Are you ready to make tha tough decision?

We all have them, the tough decisions, the things we don’t want to deal with, the things that we are most comfortable doing…

“When faced with two equally tough choices, most people choose the third choice: to not choose”

“We all make choices, but in the end our choices make us”

Often these choices involve staff and either putting up with their short falls or tackling the problem head on.

I have been working with a very successful client based in Montreal Canada (Gad is his name and from our second mentoring session right up to the most recent, he has had challenges with Staff.

Gad hates confrontation and stews on staff performance management issues for months!

He is a happy, friendly man, with a great attention to detail. He has built up his business over 20 years and his issue has not been getting new clients.  He has more clients than he can handle, he is one of the most successful in his industry in Canada.

Where Gad has challenges is in managing people to get the best out of some of his staff, to make them accountable and to deliver on time and to the quality that his clients and he demands.

He doesn’t have these problems with every staff member; most of them are fantastic and are extremely professional.

So we went about isolating the problem and working through each challenge, one step at a time.

He was able to exit and then replace a dentist over time and get in someone who had a great disposition, was fantastic with customers and reflected the type of people Gad wanted on his front line.

The next issue that needed to be addressed; was another staff member who was not delivering the quality of work that was required nor were they working at the speed that was required.

Gad documented the issues and had regular meetings with this staff member to discuss the work that wasn’t being done, the mistakes that were being made and the lack of urgency that was being demonstrated.

Over the course of a couple of months, this person also decided to resign and that has allowed Gad to advertise to recruit a more suitable replacement.

When advertising to fill a position it is important to express in great details the exact type of person you want. I.e. someone who is great with clients, fast, efficient, accurate and deserves to be rewarded for top quality work.

Offer above industry rates to the applicant and if they deliver on their promise, you will deliver on yours.

I then mentioned to Gad to run the advertisements until he gets exactly the staff member he wants. To bring applicants in and give them a one day trial. If they perform well, he will get them back the next day, if they aren’t what he is after, thank them and pay them for their time and keep looking for the right person for your business.

Costs of not making the tough decisions

This has been a tough decision for Gad to performance manage his team, but the cost if he doesn’t manage their performance up or them out is that he has to;

• pay them
• erode his business reputation
• rework
• waste
• productivity
• efficiency
• more personal hours worked
• stress
• declining profit

So Gad has made the tough decisions and is pushing through is comfort zone to build a better business, with a premium team in mind, which will ultimately give him more profit and spare time for him to be able to slow down a bit…

Gad, like most of us, isn’t a spring chicken anymore…

Once the new dentist was settled in, we ran with a marketing piece that attracted over 50 clients in 2 weeks so he has been busy. They are getting a new tooth implant machine and that will be operational in October.

Things are looking up, now that Gad has made the tough decisions..

If you would like help in addressing staff challenges and to push through the process of making the tough decisions, the right decisions for the business, your profit and your life, we can help!

At ABC Business Improvement we have or are assisting builders, tradesmen, retailers, restaurants, wholesalers, manufacturers, mechanics, professional service providers like accountants, lawyers, pharmacists, dentists, importers/ exporters and we can assist you too!

At ABC Business Improvement we will organise a meeting where you will;

–         Uncover the challenges you are facing

–         Define a path to overcome them

 –         Create a first step plan to move forward

 –         Gain a sense of excitement and relief, knowing where you are going

Be one of the first 5 to contact us this week and we will organise a ‘make the tough decisions” strategy session today…