Improving the talent within your business

Just say NO!

Following on from my last blog about playing to your strengths, what happens when you spend too much time on a task because you can't say no?

In the past, it has been pointed out to me that I say yes to help people far to easily. I guess that's because I enjoy getting things done. However, that yes attitude prevents you from developing your colleagues, and you won't get on with the things that could be critical to the growth of your business.

Make sure that your hiring procedure weeds out those people who are less likely to learn new things. You could ask candidates to carry out a consumer-type review of an existing product, or create a one-page sales-brochure of your service. This would demonstrate their ability to learn and also how creative they are.

If you have staff who need to improve their skills then you can train them. With coaching and possibly documentation around whatever the skill shortage is, they should be able to demonstrate their new skill without constant reiteration. Obviously, this is very relative to the tasks being trained.

It is vital that you build the capability of the people you already have. What systems or training processes do you need to bring them up to speed? This is far less costly than re-hiring.

Whatever stage your business is at, you have to employ people that can stand on their own two feet, which means you have to say no. For some of us, this is harder than others!

Do you have any comments or questions? Get in touch with me here! Cheers, Duncan.