Getting Your People to Step Up E-Book

Shivani Gupta

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 261

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

A roadmap for hiring, coaching and motivating top performers

In business, your people are your most important asset. But finding, training and motivating the right people can be daunting and costly. If you want to keep your best employees — and grow your business with their support — then Getting Your People to Step Up is the book for you! Business coach Shivani Gupta reveals seven proven strategies to help you recruit top talent and ensure your employees are happier, more engaged and more productive.

Getting Your People to Step Up offers a no-nonsense approach to hiring, managing and empowering your staff. You’ll learn how to coach your team and be a leader who inspires growth and loyalty. When the right employees are highly engaged and performing, running your business is not only more profitable: it becomes fun!

• Get strategies to recruit and incentivise the best people
• Combat employee burnout and prevent high turnover
• Transform your leadership style and coach for success
• Create a shared vision for your business that unites your team and fosters collaboration
• Communicate more effectively to set expectations and deliver feedback for growth
• Create a positive work environment with a culture of diversity and inclusion

Don’t hire fast and fire faster. Avoid costly mistakes: find the right person for the job, and enable them to thrive. With Getting Your People to Step Up, you’ll learn how to unlock the long-term potential of your team so that your business can truly flourish.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

COVER

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE

COPYRIGHT

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

INTRODUCTION

Your people can be either assets or liabilities

Growing your business through early challenges

How to use this book

PART I: ATTRACTING THE RIGHT PEOPLE

CHAPTER 1: PEOPLE NEED SOMETHING TO BELIEVE IN

Setting your vision

Gaudí's visionary legacy

Businesses with a clear vision

Small to medium-sized businesses with a clear vision

Actions

Case study: Burt's Bees

Case study: Warby Parker

Reflections

CHAPTER 2: THE RIGHT PEOPLE IN THE RIGHT JOBS

Heracles and Hydra

Businesses with ‘the right fit’ in mind when they hire

Small to medium-sized businesses looking to hire the right people

Actions

Case study: Basecamp

Reflections

CHAPTER 3: PLAN A, B AND C

Succession planning for business confidence

Lao's trees

Succession planning successes and failures

Small to medium-sized businesses with succession planning in mind

Actions

Case study: The Tata Group

Case study: Bega Cheese

Reflections

PART II: RETAINING THE RIGHT PEOPLE

CHAPTER 4: BELIEVE IN PEOPLE

Samuel's belief in people

Examples of the importance of believing in people

Small to medium-sized businesses and how they nurture their people

Actions

Case study: Adobe

Reflections

CHAPTER 5: SHOSHIN

Hiroshi's lessons on shoshin

Business leaders and owners who display a shoshin mentality

Small to medium-sized businesses: Encouraging lifelong learning

Actions

Case study: Toyota

Case study: Netflix

Case study: Amazon

Reflections

CHAPTER 6: THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS

Research that supports diversity and inclusion

A story from my own life

Indra Nooyi

Examples of businesses addressing diversity

Actions

Case study: Salesforce

Reflections

CHAPTER 7: MANAGERS AS COACHES

Bill Campbell the trillion dollar coach

Examples of businesses embracing the manager as coach concept

Small to medium-sized businesses and coaching

Actions

Case study: General Electric (GE) and ‘Work-Out’ coaching program

Reflections

GETTING YOUR PEOPLE TO STEP UP

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT

Guide

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Table of Contents

Begin Reading

Getting your people to step up

Additional Resources

End User License Agreement

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‘If you're a business owner or manager, Shivani's ideas will rock your world.’

Dale Beaumont, founder and CEO of Business Blueprint®

‘Shivani is an exceptional leader who cares deeply about the transformation of people and the impact they can have in our businesses and communities. When Shivani speaks, we should listen!’

Emma Isaacs, founder and CEO, Business Chicks

‘Both practical and transformative and a must read to drive your team towards excellence. It provides you with simple people strategies.’

Verne Harnish, founder of Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) and Scaling Up. Bestselling author ofScaling Up (Rockefeller Habits 2.0).

First published in 2024 by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd

Level 4, 600 Bourke St, Melbourne, Victoria 3000, Australia

© John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd, 2024

The moral rights of the author have been asserted

ISBN: 978-1-394-24875-9

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the Australian Copyright Act 1968 (for example, a fair dealing for the purposes of study, research, criticism or review), no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, communicated or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission. All inquiries should be made to the publisher at the address above.

Cover design by Wiley

Disclaimer

The material in this publication is of the nature of general comment only, and does not represent professional advice. It is not intended to provide specific guidance for particular circumstances and it should not be relied on as the basis for any decision to take action or not take action on any matter which it covers. Readers should obtain professional advice where appropriate, before making any such decision. To the maximum extent permitted by law, the author and publisher disclaim all responsibility and liability to any person, arising directly or indirectly from any person taking or not taking action based on the information in this publication.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

To my amazing husband Scott, for always encouraging and believing in me.

To my wonderful children, Shanti and Om — you light up my life.

To my mum and dad, for the values you instilled in me.

To my clients — your trust in my expertise and your feedback has helped me grow and evolve.

To the thought leaders whose insights have deepened my knowledge.

To my friends — your guidance and love is appreciated.

To the people who have worked with me and for me both in the past and present: This book is one of the outcomes of our conversations and shared experiences. I have learned so much about people because of you, even the hard lessons.

To the team at Wiley, my publisher, especially Lucy and Leigh — your support with this book has been invaluable.

This book would not have come to life without you, the reader — the business leader and owner. Thank you in advance for picking it up. I hope you find a key takeaway you can use to grow your business and your people.

INTRODUCTION

People, people, people.

Attracting and retaining great people is becoming more difficult. This has become both a challenge and a risk for the growth of businesses. According to the 2024 edition of the KPMG report ‘Keeping us up at night’, one of the top issues right now for most businesses in Australia is how to find the right people, retain them and get them to perform the right tasks well.

People discovered during the pandemic that they have more career options than they might have thought. Working from home and virtual working models became the norm, and the demand for skilled people began to outstrip supply. There is a high degree of burnout in many industries as people's resilience has eroded away. And throughout and following the pandemic, the world has witnessed a ‘Great Resignation’ period, where millions of people started to quit their jobs.

As a result, attracting and retaining great people has become stressful and expensive for many businesses. The cost of bringing a new hire from the hiring stage through to delivering a high-performance output can be up to five times their salary, depending on your industry. This is extremely high and for many businesses can make or break your business.

Your people can be either assets or liabilities

At some point in your life, you made a decision to step into being a business leader or owner.

You may have yearned for more freedom, more influence, better systems, better marketing, better leadership and better management of what should be your biggest asset — your people.

Many businesses believe that people are their number one asset. You might also share that belief. In my experience, however, people can be either your biggest asset or your biggest liability.

You may have some people without whom you cannot run your business or manage your people. Some people jump on problems straight away and, in some instances, they may even be able to predict that a problem is arising. They are eager to fix the issue as quickly as possible so that your business can run faster and better. These people are your assets.

And there are others who you may wish just weren't there as they cause you more work than they produce. These people may have the skills to solve a problem, but they may be reluctant to fix the problem. They want to blame others for why the problem exists in the first place, blame the system, or even blame you as the business leader or owner. These people are your liabilities.

When people do the right things, are motivated to work hard and are passionate about the work they do, these people are your assets. They are the people that you love working with. They are the ones that you hope will stay in your business forever. But when the challenging, noisy people that are liabilities are in full force, it can cause you stress and maybe even sleepless nights. I know. I have had them!

You may ask yourself, ‘Surely this is not the same person that I interviewed only a few months ago?’ And then you start to develop headaches when dealing with them and wonder how to manage them out of your business and your life.

This book is designed for business leaders and owners of small to medium-sized businesses who want to have more people that are assets and less people that are liabilities.

Growing your business through early challenges

As your business starts to grow, there are all sorts of problems to solve. These issues may arise daily. You may find that you are working harder than ever before while trying to motivate the people in the business. Some of these people take up your energy and consume more time in your diary than they give.

And sometimes, when are you are hiring people and trying to attract them into your business, you feel desperate, especially if you don't have many options due to the candidates that have applied. You are happy to hire anyone, as long as they have a pulse!

As your business grows, people management is a typical growth pain point for business leaders and business owners, but without overcoming this challenge you cannot scale to the next level of growth.

I have found myself in this position many times over the last 20 years. At times, I have not been able to find the right person or, when I did, they left because my retention strategy did not work (or, to be honest, I didn't have one at the time).

Sometimes you may wonder if you made the right choice stepping into the role of being a business leader or owning a business. Then the thought of having lots of bosses crosses your mind and you reconnect to why you took this path in the first place. So, you put these thoughts aside and then refocus and, once again, you are ‘head down’ solving these people problems so your business can grow.

To grow successfully, you need the right people in the right jobs doing the right things at the right time to ensure that your business needs are being met.

Consider this example. You find yourself pacing your lounge room and kitchen. You look at the clock and it is 3am. You've been up for at least two hours already. You are feeling stressed and don't know how to slow down your mind, which is racing through all sorts of scenarios because you think you are about to lose John and Amanda from your business. This repeated thought alone gets your heart rate up.

They are both key leaders and have grown with you and the business. They are dedicated, highly engaged and productive. Well, at least that is what you thought.

John came into your office four days ago and announced to you sheepishly that he has been offered a better job with more money. He says he is thinking of taking it because he has been with you for five years now and perhaps it is time for a change. You are disappointed, although you are trying not to alienate him with your disappointment as you absorb the news. You thought John was going to be there forever and had plans for him taking on more. And he had not indicated that he was unhappy at any stage, or that he was thinking of leaving.

Amanda, on the other hand, has not been fully present at work for a few weeks now. She has been doing all the tasks but her normal high levels of energy have been missing. She says it has nothing to do with work and that her home is stressful at present. You know her partner works in a high-paying job and earns more than her, and they are also raising two young children while managing their careers.

You have asked her several times if she needs anything, and she always says she will let you know if she does. She says her husband has suggested she could cut down her days at work to make more time for raising their family, but she is not sure she wants to do that. You have thought about letting her work four days a week instead of five if she requests it. What if she wants to quit? She runs most of the operations and is your right-hand person.

And what if they both leave within the next two weeks, which is the notice they have to give? You find yourself thinking your contract is not right. You need a year's notice to replace people like John and Amanda, which seems impossible anyway.

The business you have worked so hard to build is based on the foundation of people like John and Amanda. If they both left, it would take you months or maybe years to get other people trained to the same skill level and with the same attitude.

You find yourself wondering, ‘Is there something I'm missing?’ ‘Have I missed the signs?’ ‘Did I forget to love my best people?’ ‘Why did I not create a succession plan?’

You realise that in the last few months, you have regained your family and work balance, but if John and Amanda leave you may go back to doing the things you thought you had finally delegated. Your partner and kids see more of you now, but what if that changes as a result of this sudden shift in your business?

Your head is still spinning. You have a big day tomorrow, with key meetings, although you aren't sure how to get yourself back to sleep …

Can you relate to any of these thoughts? I have found myself in this situation many times, and this is the reason I wanted to write this book.

Not every idea I share will work for your people or your business — and some you may have already implemented. So, I am going to offer you a variety of ideas, actions and models to try, which you can review so you can decide which ones you want to implement.

How to use this book

In this book, I want to share with you 7 simple strategies that may help you attract and retain great people, and to develop people that can step up.

Each chapter has a number of suggested actions you may want to implement to improve the people you hire and retain. As you are reading through the suggested actions, I suggest that you focus on one action per chapter at first. If you are experiencing overwhelm, then just pick one action to implement from the book and see where that takes you. My goal for any book I read is that I get a minimum of one good idea that I can use in my business, family or personal life, and I apply it straight away. That is my intention for you as the reader of this book.

This book is practical. I share what I have done when it comes to attracting and retaining people, and getting people to step up. I will be honest about what has worked for me and what has not; what I did that worked and where I failed (sometimes miserably!). I am going to be vulnerable, thanks to Brené Brown — who I love and appreciate for teaching me about the importance of vulnerability.

I highlight examples from some of the world's biggest companies that you can aspire to emulate and learn from. I share examples from other small business leaders and owners, some of whom I have had the opportunity to work with, as well as exploring what well-known leaders and businesses are implementing to attract the right people, retain these people and get them to step up. I also share some of the models, theories and parables I have found useful so you can gain further insight into how to get people to step up.

At the end of each chapter, I provide several coaching questions I would be asking if you and I were sitting in a 1:1 coaching session. You might find it most helpful to answer these in a journal so you can identify gaps that you can action.

In this book, we will spend time breaking down some myths and creating new strategies around finding and keeping the best people, and bridging the gap between your desired results and the actual results you can achieve if you have high-performing people.

I also want to acknowledge YOU at this point. You are reading this book as part of wanting to continue to grow and learn, and try things in a different way when it comes to the people in your business. Give yourself a pat on the back for wanting to keep learning and trying new things.

Together, we can unlock the potential of your most valuable asset — some of your amazing people.

Vamos! Allons-y! Andiamo! Chalo! Let's go!

PART IATTRACTING THE RIGHT PEOPLE

CHAPTER 1PEOPLE NEED SOMETHING TO BELIEVE IN: Creating a shared vision

I love working with businesses. I love the journey of walking into a business that isn't performing very well, finding the gaps in the way they operate and finding ways to close those gaps. These gaps are where the opportunities lie. Each time, I ask myself, ‘How can I fix this business, help its people in the process and make it more profitable?’

I have taken several businesses that were underperforming and, through the work I do with my clients, fixed them up so they generate more profit.

I call this process ‘creating a shared vision’.

In order for a shared vision to work, we need two things:

We need to be clear what the vision is.

We need our people to be able to see it so they can help us reach that vision.

Our people need a vision to believe in. Why? Because people want and need something to believe in.

As a personal example, I like to renovate properties — and to be successful when renovating, I try and create a clear vision of the outcome. I also need the contractors I hire (my people) to see what I am seeing. I do this by creating a Pinterest board with images of the end product I envision after the renovation, and I share this Pinterest board with the contractors for each project.

A property that is rundown and needs work aesthetically is my ideal property. The three changes I usually make are adding a new kitchen, painting inside and out, and redoing the floors or windows as these improvements add the most value to a property. Once the contractors have seen my vision — which is what I see — the work starts to be in ‘flow’ as we are all working towards the same vision. When I have not been able to get a clear vision when viewing a property or a business, I have made the decision to not buy that property.

The same applies in business. For example, I looked at purchasing a recruitment business that looked great on the outset but after conducting my due diligence process, there was not much value in the business besides the business owner and her reputation. I thought that it was overpriced at $1 million, mainly because I could not see the vision of the current owner, nor could I see the gaps that I could fix. And if I can't see the vision, how do I show the people who are working within that business what to see? Simple answer, I can't. And if they can't see it, they won't believe in it — and the business will not work or grow.

I have also got the vision exercise wrong before. I once bought a kids’ playcentre without having clarity on my vision. I got so excited about finding the operational gaps I could fix that I was blindsided by the lack of vision.

After I bought the business, I realised it needed a large cash injection, which I had not catered for as I was trying to balance too many other responsibilities at the same time. These responsibilities included raising two small children, running two other growing businesses and fully renovating our home, for which I was the project manager. As I had no vision, I found it difficult to get the people in the business to see the vision and be inspired. And over the course of almost a year, when I was running that business without a vision, it was difficult to inspire the people within the business as they didn't know what they were working towards.

In hindsight, the vision was a simple one and should have been clear to me: It was to make kids (and their parents) happy. However, I was so focused on small profit-making initiatives that did not lead anywhere (such as providing the right coffee and food for the parents) that I failed to engage the people working within the business. Instead of getting excited about working there each day, my people were disengaged and could not see what I was trying to create — which is no surprise, as I was also disengaged with my vision.

Operational fixes are not that inspiring (though identifying them can feel amazing). This playcentre failure cost me a lot of money and made a dent in my confidence — and to be brutally honest, the failure dented my ego as well. I hired a great coach to help me deal with this failure, who advised me to learn from the experience so I didn't repeat the same mistake. I indeed learned a valuable and expensive lesson: Don't start a business if you have no vision. (I also learned about the importance of detailed due diligence to get an understanding of the need for future cash injections!)

As a business leader and owner, you need to see the vision for your business and be able to get your people to see it too.

Setting your vision

I get asked by many people if a great manager can set the vision. I believe the difference between a leader (or business owner) and a manager (who the leader or business owner hires to implement the vision) is that a leader sets the direction (of the vision) and the manager sets the speed at which you will travel to achieve your vision.

The direction sets a clear path for you to take to achieve the vision. Leaders are responsible for defining the vision, mission and long-term goals of the business, guiding its strategic direction, and inspiring others to follow a shared purpose. They establish the framework within which the business operates, providing clarity of purpose and a sense of direction to align the efforts of its people towards common goals.

Managers, on the other hand, concentrate on the operational aspects of achieving these goals, ensuring allocation of resources, coordinating tasks, and driving productivity to accomplish the goals set out within specified time frames. While leaders chart the course, managers oversee the pace of progress.

As the business leader and owner, you want to take your business from A to B — this is your vision for the business. For an illustrative example, imagine that you, as a leader (who is responsible for setting the vision), decide to move from Adelaide to Brisbane (both cities in Australia I happen to have lived in — and literally from A to B!). This decision sets the direction of the business.

Once you have set the vision, your manager is responsible for working out how you will move from Adelaide to Brisbane and how you can get there as efficiently and effectively as possible. Are you going to fly? Are you going to drive? Where are you going to stop? How are you going to pay for that? What budget do you need? Who else is coming? They will be considering all the details to realise the vision.

The manager and the people in your business need to see the vision to help you realise your vision. They need to believe in where you're going (which is Brisbane, in this example). As the business leader and owner, you need to help your manager(s) and people to visualise Brisbane and the amazing place it will be.

I frequently use the example of going from A to B and referring to the two as Adelaide to Brisbane in my speaking and coaching work. And as I was writing this chapter, I had an epiphany.

Both my husband and I felt that we wanted to move our family to Brisbane as it had better opportunities for a family of four in terms of work, education and opportunities. We had our Vedic charts done to see which city was best to live in (that is a story for another time!).

We wanted to convince our kids, so we painted a picture of the benefits of living in Brisbane and asked for their input — and they got the visualisation, which we went through with them several times. I even made a PowerPoint presentation (yes, I know that sounds crazy but I wanted to use my speaking abilities to present our vision to them, and not force them to see it). We wanted them to be inspired to move with us and share the vision for the move, not just move because we made them.

One of our kids wanted a house with a pool, and the other wanted a second cat. We ticked these requests off the list for both of them and then we moved. We got our people to see the vision!

When different people see the same vision in different ways

Imagine two people are working on a construction site where a grand temple is being built in hot and dusty conditions.

People often stop to ask the workers about what they are doing.

One day, a traveller asks the construction workers, ‘What are you building?’

The first construction worker says, ‘I'm chipping away at this rock, as you can see. It's hot, dusty and backbreaking work. But I need the money to put food on the table for my family.’

The traveller then asks the second construction worker what they are building.

The second person says, ‘I am building a temple where people can come and connect and pray.’ They believe in something bigger than a rock. They believe they are building a temple. They believe in a vision.

If you align the names of the key people in your business against the first construction worker and the second construction worker in this parable, how many of each type of person do you have in your business? As leaders and owners, we all want more people with the attitudes of the second construction worker in our business.

Gaudí's visionary legacy

One of my favourite cities in the world is Barcelona, Spain. And one person whose name you cannot escape in Barcelona is the architect Antoni Gaudí.

Gaudí's most famous building, the Sagrada Família, is an example of a vision of artistic brilliance. Located in the heart of Barcelona, this iconic architectural masterpiece is more than just a church. When I stand in front of it, which I have done many times, its beauty always leaves me in awe, despite the thousands of tourists from all over the world who are walking all around me.

When Gaudí took over the project of designing the church in 1883, he transformed it into a visionary work of art. He saw the basilica not just as a place of worship but as a space for creation.

Gaudí's vision for the Sagrada Família extended far beyond his own lifetime. He knew that completing such an ambitious project would take decades, if not centuries. Gaudí saw himself as a part of a larger vision and he believed that the basilica's construction should continue long after his death.

He left behind detailed plans and models, ensuring that future architects and builders could carry on his vision. This type of vision goes beyond the self and links into purpose. In my view, Gaudí's purpose was to help others see what he saw — to finish building what he had started to build.

The Sagrada Família's ongoing construction shares many parallels with business. Business leaders and owners often embark on ambitious projects that require a clear vision to succeed. In much the same way, the basilica's continued construction relies on a network of passionate believers and patrons.

Business leaders and owners are expected to inspire their people to work towards a common vision. To achieve this, they must instil that vision in their people.

In August 2023, I was on a business retreat in Western Australia. I met the CEO of a famous winery, which was a third-generation family business. When speaking to the CEO about finding the right wines for the consumers of the future, he showed me some vines they had recently planted and explained that the resulting wines won't be released in his lifetime.

He said that the business has to think long term and that there was no place for the ego when making these decisions. I found this so