....You're patient with your helper.

You plant a fruit seed and it grows nice and fat but its still green, WHY? It needs time to ripen.

I offered my helper $20.00 per hour sounded good to him. BUT IT IS HIS ATTITUDE THATS NOT UP TO PAR.

I not only explained to him that his role was to vacuum and punch the dried up cake and jello and agitate it with towel one section at a time, i demontrated it. Each time i disciplined him He kept doing the opposite. But he is a good worker. I know from a previous job. Perhaps you have a GOOD worker with wrong attitude.

THE LESSON: The way dicipline (instuction) from you to your helper benefits you is likened to the way fruit grows to maturity. If your helper is trained by it, he/she will yeild you good fruit.

Just as as a fruit needs time to ripen, so TIME is needed for your helper to change their attitude in reponse to the training that you provide.

SO BE PATIENT WITH GOOD HELPERS!



Thanks
Your Servant Alex

I hire the attitude, you can train almost anyone to do this type of work.

My rule is hire slowly, make sure they fit our criteria, interview them at lest twice, make them take a test. Everyone is hired on a 90 temp basis, if after 90 days they work out then they are a peminent hire.

Everything that is expected of them is all layed our in our manual for employies.

We hire people slow and our system will fire them quickly if they do not follow it.

Here is a way to think about hiring, training and disciplining employees.

Every skill or act that an employee is required to do can be done unless they are either- are not WILLING, or not ABLE.

Sometimes there can be combinations of Willingness and Ability, but more likely then not if something is not getting done, it leans very heavily toward one or the other. However, they need to have BOTH!!!!

Here are some examples:

Am I WILLING to play pitch for the Yankees for $900,000 a game? Sure I am, and I'm sure you are too (even if you're a Red Sox fan).

Am I ABLE to pitch at that level? No, I don't have the ability or skill to compete at that level.

Since I am WILLING, but not ABLE I do not get the job, or keep it if I somehow got it.

Roger Clemens has BOTH the WILLINGNESS and the ABILITY so he gets the big bucks.

Is Michael Jordan ABLE to play professional level NBA Basketball? Sure even after being gone this long he can still play better then some of the people currently playing.

Is he WILLING to play? No, he decided to retire. He had then gotten the WILLINGNESS to return and play again, and he did. Did he lose some ABILITY sure, but he still had more then many current players. He again lacked the WILLINGNESS to play and retired again.

Michael did not have BOTH, he only had ABILITY, so he left.

The bottom line you HAVE to have both or the task will not get completed.

You cannot control the other person's WILLINGNESS, drive, desire, passion, motivation- whatever you call it. So give them ONE SHOT and one shot only to change the WILLINGNESS. If no change- FIRE THEM IMMEDIATELY! Do not let the door hit them in the butt on the way out and call Security if you have too, but get rid of them as fast as possible. UNWILLINGNESS spreads like a cancer, and will destroy other great employees, and maybe even spread to you. It is like the dark side of the Force.

As long as a person is healthy and fit enough to complete the task then it is your responsibility to train or get training to enable the employee to have the ABILITY to complete the task.

If after several documented attempts at training the ABILITY if the employee does not show that he/she can do the task you need to let them go- QUICKLY.

When hiring you need to ask yourself if the person WILLING and ABLE to do this job? If you answer no to either (or both) then DO NOT hire them, even temporarily.

Like David said- Hire slowly, Fire quickly.

Make your own luck,


Del Scrivner
Owner/Operator
Cowboy's Carpet Care

When Micheal Jordan was a rookie coming out of college he had the willingness true enough, but he did not have the ability to play at A PROFESSIONAL LEVEL.
However the team chose him cause the saw the potential that he had to DEVELOPE to a professional level. So they patiently worked with him until he grew to maturity.

I'd take a humble and moldable one with the potential to develope the abilities needed, over someone who already has the abilities but can't be taught to do the job according to the system i use.

The fruitage yielded: A long-term loyal employee. Now Delegate the screening process to him based on the training you provided.


Thanks
Your Servant Alex

Over the past 7 years I have experienced lots of success with my employees. Years ago I had a high turnover rate & most times employees were unhappy. I felt they were lazy, unwilling to learn, careless, they wouldn't follow instruction and I couldn't trust them to make good decisions on their own. This was killing business not to mention driving me crazy.
But I got some great advice from my wife. She suggested I try a different training method. She reminded me that I was a successful track and cross country coach for 10 years and I should try to use the techniques that were working then. That's when I started coaching my staff instead of just giving them instructions and getting mad when those instructions were not being followed.

I have found the following to be just a few key eliminates of successful coaching...
Encouragement, Respect, Constructive Feedback, Building their Self Worth, Being Patient ( we all learn at different speeds), Set Attainable Goals, Listen, Observe, Give Little Hints or Tips Guiding Them to Solve Problems on Their Own.
Try to avoid starting communication with words like Don't, Can't & Never . these words and many more put the employee on the defensive and only makes it harder to build trust & respect with them.
Here's an example of good coaching -
You see the employee is not vacuuming thoroughly. So you ask him/her to walk you through where they have vacuumed. While walking through the area you are saying something like... Did you know that 85% of carpet care is in the vacuuming? you can further point out that the Cimex machine is excellent at adgitating the encap chemical into the carpet but because it is not an extraction machine it is not capable of picking dry soil. Ask the employee if he/she sees any areas were some additional vacuum passes may be helpful in removing the optimum amount of dry soil before we start Cimexing. In most cases they will be able to see where they will need to do some additional vacuuming. You compliment them on their good eye & ask them to keep up the good work.
The result is... You get the thorough vacuuming, the employee received some positive feedback and learned how valuable their roll was in the carpet care process, and everyone is happy.

I am now proud to say I have very little turn over and we all seem to be comfortable with each other.
Here is the years of service for my current staff of 9.
1 @ 10 yrs.
2 @ 7 yrs.
2 @ 6 yrs.
3 @ 5 yrs.
1 @ 1 yr.

All that being said, I did have to fire 1 employee a year ago. Sometimes you just have to say there is nothing more I can do in trying to help this employee.

Sorry for rambling on.
Steveo

Steve, its no wonder you have long term employees.With those priciples in place you'll will always contend with success. Can i work for you? You're my kinda boss!

Good work Steve keep it up.

P.S. Keep listening to the BIG BOSS! She knows her stuff.

Thanks
Your Servant Alex

Michael Jordan most definitely did have the ability to play pro ball when he left college, otherwise he would not have been given the opportunity to even start.

How many college players actually make it to the NBA? And then of course there are nowadays those rare cases from high school too.

The point is this: Did Michael get better? Sure he did, just as your technician(s) will too. Ability is a sliding scale, when someone is obviously not able to complete something then you have to make different arrangements. If they cannot do minimally accepted skills such: as pre-vac properly, get water, mix water and DS, load and unload, etc...Then you have to seriously consider whether they are really helping you.

The bigger issue of the two is WILLINGNESS. I'd rather higher lower skill, that will grow (but they have to meet the minimum level of skills) and someone that is very willing.

For example: Quality vacuuming is an EXTREMELY simple skill. If after five minutes of training, they can either do it or they won't do it- not willing. You then have to get rid of that person right away.

Del Scrivner
Owner/Operator
Cowboy's Carpet Care

And this is where discernment comes in. Will he produce bad fruit or will he ripen to maturity....Before he cost me to go out of business.

Willingness is the bigger part!

Thanks
Your Servant Alex

Thanks for the kind words Alex.

I would be a big time underachiever if it wasn't for all the support, encouragement & wisdom my wife has given me throughout the years (25th wedding anniversary is next month). She is the architect behind every success story I have.

The night we first met, I was watching her for what seemed like hours, when suddenly she just walks up to me and asked me to dance. That's the way she is, she knows pigs will fly before I figure out it's time to take action!

Take care,
Steveo

Some great comments above!

Your people are your number one asset!
Treat them well and they'll usually reciprocate.
If they stubbornly fail to reciprocate show them to the door.












Rick Gelinas
rick@excellent-supply.com