Was That Santa?
Last week I was at the Sheraton near the airport in Atlanta to speak at the MSP University Boot Camp. During a quiet moment in the morning I was up in my room and heard the gardeners working below. What I saw caught me by surprise.
One gardener was operating a lawn mower with a small trailer he could step on to ride behind it standing. He was moving as fast as seemed humanly possible and not missing an inch. High quality work in the least amount of time. A short time later another gardener came through with a weed whacker to cut the edges. He was walking almost as fast as he could to complete the work. Then without any wasted time he reviewed his work, lifted the whacker onto his shoulder with one hand and with his other hand pushed a smaller mower to the next section of grass.
It was almost like watching Santa arrive, and with total focus, race comfortably through his work.
Later that day when an employee of the hotel drove me to the hotel I asked whether the gardeners were paid based on the job rather than by the hour. He agreed they were paid by the job, so they were motivated to be done quickly. He also mentioned they did great work because there was a lot of competition for the business.
So this begs the question for us as leaders:
1. How do we pay people based on results instead of time? If we do this well, it will help motivate people to focus on activities that deliver results rather than just putting in their time.
2. How do we motivate people to hold themselves accountable? When this happens then as managers we can work more on our business than for our business.
Take 15 minutes today to consider one job in your company that could be more productive. What are the key tasks of that job and how could you pay the person based on results rather than time? By the way, for this exercise to be successful you must want to pay your people more money when they deliver more results. If you just want more results for the same money, then you may be wasting your time.
Help others self-motivate to make more money so that the rest of your life is the best of your life.
Be an intentional leader.
Meeting Ideas
Was That Santa is about appreciating great work and superb productivity with greater compensation. It is a win-win. Of course the process starts with hiring the right people and depends on your intentional leadership fully engaging people as members of your team.
This is an exercise to do on your own. If you feel there is an opportunity to pilot a new compensation program, then consider a similar process to discuss your opportunity at your next staff meeting:
1. Identify one job that could be more productive. What are the clear, measurable results of that job - today and in an ideal situation where the person is fully productive? Not the activities, start with the results.
2. What is difference in revenue or cost savings to your company if that person becomes fully productive?
3. What type of simple compensation program could you put in place that rewards full productivity and deducts for poor productivity?
4. Discuss your new pilot compensation program with three people who will tell you that you are wrong. (Do not waste time with people not strong enough or willing to confront you.)
5. Implement the plan as a six-month pilot with the employee(s) in question. Pay them based on their existing plan or the pilot program, whichever is more. Help them understand how they are making more money.
6. Let me know how it goes. Or contact me with any questions. Have fun!
