win the loyalty of their top employees by giving them freedom. “You can have systems in place to control the implementation of ideas, but you must be certain not to compromise the enthusiasm, creativity and hard work that make them possible in the first place.” He explains that this perspective provides an edge over the competition. “Encourage employees to explore their passions and build upon them both inside and outside of work,” Chang says. In his own company, he found individual passions suffering—and it led Chang to move employees to better align their positions with their passions. A desktop publisher with a passion for competition was happier and more productive in a sales position that allowed him to exercise that aspect of his nature. “Such changes are invaluable in ensuring that talented employees remain enthusiastic and productive—even if this means you have another job to fill,” Chang says. It’s about the money AND… Sure, money matters. Every employee wants a paycheck. Top performers, however, want more than financial compensation—they want their work to connect to something more meaningful and bigger than themselves. “They need to see that their performance isn’t just recognized by a series of weekly checks, which could be replaced by a competitor,” says john baker, speaker and founder of rEADy Thinking, a leadership and development firm. he offers these two examples as case studies: Scenario 1 ProbLem: A top underwriter, jenny was one of her firm’s most trusted performers. her loyalty to her job, though, was suspect. Whispers of her interviewing with rival firms echoed in the halls. Comments she made in passing led others to suspect her tenure was tenuous. SoLUtion: jenny’s boss sat down with her to put forth a new vision of what jenny was to accomplish at work. Instead of just recommending a certain piece of business be accepted or denied, she was given final decision authority over new business acceptance. In studying the situation, the manager learned that the management committee already accepted jenny’s recommendations 99 percent of the time. So he thought why not make her a business owner, not just an underwriter. reSULt: jenny saw herself not as a cog in the machine and someone with transferrable skills, but rather an instrumental part of an executive team trying to grow business. jenny’s attitude turned around. her asides became less caustic and more positive. recruiters would call, only to be disregarded. Scenario 2 ProbLem: pete was the No. 1 sales producer in his region, but his effort was pretty much mailed in. he would come into the office at 10 a.m., arrive late to meetings, cut out early for 18 holes of golf. Still, his territory was almost always the top of the chart in terms of meeting and exceeding quarterly targets. other sales people thought he was toxic to the team, and his remarks about easily finding a job across the street got on everyone’s nerves. SoLUtion: pete’s boss put him on a 90-day performance plan. At the end of that time, pete would either turn around his work habits and attitude or be fired. The conversation hit pete like a thunderbolt and he stormed out of the office. pete’s boss explained that his job was to make his sales staff better and that he owed pete direct feedback that pete could do more in sales and as a leader. reSULt: pete stewed. but after awhile, he stayed with the firm and acted differently. he surpassed his old sales records and began teaching others his methods. pete moved from the person to be avoided to something of a mentor. Looking back, pete said that leaders committed to making him better, not just accommodating his laziness, were the type of leaders who deserved loyalty. embraCe mULti-FaCetS Employees are not one-dimensional, says Susan Wilson Solovic, CEO and co-founder of SBTV. com, a video news information destination for small businesses. “We hire people to do a ‘job’ and that job requires certain skills and abilities. It’s easy to forget that often employees have multiple talents,” she says. “When you can tap into continued on page 8 ThE LEadIng EdgE 7

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of The Leading Edge - Winter 2009

The Leading Edge - Winter 2009 Contents Stay on the Climb New Business Often Hinges on an Exceptional Proposal 2009: What’s Ahead and What's Behind for Businesses, Consumers and More Top 10 Misconceptions of Doing Business in Canada In a Nutshell: Q&A The Leading Edge Alliance

The Leading Edge - Winter 2009

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