Employees are NOT created equal

I've managed hundreds of people during my career and I can tell you one thing for sure, people are definitely different! An organization may have one person who is hard working and highly productive but has terrible interpersonal skills. On the other hand there may also be an employee who is great at communicating but has marginal technical ability. Their personal goals and motivations may be all over the place also. I found that the best business leaders are those who understand these differences and have the ability to lead, motivate and coach all types of employees who may have many different personalities. I believe there are three employee types; Minders, Finders and Grinders. The "Minders" are the folks who have organizational and process skills. These people are highly skilled at motivating coaching and getting projects completed. "Finders" are sales-driven and in many cases become CEO's or presidents of businesses. Most of their energy is focused on producing for the future. The "Grinders" live for today. Key attributes of a Grinder are they like to work only in the present, often dismiss the past, fear the insecurity of the future, do not like to delegate, like doing one thing at a time, and will do as instructed, are very skilled at their jobs but rarely generate new ideas. Most of us have a few attributes of each in us, but those who are exceptionally strong in one area are usually very weak in the other two. The key to success when managing people who have strong specific talents is accepting the fact that they are strong at one skill and properly adjusting their tasks and responsibilities so that their great talents can be used for the most benefit of the business and their own personal job satisfaction. I wouldn't put a strong grinder who may have great technical skills and limited interpersonal skills into a job that requires a lot of customer contact. Then again, I may have someone who is a strong finder that is great at sales yet limited technical skills. This person may not be considered highly productive technically, but they can really do a great job selling. The variety of personalities and skills in any employee team may be quite diverse. Understanding these differences, adjusting for the needs of the business and matching them to the types of employees will not only gain great results for the business, but also create a more motivated and satisfied team members.

Busy Does NOT Equal Success

Since it started getting fairly warm here in Kentucky, I've asked several people "how's business?" They usually respond with something like "We're really busy" My next question is, "okay, so are you making good money? . . Be honest!" About half of the time I get the real answer. . . "No, I'm not making good money!" I usually ask why that is, and I get the same stuff: Competition is killing me on price People are demanding discounts Labor costs Fuel costs Economy It's just tough out there! (whatever that means) I have to take whatever is available cause I have to eat! Do you agree that no matter what, there is someone always lower priced than you? So accept that as a fact and talk about why you are better than everyone else and of course it costs more! You can't expect a filet mignon at the price of a generic hotdog! Duh! If you were to raise your price by 10% and lose 15% of your business, you would still probably be doing better. To find our more and if you want to learn more go here to view my video on increasing profits now: http://nordyneu.com/PaidTraining/IncreaseProfitsNow If you haven't raised your price in a long time, you need to consider it now, especially when you are busy. Simply because of the fact that you are busy means that you must be doing something right, because people are doing business with you. In any other business in the world, they increase price when demand increases, it is just good business! Every time we turn around the price of something we buy has changed. Even simple things like milk and bread change from day to day. Yet I still meet people in the contracting business who haven't changed their price in more than five years! Stop measuring your success on total sales and whether you are busy or not. Being profitable equals success. Measure on your net profit and profit margins. You are not Walmart so being the low price leader and trying to make it up in volume is the stupidest thing you could do. Personally I would rather not work seven days a week and sixteen hours a day to pay my bills. Raise your price to a level that makes your life comfortable, focus on customers you can serve well and stop killing yourself needlessly trying to take care of the bargain price shoppers, they are usually the complainers anyway.