Want to motivate and develop your staff? | Issue #182
Why ‘tours of duty’ are the best way to motivate and develop your staff
Let me ask you something. When you offer someone a job in your company, are you thinking they’ll be with you for years? A job for life maybe? Or at least a decade? Where does this idea come from?
Maybe it’s rooted in the industrial revolution when people moved from the countryside into cities to do manual work. Whole families worked in the same jobs. You still see this now—Prudential springs to mind. One of the directors told me three generations of the same family worked in their call centre in Slough.
That’s unusual these days. Jobs for life are becoming less common. But the way employees and employers interact, you’d think it was still true. At interview, everyone knows they’re unlikely to be there forever – both you and the applicant. Yet all the language around recruitment is couched in these terms. It’s a lie on both sides. And that’s never a healthy way to start a relationship!
So, what if every role was time-limited? And you were upfront about this from the word go? This is called a ‘tour of duty’ and it can be remarkably effective at motivating and developing your team.
How a Germ-Zapping Robot Company Became a 10 Year Overnight Success with Morris Miller
Are you worried your business hasn’t hit the big time yet? Don’t be, says Morris Miller, former managing director at Rackspace, now the managing partner of Tectonic Ventures. Most of the businesses he’s involved in have become overnight successes, only after being in business for 10 years.
Morris is also the CEO of Xenex Disinfection Services, a business he was drawn to because the original founders were mission driven to not just change lives, but save thousands of lives by stopping the spread of pathogens within healthcare facilities.
How? Because Xenex makes UV germ-zapping robots that are 22X better at destroying superbugs than the standard hospital cleaning routine of cleaning, mopping, and bleaching alone.
So, if you’re concerned that your business isn’t a success yet, don’t miss Morris share the two pillars that contribute to overnight success: listening to customers and the talent density you amass.
Recommended Podcasts
Private Equity Power Talks: Map of the Maze
PEPTalks: Map of the Maze is a podcast all about Private Equity Leadership. Each episode we will explore a theme related specifically to Private Equity backed and entrepreneurial companies with a PE backed CEO or subject matter expert.
Recommended Articles
Research: To Excel, Diverse Teams Need Psychological Safety
The promise of staffing a team with diverse members is that the different perspectives, ideas, and opinions will result in greater performance. The reality is that diverse teams often underperform because people from dissimilar backgrounds often clash. A study of 62 drug-development teams suggests that the key to getting them to work better together and tap the potential of diversity is to create a psychologically safe environment.
The Elephant in the room: The myth of exponential hypergrowth
This article suggests an alternate model for how fast-growing companies actually grow. Understanding the model is useful not only for predicting growth, but because understanding the foundational drivers of growth allows us to take smarter actions to create growth in our own companies.
8 ways to find and hire exceptional talent other companies overlook
Hired’s SVP of People Strategy explains how recruiting and hiring teams can put more focus on skills to find overlooked—and often underestimated—candidates.
Recommended Reads
Radical Focus by Christina Wodtke
If you’ve ever wanted to know how to use OKRs, or why yours might not be working, Radical Focus teaches you everything you need to achieve your goals. The author pulls from her experience with Silicon Valley’s hottest companies to teach practical insights on OKRs in the form of a fable. When Hanna and Jack receive an ultimatum from the only investor in their struggling tea supply company, they must learn how to employ Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) with radical focus to get the right things done. Using Hanna and Jack’s story, Wodtke walks readers through how to inspire a diverse team to work together in pursuit of a single, challenging goal, and how to stay motivated despite setbacks and failures.
Smart Growth by Whitney Johnson
Growth is the goal. Helping people develop their potential—enabling them to articulate and become the self they want to be, are capable of being, and that best serves them and others in the short and long term—is what we as individuals and leaders strive toward. But how do we grow? It turns out it happens in a predictable way, which means we can understand where we are in our growth and chart a way forward. In this compact, complete guide, Whitney Johnson dives more deeply than ever into the S Curve of Learning so that you can envision how growth happens and direct yourself and others in your organization to create a culture that fosters it.
News from the farm
CEO Bootcamp with Verne Harnish and Dominic Monkhouse
This September, Verne Harnish is coming to the first CEO Bootcamp in the UK to spend time with you and 9 other business leaders and their #2’s in a 4-day reinvigorating experience.
You will work closely with Verne and Dominic to address your more pressing challenges and uncover those opportunities you’re overlooking and that will truly help you move the needle in your business.
Apply today to join Verne and Dominic at Lucknam Park Hotel & Spa, near Bath (UK).
Monday 12th, September – Thursday 15th, September
Scaling Up Virtual Course
Panic is contagious, but so is leadership. It’s time to adapt your strategy and ensure stronger team alignment and consistent execution.
Bring up to 8 team members of your team to get private coaching with Dominic Monkhouse, Philip Rose and Karol Popa, as you implement an industry-leading strategy, build stronger alignment, and build cash conversion cycles that give you the ability to scale.
- Get exclusive access to +9 hours of Scaling Up training videos with Verne Harnish.
- 8 private coaching sessions + 4 Masterminds to discuss your progress and challenges.
- Lifetime access to all Scaling Up training videos and resources so you and your team can learn at any time.
Book a call today to get started
MEANINGFUL ACTION FOR MONDAY
Keep yourself humble by learning new things
Learning new stuff is hard. It’s easier not to change. I talked a few months ago about brain plasticity and how it drops away after you reach 25. So it’s really important to learn new things. This week I’ve been learning to surf and I’m also learning to swim. Being deliberate about being bad at something gives you new opportunities to feel humble. As a leader, you learn skills and knowledge over time. Learning new things reminds you of how tough change is. It gives you a new perspective on the status quo in your team. Decide what you want to learn and commit to it. Tell people that you’re going to do it and report your progress.
Upcoming events
Scaling Up Workshop with Dominic Monkhouse – 23rd June
Are you on your way to achieving the goals to set up for this year? Is your team aligned and rowing in the same direction to execute your vision? If your answer is no, or if you hesitated, we can help. Join Dominic Monkhouse on a half-day practical session, to get away from the uproar of the everyday commercial world and look at your business afresh – to recognise your strengths, your weaknesses and your opportunities.
Quote of the week
“A leader’s job is not to put greatness into people, but rather to recognize that it already exists, and to create the environment where that greatness can emerge and grow.”
Reid Hoffman
Dominic Monkhouse
Dominic offers business coaching and management development, strategy planning and organisational change, using tried and tested methods to launch your organisation onto an unparalleled growth trajectory. His programme is a function of his broad experience, his deep expertise and a proven process used by over 2,700 firms worldwide.