Thoughts from The 100: Defining the Purpose of a Business

The-100-Title-OnlyIn previous posts, I provided practical “tactical” tips for providing leadership that helps employees to achieve their potential and for ensuring that your business (and that of your clients) thrives. Today’s message is broader, but ultimately the most important: Know what matters!

Ever heard the maxim, “If we don’t stand for something, we will fall for anything”? This is true for people and organizations. Without clarity around core beliefs and purpose, we can be blown off course by the latest fad, or, worse, start to think that we and our efforts do not matter.

Before I founded Intertech I worked for a large information technology company in the Twin Cities. My manager told me not to worry about putting in extra effort because the company was so big there was no need for any one employee to shoulder any additional effort. That was the moment I found my purpose. I knew I wanted my efforts to matter. Intertech was founded quickly thereafter.

A company’s core purpose should be clear and unchanging. Intertech’s purpose is “to create a place where people matter and where our clients’ businesses are improved through technology.”

In my next series of posts I’ll examine “Outsmarting and Out-planning the Competition with Strategy.  

Learn more about in my book “The 100: Building Blocks for Business Leadership.”

standardOctober 4Tom SalonekLeadership

Join Me at Startup Grind Minneapolis

Startup Grind

Join me on Monday, September 12th @ 6:30 at COCO Downtown Minneapolis for a Startup Grind Fireside Chat.  I’ll be spending an hour or so with Loring Kaveney talking about entrepreneurship, Intertech, and my latest book.  Here’s the agenda for the evening:

6:30 pm Networking and Food
7:30 pm Fireside Chat
8:30 pm More Networking

standardSeptember 6Tom SalonekLeadership

Thoughts from The 100: Identifying Saints, Dogs, and Stars

 

The-100-Title-OnlyTo keep morale and motivation high, it’s essential to motivate your top performers as well those who need to improve and those who need to be shown the door. There’s a shorthand code for these three groups of employees:

Saints: those who may be a great fit with our culture but who are poor performers.

  • Dogs: those who score high on the performance scale but who are a poor cultural fit
  • Stars: those rare but wonderful individuals who are both high performers and a good fit with our cultural values. These folks are given extra incentives to remain long-term members of our organization.

Our response to saints and dogs is the same: shape up or ship out. While this may sound harsh, keeping employees who don’t perform or fit with your company values risks bringing down the whole ship.

As I note in my new book, “The 100: Building Blocks for Business Leadership,” most employees are not fired because they lack necessary technical skills. Most often they have poor emotional intelligence. In other words, their personality or people skills are a poor fit with our cultural expectations. Firing someone with top technical skills who alienates clients or teammates through arrogance or bullying is a no-brainer. Those folks, along with those kind souls who can’t seem to get anything done, are not organizational assets.

Once you’ve made a decision to let someone go, do so quickly and use the following guidelines to make the process as painless as possible (for you and them!):

  • Have two people from your firm present
  • Bring a legal separation (especially if severance pay is involved) agreement
  • Quickly pay the fired employee for all hours worked and for unreimbursed expenses and any unused vacation time
  • Be mentally prepared for the employee to promise he or she will change
  • Do not let the employee change your decision
standardAugust 30Tom SalonekHappy Employees