The Common Trap for Business Owners

As a business owner (or manager), there's a lot of things going on, whether you’ve got 5, 10, 20 or 100 staff. Whatever the amount there's an inclination that all humans have in business and life:

We tend to focus on what's wrong.

You could have twenty staff who are doing fantastically well, doing great work, but you have two staff who aren't. I guarantee you that most people tend to put more attention on the ones who aren't performing and try to help them and find out what's wrong.

You can fall into this trap of spending more time, or investing more time in people who aren't performing and ignore those who do.

Shift Your Focus to What’s Right

Now I'm not saying don't fix things that are wrong—but don't fall into the trap of spending most of your time on things that are wrong.

If you have 20 people who are performing, I recommend you invest most of your time—or more of your time—with them, helping them, because they are the ones already performing.

Imagine if you give them:

• A little bit more time
  
  
• A little bit more help
  
  
• A little bit more resources
  
  
• A little bit more something
  
  

They will get even better!

The Power of Acknowledgement

The number one thing that you should give to your performing staff is acknowledgement.

There are surveys that say the number one reason why people leave jobs is under-appreciation, which is just another way of saying under-acknowledgement.

So what is an acknowledgement?

It’s actually you letting them know that you value them. You're letting them know that what they did was good, and so on.

There are lots of ways to do it—and many of them are free.

Example:

"Hey John, what you did with that client yesterday—you handled that. They were so happy. I really appreciate the job you did on that."

Or:

"Good job."

That’s the simplicity of it.

Attention is Like Investing

If you acknowledge and give attention to good performance—you’ll get better performance.

You can treat attention like money.
When you invest money into things, you expect to get more back.

So if you invest time, attention, and acknowledgment into what you want in your team—you will get more of it back.

You're setting the example as the boss or the leader on how to get your attention.

Creating a Culture of Performance

They notice that you spend more time with John as he's performing—or Jill, whoever—and they'll get the idea:

"Okay, if I want to get more attention from the boss, maybe I should perform better."

You're setting the example of how to get valuable attention and what is valuable in the company—and it sets a culture.

Don’t Forget to Acknowledge

So that’s the number one thing: acknowledge them.

Now, there are other ways to acknowledge people.

• Employee of the Month (like you see in various fast-food chains)—sure, that’s one way.
  
  
• Gift certificates
  
  
• Employee of the Week, announced at a staff meeting
  
  

There’s lots of ways. Be creative and work out what works for your style of business.

But this is number one: acknowledge what you want.

Bonuses and Pay Rises

Now the second thing you can do is a form of those—money.

That’s:

• Bonuses
  
• Pay rises to people who are performing
  
  

How Do You Know Who’s Performing?

The number one method is to have statistics or KPIs—which is a very reliable way you measure the person week to week, or month to month.

That’s not the subject of this article, but it’s the best way because we’re actually measuring results—which can have a dollar value. So it’s much easier to reward people based on this.

But if you don’t have statistics in place, there are other signs or indicators that can help you know who’s a performer.

Signs of a Performer

• They just take care of business. Take responsibility for their area of work
  
  
• You give them a task and it just comes back done
  
  
• They’re the people that you don’t have to worry about. You go home and you’re not thinking about them
  
  
• They quietly get things done
  
  
• They solve problems
  
  
• They’re willing
  
  
• They help you, they help your customers
  
  

These are all signs of good performance.

And of course, the valuable end result is there. If they’re dealing with your clients, your clients will come back happy, they’ll be pleased with the service, or they’ll give you testimonials and referrals. 

Ask Them What They Want

Money is not the prime motivation for your best people.

Sure, we need money. Yes, we got to work for money. But the most valuable people, the most productive people, always have another reason for working—and it’s a personal purpose.

It’s a personal desire to help or add value—and yeah, they know they get money in return.

Get Creative

So what do I give my best people?

Simple—ask them.

There’s different ways you can do it:

• Time off (like paid time off), which for some people is super helpful—if they’ve got a family
  
  
• Hit a target → get half a day off (paid)
  
  
• Trips
  
  
• Dinners
  
  
• Vouchers (e.g., a $300 voucher for a nice dinner with babysitting)
  
  

There’s lots of things.

Just ask your people:

"What would you like in exchange for hitting this target or for doing this?"

They’ll tell you—and you can reward them with that or a version which fits with your budget and situation. 

Final Reminder

Remember:

Do not forget to acknowledge your best people!

Acknowledge them daily or weekly—start with that, and then you can add everything else.