A big part of my business (actually, the biggest part of it) is to do sales. In order to do what I really love to do, which is work with leaders and managers to improve their skills, I must be spending 80% of my time talking with companies in order to encourage them to invest in our program for their managers and supervisors.

Frequently, I get a response from a CEO or Owner who says, “Our team is being led just fine. We’re all good.”

Although I have never done this, I’ve always wanted to respond with, “If I asked your employees if that was true, would they agree?”

I believe I know the answer to that question in the vast majority of cases; it would be a resounding “No we’re not!”

I’ve been in a management role in multiple companies for 26 years. Almost invariably, the managers/leaders who said things were fine were the ones the employees complained about the most. They were dictatorial, didn’t care about their team and were generally referred to as the south end of a north bound horse.

I’ve been in this leadership development business for 6 years now. At least 5 of the companies that said the above words to me are no longer in business. Two of those are very well known and their bankruptcies made headlines. If things were so good, what happened?

But here is the other aspect I’ve found; the potential clients that were the most eager to speak with me have an amazing culture where employees love to work. Their profitability is high and employee engagement is at the top of their industry. These leaders care about their team and are always looking for ways to improve. And what might be considered ironic is that they are always the most likely to invest in my training program.

Improve or fail!

Those are your only two options.

I’d like to challenge each of you who read these posts to reflect back on your organization and ask yourself this question: What have we (I) done in the last year to improve?

This is not about improving your technology. This is not about improving your workspace or even your processes. This is all about improving you and your people. How have you intentionally gone about improving your personal skills and your teams personal and cultural skills?

If you do the research, you’ll find that virtually all the organizations that end up on the “Best Places to Work” lists have some sort of a system in place to develop their people. On the other hand, if you look at Glassdoor and check out the negative reviews, you’ll notice that the “poor” companies have no focus on developing or helping their employees.

Which list do you want to be on?

The answer to that question will tell me clearly how quickly you will fail and quite probably close your business versus how you will succeed because you are constantly working to develop your employees.

In May, our topics address two very important themes for leaders. First is The Leader’s Mindset. How can you be the best leader you can possibly be? And the second is Developing Effective and Devoted Employees. Aren’t these subjects extremely important to us as individuals as well as to our organization? Register here by May 8. 

If improving your management team’s skill set is important to you, let’s talk for 30 minutes and I’ll help you figure out what to do about it. To schedule a time to talk, call 720-515-8081 or email john.reeb@crestcom.com.