Chapter 6

Staff smoothies

The recipes in this chapter focus on getting your team right and really getting the most out of your staff — from delegating appropriately to picking out protégés. Get the mix right, blend and relax — if all goes to plan, you’ll find yourself out of a job in no time.

Teamwork

Getting the right team balance leads to goals being scored.

I was fortunate to be the first female board member of the Hawthorn Football Club. I loved the years I worked with the club, and found the business of football fascinating. A key ‘ah ha’ moment for me was when we were discussing getting the right team to win a grand final. It was exactly the same formula as creating a winning team at Boost.

The ‘recipe’ for a winning football team was as follows: you need three to four superstars to start, and then you add your up-and-coming superstars. Next, sprinkle heavily with the solid team members (the ones who get their job done with no fanfare), while cautiously blending in the last group — those who need to move forward or move out.

The bottom line is this: a great team is a solid mix of different personalities, all working together to even out each other’s weaknesses. A great team is healthily competitive, yet comfortable enough to truly celebrate each team member’s individual wins. The right team can achieve the unachievable.

A good team mix could look like this:

• The leader: efficient, focused, ambitious, confident, honest, strong-willed and someone who can inspire. Leaders may, however, demonstrate little patience, a tendency towards bullying and a desire for personal success over team success.

• The thinker: analytical, concerned with detail, unassuming, precise, well organised, rational and a good listener. On the downside, thinkers may be perceived by others as aloof and negative — a killer vibe at the best of times!

• The ‘doer’ or worker bee: hard-working, patient and keen to get the job done without much fuss. Worker bees can, however, be easily manipulated.

• The emotional creative: social, energetic and competitive, but prone to the odd tantrum, especially under pressure, and may lack the necessary follow-through. In other words, creatives can be high maintenance if their astrological planets are not aligned!

A good team mix includes all elements from the preceding mix, and manages to reduce the risk of any of the negative attributes associated with each element emerging.

Taking all of that into account, how do you pick the best team? It’s important that you also recognise all the dominant traits in your team — doing so will help to ease any frustration. You may have too many analytical types among your key personnel, for example, which means no-one will ever make a decision. On the other hand, if there are too many drivers and leader types, you’re on a road that will be heavily paved with conflict.

Key ingredients

Here’s how to perfect your team:

• If you’re having difficulties with a team member, ascertain not only the team member’s personality traits but also your own. This will help you learn the best way to deal with your colleague and the best way to manage your response to them.

• The nicest people (or those most easy to manage) are not necessarily the ones who will produce the best results. Every organisation needs balance, and having a bit of ‘mongrel’ in a group is essential.

People

‘Imagine being paid to work here — it almost feels wrong.’

Words spoken by a member of my staff, and among the best I’ve ever heard.

Your people are your company’s greatest asset — reward them and reap the rewards for your business. There’s no doubt that if you get the right group of people together, anything can be achieved. I believe that staff members need to share in the rewards. If you take the time to acknowledge a person’s contribution, you will be repaid by their loyalty and hard work a thousand times over.

Public acknowledgement can be extremely motivating. The Boost Awards are an annual event that we use to both reward and recognise exceptional achievements by employees. The awards have been developed to inspire individuals and teams to aim high. They are open to everyone in the company, regardless of position. As well as offering rewards for high performance, it’s equally important to show genuine understanding and kindness when a colleague or employee is at a low ebb. Compassion will also be repaid by trust and loyalty.

There was a time in 2010 when generation Y was getting some really bad press and being blamed for all sorts of negative things. If you did a search for ‘gen Y’ online, you would find millions of results on how to deal with this apparently ‘difficult generation’. We passionately did not agree with this perception, because we saw some amazing, talented and focused generation Ys in our organisation. We felt so strongly about this we did an advertisement attempting to change the perception of gen Y. It was a risk for the business, but it paid off; the research was amazing. And when an ad agency did a spoof on our ad, my husband and boys thought it was hilarious. (Have a quick look here for that spoof: www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlvYjIkk4e0. It’s hard to find something funny when others are taking the piss out of you. However, I admit the spoof was clever.)

Key ingredients

Here’s how to get the most out of your people:

• Consider instigating a formal recognition and/or award program, in line with your company values, that will give your employees meaningful rewards for exceptional achievement. Acknowledgement is an excellent motivational tool.

• Recognise the fact that people respond to compassion as quickly as they do to encouragement.

Relationships

‘A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.’ - Walter Winchell

Learning to manage the various relationships you have should be a fundamental part of your ongoing strategy.

On a day-to-day basis, like most managers, I spend more time with my core staff members than I do with my family. Close bonds have grown between us over time; it’s acknowledged that I would do anything for them, and vice versa. Together we have created and achieved amazing things, with plenty of hardship, stress and celebration along the way. In this kind of situation, you do develop a bond that’s stronger than a mere employer–employee relationship. Not slipping over into complete friendship mode is a fine line, but one that I believe we now tread easily.

These days, I have very little free time to spend with friends. I make sure that those people I do see are the ones who make me laugh, allow me to feel good about by myself, have my back and are honest. In business, you can be spoiled by the wealth of mental stimulation you receive from the people you meet. But in life, it is not what someone has or hasn’t achieved that makes them interesting; it is who they are as a person. Friendships are vital to everyone. Nothing revitalises me more, or makes that bad day not so bad, than a good old belly laugh with trusted friends. Choose your friends wisely.

Key ingredients

Here are some important elements for business and personal relationships:

• Business relationships are about give and take. If you give a lot of information to those who impress you, most will return the favour.

• When you’re passionate about your work, it’s easy to neglect friends and family. Don’t! There are only so many people in the world with whom you can have a close relationship — keep in touch. Good friends are the best tonic for bad times.

• The world is full of people who believe that the glass is half empty, that they are owed a living, that they are hard done by and that nothing is their fault. You do not need these high-maintenance people in your business, or your life. You owe it to the others around you to get rid of those negative influences.

• The best friendships are equal friendships. Look at your relationships: are they two-way streets? Do you feel good about yourself when you are with your friends? Make sure those around you bring out the best in you, and vice versa.

Protégés

Start training your next-in-line now.

Your job as a business owner or an executive in a business is to continue to grow strong people so that, eventually, you are out of a job. Insecure businesspeople hire below them so they have control. This never works. Hiring the right people and training those people so that they can one day take over your role is critical to your success.

How do you identify a protégé? The right person will have core values that reflect your own. He or she will have a willingness to follow your philosophies, even if in a different way to your own. Learn to recognise leaders among your staff. In my case, it’s not necessarily about actively hiring the right person — rather, candidates for the job emerge and evolve. Don’t be threatened by an up-and-coming talent. I once worked for someone who made sure he hired incompetent people because he wanted to run things his own way and didn’t want to be outshone. That’s stupid! The smarter the people around you, the smarter and better you are.

Encourage your protégés with training and counselling. Challenge them by occasionally throwing them in the deep end — this will help them to discover their own strengths and weaknesses, enabling them to work on their shortcomings. It will also allow you to examine their potential. Remember, however, that there is a fine line between giving your protégé opportunities and setting them up to fail.

A piece of coal placed under the right amount of pressure for the right period of time will transform into a diamond. Of course, it doesn’t always work out. There have been times when I’ve felt very confident about an employee and it hasn’t worked out. As a business grows, some employees can be left behind, unable to evolve with the changing business. In those situations, you have to consider your options and, sometimes, no matter how hard it is, it is best for you both to part company.

Key ingredients

Start recognising and building protégés with the following:

• Don’t be afraid to replace yourself. It’s your only opportunity to grow. By beginning early and training someone thoroughly, you will be placing your company in a better position for the long term.

• Identify and nurture your protégés; harness their enthusiasm to help them achieve great things.

• Good leaders surround themselves with smart go-getters. Bad managers choose inferior employees in an effort to bolster their own position or ego — which never works!

Leaders

‘The difference between a boss and a leader: a boss says “Go”, a leader says “Let’s go”.’ - E.M. Kelly

Leaders may be born, but leadership is learned. What type of leader do you want to be?

My style of leadership has evolved by learning from my strengths and weaknesses. My business has evolved the same way. All leaderships must evolve, but the fundamental philosophy should remain the same.

The role of a leader is to inspire extraordinary performances from ordinary people. If you’re the boss, your level of enthusiasm will be reflected throughout your company. The more people you can influence daily, the more power you will gain.

How are you going to do this? Study how to be a greater leader. Define yourself, your values and your attributes. Play up your strong points and work on your weaker areas. Importantly, you must avoid the need to be liked. If you have a great personal life and feel secure within yourself, why should you desire affection from everyone? This need makes you vulnerable and weakens your decision-making ability; it has no place in building a successful business empire. Instead, you should aim to gain your employees’ respect; you want them to respect you more than like you.

It’s also essential to recognise leadership qualities in others, and these won’t always be immediately apparent. That timid worker whom you’ve always perceived as slightly introverted may roar like the king of the jungle when put to the test. In the same way, someone who comes across as self-assured and competent may buckle under pressure.

Key ingredients

Boost your leadership skills with the following:

• Leadership is usually an innate ability, but your style of leadership can be chosen.

• Don’t be the kind of leader you think you ought to be — be the best leader you can be. If you choose a style that’s natural to who you are, you will be successful.

Delegation

Do the words ‘control freak’ mean anything to you?

Once upon a time, people who worked long hours and spent most of their weekends in the office were seen as dedicated — great examples to other employees. Not anymore. An extreme working day is no longer seen as a badge of honour. Now, it’s more likely to be thought of as showing poor time-management skills, a lack of organisation or a poor approach to delegation. For a leader, a lack of delegation shows bad management skills. Do not misunderstand these comments; there are times that you may need to put in long hours or pull an ‘all-nighter’, but this should be the exception not the rule.

When Boost first started, I did everything myself. I had to — there was no-one else to do it. There are still days, I admit, when I think, It would be quicker if I did this myself. However, I know that I simply don’t have the time to do everything. Who does? If I tried to do everything, I’d succeed at nothing.

Of course, I have high expectations of those to whom I delegate. I never choose someone simply because I feel I should, or because that someone thinks he or she deserves a chance. I always try to hand a task to a person whom I believe will do a better job than I could do myself.

I also keep a close eye on how people respond to being given responsibility. Do they deliver? Do they keep me informed? Is the project completed on time? It’s all about their actions, not their words. I don’t want to be told someone can do it — I just want them to do it!

If you find that you’re not getting the desired results when you delegate a task, find another person to do the job. Don’t feel bad and don’t play along to save someone’s feelings. Never reward mediocrity.

Key ingredients

Here are the components of good delegation:

• If you hoard tasks, you set yourself up for failure. Remember, if you have chosen your employees well, you are not the only person capable of completing that task.

• Lack of delegation does not show devotion to the job — it showcases bad management skills.

• Always give deadlines when you delegate tasks. Ask people if they believe the timeframe is reasonable and, if they agree, set up an appointment where they will report on the completed job.

Meetings

OMG! Not another meeting.

Meetings can be powerhouses of ideas and actions, or they can just be a group of people sitting around a table putting off decision-making. The difference between the two comes down to tactics.

Always ask yourself if you really need to have a meeting. Once you’ve established that a meeting will indeed be the fastest and clearest way to communicate with staff, follow these guidelines:

• Set a start and finish time, and keep the process efficient. Allocating time prevents those rambling, open-ended discussions that are time wasters.

• Set an agenda. This will help keep the meeting on track and on time. Those attending should be given the opportunity to list their own points for discussion.

• Brainstorm and write up ideas or key points. Flip charts or whiteboards are invaluable for getting everyone involved. Remember, there is never a bad idea. Encourage input from all attendees.

• Write down clear actions to be achieved, and next to each point write the name of the person chosen to take care of that task, along with a deadline. By the end of the meeting there should be a consensus of what needs to be done. Minutes must be taken at the meeting, and should be typed up and distributed as quickly as possible. Refer to these minutes at the next meeting to ensure all action points have been completed.

• Send each person the list of action points as a gentle reminder to complete the tasks before the next meeting or approaching deadline.

• Get to the point. Respect other people’s time if you are giving a presentation; make it slick and make it short.

• Take it offline. If a discussion is between only two members of the meeting group, the two can meet on that issue after the meeting; do not waste everyone’s time on issues that do not concern them.

Key ingredients

Here’s how to get the most out of meetings:

• Before you call a meeting, decide if it’s really necessary. There is such a thing as too many meetings. If you’re spending more time talking than you are doing, you may need to reassess your work practices.

• Meetings can be a quick and easy way to disseminate information or they can be a long, drawn-out discussion that goes nowhere. Follow a strategy to keep your meeting fast and effective.