You are not the person I hired

Like many closely held business owners, you may be struggling to take your company to the next level. Wouldn’t it be great to double or triple revenue? How about doubling profit?

What’s holding you back? Poor marketing? A hit or miss sales system? Lack of leadership? Any one of these could be holding you back, but I doubt that any of them is the biggest reason. Most of the business owners that I talk with are frustrated with People issues.

Don’t Let It Happen to You.

It’s easy to blame your staff for lackluster performance, and it’s extremely difficult to put together a team that performs at a high level. In fact, lots of business owners get burnt out by having to repeatedly recruit, hire, and train new employees, only to be disappointed again and again by lackluster performance or failure. Before letting this happen to you, ask yourself “Are the good people on my staff assigned to the right tasks and are they doing things they’re really good at?”

This self-reflection is recommended by my good friend and colleague Lloyd Gottman, owner of Synergetic Systems LLC and an expert at optimizing employee and team performance. Lloyd’s company doesn’t do “team building” exercises or focus on “team harmony,” they help their clients assemble high-performing teams.

I recently chatted with Lloyd about employee performance issues and he shared with me that most business owners are too close to their business and their staff to see the real difficulties. Since the owner doesn’t see these underlying problems, they cannot understand how these problems get in the way of performance.

If you’re blind to these challenges, how can you build a high-performing team? Lloyd starts by having you set your own goals and deadlines, and then he digs in. Lloyd looks at the organization chart, the way positions are structured, the tasks to be performed, and the skills and aptitudes needed for high performance. Lloyd stresses that he has to understand the company’s culture to design the “seating chart” and to identify the aptitudes and attitudes that will allow the team to perform at a high level.

It Takes More Than a Seating Chart

So now that you’ve got an organization chart for a high-performing team, here’s the big question: Will your re-organized team perform at a high level? Probably not. Lloyd tells me that most business leaders don’t possess the tools to know whether their people are well matched to their jobs or even to the company’s culture. Ask yourself whether you’ve repeatedly done any of these things with the same person or with someone who reports to them:

• Coached them about how to do their job?
• Solved a problem they should have handled on their own?
• Provided routine support to someone who doesn’t report directly to you?

Chances are that you’ve answered “yes” to more than one of these questions. This only means that you’re like most business owners, and like most of your peers, you might think that your staff needs more or better training. Lloyd acknowledges that training is important, but he says that the real key to building high-performing teams is placing the right person in the right position doing the things that they are really good at doing.

He recommends using assessment tests like DISC or MBTI as tools for measuring and understanding skills, personality and-perhaps most important-interpersonal disconnects. “Some really good tools have recently come onto the market that help predict job performance” according to Lloyd. He uses the appropriate assessment tool that fits the position you’re filling-from administrative assistant to C-suite executive. Interpreting the results takes significant training and experience, and Lloyd points out that the newer tests are even designed to prevent cheating.

What if You Have a Heart?

Will turning your staff into a high-performing team turn you into a ruthless boss? It doesn’t have to. If you conclude that a team member has been holding you back or is in the wrong position, Lloyd works with you and your team to find a better fit within the organization. “Usually an employee already knows deep-down that it’s not a good fit, and they’re actually relieved when you give them a more appropriate assignment,” he says.

Consultants like Lloyd aren’t always involved in the recruiting, interview, and selection process. Here’s how someone like Lloyd can fit into your process and help make sure you bring only top performers on board:

1. Conducting and analyzing assessment tests. For entry-level positions, assessments focus on core values like integrity and reliability. Assessments for higher-level positions focus on problem-solving skills, strategic thinking, or leadership.
2. Preparing for the Interview. The right preparation lets you guide a candidate to define goals and hold themselves accountable for results.
3. Selection. Providing objective, unbiased feedback to help you make solid decisions.

After going through this process, most of Lloyd’s clients become better leaders by being strategic and demanding in interviews and in the selection process. They’re also quicker to identify and deal with team members who are not performing at a high-level.

If you’d like to meet Lloyd, or if you want to talk about adding a coach like him to your personal team of advisors, please feel free to call me at 303-831-1411.