What is expected...

Today - a thought to consider from Coach Wooden

"Without supervision and leadership and a disciplined effort by all, much of our united strength will be dissipated by pulling against ourselves. Let us not be victimized by a breakdown from within." (pre-season letter to the team, 1965)

A disciplined effort by all. Not by some, not by one, not by a chosen few but by all.

If you are working in a leadership team or on any team for that matter, disciplined effort is critical from everyone.

What are some of the things that you may not be as disciplined in as you should be?
How can you improve in this area?
What steps can you take for improvement?
Who on your team can hold you accountable?

Targets or Employees

How do you view your staff?

You know, the people that you pay to live out the mission and vision that you have for your organization. The people you hired because of their skills, talents, experience.....yeah, those people.

Do you view your staff as a mechanism to add value to your company? Have you thought about how well you treat, train, pay and communicate with them?

Staff, employees, work teams, sales force - whatever you choose to call them can really make or break any organization. I think that we can agree that employees are important players in any business. So why do we sometimes think of them in a way that appears that we have them walking around with a bulls eye painted squarely on their backs?

I ask this because in conversations over the past month about how bad the economy is and is going to get - I have heard people making recommendations and plans to cut staff.

They are overhead.

An expense.

But these are the same people that you have, hopefully, trained and invested your time and your money in. They have been with you through the tough times, but now as tougher times approach, they are the first to be sacrificed.

Business decisions are hard and business decisions in murky economic times are harder - but let's not enter into these tough times by first strapping targets on the backs of those that have the power, training, skill and experience to lead you to the light.

If you need to cut back on things look at the overhead expenses and things that can be taken away with out effecting your human capital. If you take away or cut back your human capital, service, sales, and your bottom line could potentially suffer a great deal more.

By putting targets on the backs of your staff you could be costing your business a lot more than you will save.

Is that the direction you want to take your business in?