Devoted to Managers and those that seek to improve their management skills

In an excellent article by Chet Holmes, he discusses the reason behind why so many CEOs and entrepreneurs fail. The major reason he cites is that they fail to "tap into the incredible treasure trove of knowledge, harness the energies and then channel the efforts of your employees to help you become great."

When talking about the saying we hear that says "work on the business not just in the business," he says that you must ask three questions of your people: "Where's the pain? What needs to be fixed? What can we do to fix it?"

There are times when we hear these particular things mentioned and business leaders cringing at opening up what they perceive as a "can of worms." On the employee side, they hear it and immediately think of the consequences of speaking freely about what they see.

When these two concerns are dealt with, it is there that real progress can be made. What's going to happen next? A painful process. This should be ok, as long as you're not surprised by it. If you're reading this you don't have to be.

When asking your employees the question "what's broken" or "where's the pain," it starts a great benefit for you and the business when its done right.

Management must keep a great attitude with no thought of retribution or mentally marking the one that reveals something. Don't try to get into shouting matches to convince the one saying something that they are wrong. You've got to suck it in here and let workers have their say. Sure, there'll be a lot of dross, but in that you will also find gold.
 
When you find the gold, see to it that the one or ones that have imparted it are recognized and rewarded in some way. This can do more to provide morale and loyalty than almost anything else you can do. The other thing it does is help workers to buy into being more than a body in the company; but also being part of something bigger than themselves.

Not doing this is one of the reasons that so many business leaders fail. Encourage this process with complete honesty and integrity while showing respect unto your workers and you will not be one of those wondering why things didn't work out for you.
 
Have you tapped into the power of your employees?