Business owners "give up the gold" when they fail to resolve two issues that prevent them from having truly great people in their organizations. In fact, there are only two people issues in the wonderful world of business. They come in many disguises but they all boil down to two root causes:
- Wrong person ... doesn't embrace your culture, share your values or "fit" in the organization;
- Wrong seat ... doesn't Get it, Want it or have the Capacity to do the job in the time allotted;
That's it. The only two people issues you'll ever have to deal with in your business. If you've convinced yourself otherwise, you're most likely being held hostage by someone. Avoid dealing with these common employee issues at your peril:
- He has specific technical knowledge that he chooses not to share with others. Although he's really a bottleneck, in your mind he's irreplaceable;
- She has cobbled together unrelated skills, interests and tasks and created a job that fits her needs but not necessarily those of the company;
- He has been with you through thick and thin and although he's now in over his head, you feel an obligation to reward his loyalty;
- He is your brother-in-law. He doesn't share your values and its a problem but you're convinced that facing your sister at Thanksgiving would be an even bigger problem;
- She is nearing retirement but stopped contributing a long, long time ago. Sadly, so has her entire department;
Do these issues sound familiar? Remember they're symptoms of the two root causes. You owe it to yourself and your organization to resolve them.
