WHAT BUSINESS OWNERS WANT MOST FROM EMPLOYEES

One of the most difficult goals for business owners is to find, recruit, and hire the right people who will assist them to be successful in their business. What they should look for in potential employees can be confusing. The most important characteristic business owners will want and need from their employees is exceptional integrity.

Integrity of employees is critical because without it the business owner cannot count on receiving the results expected and promised. No matter how qualified, how experienced, or how skilled a person is, if they cannot be trusted they have practically no value to the owner or the business. If a highly qualified employee cannot be counted on to use their skills, knowledge, and experience to perform and produce the results promised and paid for, then what good are they? Business owners hire people to produce results. Owners get no value from potential results.

Integrity is a word that has developed many different definitions and nuances. Business owners need their employees to embody and exhibit two components of integrity:

Integrity Component #1 – Responsibility

Employees will take full responsibility for all of their actions, by completing all
agreed upon or expected tasks, to achieve required results at or before the
expected times. Employees also will disclose immediately and fully to the
owners and all other affected parties any obstacles to success they encounter,
so that emergency actions can be taken to reverse and/or reduce the impact of
failure. This way, owners can count on the timely and full delivery of expected
results from all employees, and will have the confidence to know they will be
immediately alerted to possible delays or shortcomings, so that corrective
actions can be taken beforehand.

The principles of life that govern responsibility are:

• To agree to perform certain tasks and achieve expected results is basic.
• To complete the tasks, and achieve the expected results within the agreed time creates reliance.
• To be interrupted by Acts of God is life.
• To inform those affected by these Acts of God rapidly and focus on creating positive solutions is exemplary, and creates bonding trust, which is required.
• Trust must be earned through repeated trustworthy actions.
• To violate one’s hard-earned trust, just once, is shameful and disastrous to all concerned, especially the violator, and is the strongest signal of one’s lack of integrity.
• The violation of someone’s trust will not be tolerated.
• Integrity is brought by the employee to the position, and cannot be created or destroyed by the employer.

Integrity Component #2 – Honesty

Employees will be completely honest and open with the owner, by immediately volunteering, and freely reporting all negative reactions from clients, other employees, and or people who have interacted with the employees. Employees will also provide their reasons for their negative reactions and the full honest behavior (without any omissions) by the employees prior to the negative reaction. The purpose is to create possible solutions to convert the negative reactions into positive bonding opportunities. Any withholding of information or delays in admitting mistakes or of having possibly created negative responses is considered a violation of trust.

The principles of life that govern Honesty:

• To err is human, which is life.
• To rapidly, fully admit, and explain one’s error shows integrity, which is required.
• To work honestly and earnestly towards overcoming the error is exemplary, and creates bonding trust, which is required.
• The violation of one’s trust will not be tolerated.
• Integrity is brought by the employee to the position, and cannot be created or destroyed by the employer.

There are three very common reasons business owners fail at managing their people to success. They are listed in descending order.

• The most common reason business owners fail in managing people to success is that they do not hire and require all employees to have and practice both components of integrity.
• The second most important reason owners fail in managing people to success is that they do not properly acknowledge and reward employees that have and practice both forms of integrity.
• The third most common reason owners fail is that they allow employees who have violated a component of integrity to continue employment. Keeping untrustworthy employees poisons the barrel and creates a very unhealthy environment for the high integrity employees to thrive.

Everybody talks about Integrity, but few people really understand what it is and how it applies to the work place. Business owners are responsible for the success of their business, and they want and need to surround themselves with people who have and practice both components of Integrity described. Owners need to build a smooth self-running team to produce the results of the business to generate the income and profits desired. The entire team depends on the trust and confidence of each team member performing as expected and promised. When just one team member becomes untrustworthy, the entire team suffers and ultimately, so does the business.

By Bill Dueease
President, The Coach Connection (http://www.findyourcoach.com)