How to Kill Your Profits With Poor People Management

With four of us in the family who are all into health and fitness, we used to attend this particular practice.

The actual environment is lovely; however there was always a high turnover of physiotherapists. It’s only a small practice yet it seemed that apart from the owner and one other physio who looked after us, the rest seemed to come and go fairly quickly.

I could easily see what the problem was…the owner. He lacked fundamental communication and business skills. Sure he knew his ‘stuff’ about how to help someone heal their body but he sorely missed basic skills in leadership and managing his own staff.

The funny thing was he had a ‘Mission Statement’ in his office stating “Our people are our number one asset”. How often have you seen this in businesses around the country? Quite often the opposite is true.

If Don’s people were his no.1 asset then he should have got the message by now, that with the high turnover of staff, there was one common problem… himself!

Not only was this business owner sadly lacking in leadership, business and communication skills, it was reflected by the people he hired. And it was no use trying offer advice to him… he thought he knew everything.

Due to his lack of knowledge and personal development, heaps of time was wasted and potential business lost. Then there was the stress of having to work extra long hours whilst he was finding new employees.  This also caused uncertainty for his patients.  In fact we ended up leaving, because we were fed up with a number of things: hearing from the staff about how poorly they were treated by the owner, we were often seen late (their lack of time management) and how we were often treated in a rude manner by the receptionist.

From an employee’s perspective, they often leave because they are unappreciated. They are taken for granted.  I knew that had happened in many instances in this particular business.  The owner had hired some great people but he himself was difficult to get along with and made it very uncomfortable.

He was a perfectionist and if his people didn’t get things ‘right’, he’d let them know…all the time.

When I ask new clients how often they get together with their people on an individual or group basis to discuss their performance and get their perspective on how they find their jobs and how to improve things, a common response is “it’s something I’ve been meaning to do”. I’VE BEEN SO BUSY!!!”

The Final Word

To find and keep the right people requires many skills.  Get yourself organised and allocate regular time to continually work on this very important area of your business…

Tags: Articles, Productivity, Productivity