ADOPT A WINNERS MINDSET

YOUR BUSINESS REFLECTS YOUR BEHAVIOUR SO ADOPT A WINNERS MINDSET!

At many storage facilities the quality of the team is a direct reflection of the mindset of the store owner or manager. Your staff want the boss to be fair, organised, and most of all positive.

Nobody wants to have a critical, angry or uncaring boss. Sadly, good staff leave poor bosses and bad staff only stay because they can’t get a job elsewhere. Eventually the team is a reflection of the boss and the sales results are a reflection of the attitude of the team.

So are you a beacon of positivity, optimism and tough love? Does your behaviour really attract the best staff? If you are feeling depressed, angry or grumpy you can shift your mood by focussing on a positive future - getting clear on what you want to achieve – not those things that you want to avoid. Always start with Why? – think about your true Purpose – the real reason why you want to run a successful facility. Making a dollar or making a difference to others?

It turns out that your mood affects the performance of the staff and the results of your store. You can improve your mood by improving your diet (eat healthier) and doing some light exercise before work. A poor attitude can be turned around by asking yourself some re-focussing questions: l What’s working well for you? (Not the things that are wrong!) l What do you like about your work or life? (Not your problems) l What are you looking forward to? (Not the past) l What are you grateful for? (Not being ungrateful) l What can we do? (Not the things we can’t do) l What’s the next step? (Not just procrastinating) Other things you can do to shift your attitude include: l physical movement or walking, deep breathing, being grateful, repeating positive affirmations or

“I am” statements, visualisation l meditation, playing your favourite music, talking to positive friends and having a goals focus.

Always set some future goals and have a personal plan and know what you want! Make sure you balance the stress in your life with regular de-stressing time – take a holiday, spend time alone (or on a hobby) or more time with positive friends and family.

DEVELOPING A GREAT TEAM CULTURE - BUILDING A HIGH PERFORMANCE TEAM:

Apart from improving leadership skills, what else can you do to create a better team for your store? Let’s start by being absolutely crystal clear on your expectations.

Did you know at Singapore airport the airport management had installed a ceramic fly target on every urinal in the men’s restrooms? This gave every man something to aim at and had noticeably improved results. Urine spillage had been reduced by more than 30%!

Give your staff something to aim at – agree on some reasonable outcomes and goals and KPI’s. Provide regular feedback to them.

Each staff member needs personal expectations too – you’ll need a clear job description – their roles and responsibilities. Tell them exactly what you expect from them. Agree on some House Rules – especially about the things that cause the most problems e.g. – being on time, wearing uniforms, private use of phones, replacing paper, cleaning toilets,putting things in their place. You should

also be clear on your code of conduct – expectations about safety, damage and behaviours. Documentation and pictures really help get the message across.

USE A ‘TOUGH LOVE’ APPROACH – TEAM DISCIPLINE COUNTS!

Now that you have clearly set your expectations, you’ll need to maintain that culture with discipline. You’ll need to adopt a “Tough love” approach – which means you’ll need to “call” those poor behaviours when they happen and take disciplinary action on breaches. There needs to be consequences.

If you let just ONE team member do the wrong thing – that sends a message to all the staff that there is a new standard – feel free to turn up late, make a mess, damage things or even steal!

You’ll need to lead by example - your team is watching what you do, not listening to what you say. You’re just like a goldfish in a fishbowl. Everyone is looking to see how you behave when things go wrong or when someone does the wrong thing. You’ll need to be absolutely fair in applying discipline. As the education department is fond of saying ”what you allow you teach”. Remember - you get what you put up with and you get what you truly deserve.

Occasionally you need to push people outside their comfort zone – to expect more from them than they do of themselves.

You can improve the culture of your team by focussing on being neat and clean – start by improving your facilities – toilets, lunchroom and the smoking area. You’ll impress your team and your customers too!

ENERGISING YOUR TEAM – BUILD BETTER STAFF RELATIONSHIPS

Do you remember your teachers when you were at school? You probably had a great relationship with some teachers and you may have disliked a few too. Do you recall that your performance in each class changed depending on the relationship with the teachers. The better the relationship, the better the result – you worked harder, liked the subject more and even got a better grade.

Same things happen at work. When you have a great relationship with a staff member – they work harder, you give more positive feedback and they do the right things. When you have a terrible relationship – they avoid working hard, you give negative feedback and they do things to annoy you.

This is called “Naughty boy syndrome” – if you don’t give me enough positive attention – genuine praise and appreciation – then I’ll do naughty things just to get ANY attention. The ratio of positive feedback to negative feedback needs to be at least 3 to 1. If it’s all BAD FEEDBACK– then it’s all downhill and staff members will avoid you and perform poorly.

Eighty percent of Australian staff want more appreciation. They feel underappreciated by the boss. You can get better results from your staff by filling up their “Love bucket” – energising them with more praise, appreciation, recognition, touch and more time & attention from you. l Praise them – “You did….” l Appreciate them – “Thanks for…” l Recognise them – physical tokens, events and rewards l Touch them – Pats on the back, high fives l You – Your time and attention – genuine listening/advice from someone respected.

Just make sure that you avoid making cynical and sarcastic comments. Sarcasm and negativity are the fastest ways to kill teamwork and should be avoided in the whole team. Start a “sarcasm fine jar” and reduce your own sarcastic comments. Positivity pays!

Try these manager mantras for success: l “What gets REWARDED gets REPEATED and What gets

CELEBRATED gets ACHIEVED” l “Where your ATTENTION goes – the MONEY flows”

BE A GREAT TEAM COACH – ASK MORE QUESTIONS!

Famous entrepreneur Dick Smith once said – “stop telling the staff what to do”. He said to ask more questions instead and let them solve their own problems.

When a staff member has a problem ask them: l “What do you think we should do? l “What else can we do? – What else?” (multiple times) l “Which do you think is best?” – Great do that!

Now – most times the first answer isn’t very good. Staff are used to you telling them what to do – it’s easy and they prefer it. The only downside is you need to be there all the time and solve every problem. After a while they realise they were going to be asked questions – and then they start bringing solutions – not the problem. Start asking questions and seeking input. Sure it’s slow to start - it’s short term pain for long term gain. Develop the habit of asking great questions and empowering your team.

Start by calling the problem and inviting feedback with these questions l “We seem to have a problem with … what can we do about it” l “There appears to be a problem with …… what can we do?” l “I’ve noticed …… What do you suggest we do”

If they are really stuck for a solution – ask them what other resources they have tried?

Google it, check on Youtube, ask someone else, phone an expert and finally, seek input from the boss. Don’t tell them the answer – just make a suggestion “Have you thought about…” – let them connect the dots in their head and own their solution.

If you get your team to create enough systems, checklists and processes you can stop telling people what to do. Set your overall expectations and get your team to come up with ideas on how to get it done. They will have more “Buy-in” because they want to prove that their ideas work. l