People
The 3rd P is people. Great business advice may begin with corporate philosophy and promises to the marketplace, but it ends with the people who work in the business. Great business advice is practical advice. It is advice that everyone can relate to, and wants to be part of.
Different people do different jobs, and they are all part of the company that delivers its philosophy via products and services to its customers. A lot of business advice is about motivation. Motivation boils down to people wanting to do their best – for themselves, for the people they work with and work for, and for the customer. As we said before, there is no silver bullet; people work best when the 4A’s are in place.
A1: Attitude. Some people are the right fit, and some are not; it comes down to their general attitude as far as their overall job description is concerned. People who are cut out to be research lab technicians or tool makers may not be best suited to work in sales, for example. People who are great “lone wolf” sales superstars may not be the best fit to get recruited or promoted to the sales manager’s position.
When the square pegs ares forced into the round holes, the result is usually inefficiency, fall-off in quality, and demotivation. The individual becomes demotivated, and so does their team. The people who rely on those people’s results also get demotivated: “They don’t care, so why should we?” Putting square pegs in square holes, and round pegs in round holes is good advice.
Add to that effects of The Peter Principle. This states that people get promoted to their level of incompetence. Will the great lone wolf sales superstar be happy sitting at a desk producing reports for the board, and coaching others? The great sales pro may not be a great sales manager. The piece of advice to take note of is Check their attitude, based on their work history, before you hire or promote someone. “Hope” and “assumption” rarely beat “facts.” If the people have the right attitude, then the other A’s comes into play. We will discuss those in Part V.
The Takeaway
People’s attitudes must be considered when recruiting and promoting them.
