I think we spend entirely too much time telling people what to do in our businesses.  Doesn’t that always seem to be the case?  Do this.  Don’t do that.   Don’t forget to get this done.  Much of our communication with our employees follows that pattern.  The problem with that is, it’s absolutely ineffective.

From my perspective, you don’t provide much value to my organization if I have to direct your every step.  I want people who are self-starters  –  people who can see what needs to be done and then get busy doing it.  Why is it that some (very few) people get it and so many don’t?  I propose it’s because they don’t really understand who they are and the role they play in the company.

I remember working some years ago in a food processing facility.  I asked a group of managers which were the unimportant jobs.  

“I guess the janitor isn’t a very important job,” one manager offered.  

I said, “Let’s follow that through.  What happens if the janitor does a poor job?”  

“I guess the floor get’s dirty,” he said.

“What happens if the floor gets dirty?” I asked.

“The USDA shuts us down,” another manager piped up.

“So,” I said, “one $5 an hour employee has the power to put 250 people out of work until he does his job and does it well.  Does that seem like an unimportant job to you?”

Of course it wasn’t.  The truth is, there are no unimportant jobs in any company.  If there are, why haven’t you eliminated them yet?!?!?  And if all the jobs are important, why aren’t we sharing with each employee the importance of thier jobs?  Are we afraid if they know they’re important to the company they’ll ask for more money, so we make them feel as though we could do without them?  If that’s the mentality, then you will be spending the rest of your career telling your employees what and what not to do.

A wise leader once said, “When people understand who they are, you won’t have to tell them what to do.”  I believe that.  We you really understand that you play a critical role around here and that we value very highly what you do, you’re going to take pride in what you do and do it well.  You’re going to be able to see what needs to be done and just go about doing it.  I won’t have to direct you or babysit you.  Yes, you’ll probably want to be well paid for what you do.  But if you’re doing that great of a job, which frees up my time to do more important things, aren’t you worth more?  Won’t the company be more productive if every employee understands how important they are?  And won’t that provide extra revenue to pay for it?

The company can only run at the speed of its slowest employee.  Your unmotivated, unappreciated, underpaid, under-worked employees are killing you.  Value them.  Help them understand who they are and free yourself from constantly having to tell them what to do.