A 2012 study by Deloitte found 94% of executives and 88% of employees believe a distinct workplace culture is important to business success, no surprises here.

When hiring, there is no doubt that cultural fit is one of the most critical factors. It is also important that the team the new recruit is being brought into displays a responsibility to both the organisation and individual to ensure overall success.

Companies of all sizes need to respond to the rapid changes in the market place; if you are growing or not your culture needs to be flexible and accommodating in terms of the people that join it, newbies quickly need to be understood and accepted as part of your team. An organisations culture can often be its greatest strength but as someone famous once said “in the shadow of your greatest strength is often your greatest weakness”. 

“Corporate Culture matters. How management chooses to treats its people impacts everything – for better or for worse” Simon Sinek

I once worked in an organisation that was growing – we needed a better link between regional manufacturing and metropolitan marketing. Over the course of a couple of years, we tried two strategies i.e. production manager based in the factory and a sales director based close to the markets – both failed and not necessarily because of the individuals but (maybe) because the organisation wasn’t ready for them. I feel for the two of them whose careers were disrupted by poor planning of others and the rigidity of a culture that wasn’t ready for them.

It is easy to blame the individuals that are no longer around to defend themselves for the inadequacies of those that remain behind.

Just saying.
 
 **Charlie is an expert in developing external sales teams and people, particularly where relationships and solution selling are the key differentiators. www.charliepidcock.com.au

“Just because you can measure anything doesn’t mean you should measure everything”

A few months back in a conversation with an HR Director from an international organisation she explained the challenges the company was having with the performance of their sales team, nothing new here.

Some fairly straightforward questions about their performance that wasn’t good enough, how they approached their job, how they were remunerated, what level of training they provided etc….etc…etc…. were met with disrespect and disdain; again, nothing new here, been there, done that.

The discussion (or lecture…) continued and I asked what the sales people were measured on and she got a little more animated… "we measure everything…. how many phone calls they make, to whom, for how long, who are they calling, where are these people in the pipeline, what are their conversion rates,” the list went on & on.

Further on I asked what the organisation’s staff retention was “…. Oh we don’t measure that but I have been here 8 years, such & such has been here a year and him 2 years and her 2 as well…….”, as HR Director I’d have thought this would be a critical measure.

My problem and my experience are twofold:

Focus
A paper by the Miller Heiman Group titled “Why you’re measuring too much?” talks about the need to simplify or we risk overwhelming sales teams, advising picking 3 – 5 measures around “leading” NOT “lagging” indicators. Statistics from a recent survey were that 45% of sales performance metrics were aligned with overall company objectives, in world class organisations the number was 93%.

In one of my previous lives my sales team had 27 different KPIs, we were measuring / administrating ourselves to a standstill. It is a lot like try to herd cats or as Confucius says “if you give someone two rabbits to chase they will catch neither…”.

The other “interesting” aspect of this is that whilst HR (in this case) were happy to put measures on other parts of the business they were not necessarily concerned about a fundamental metric associated with their area of responsibility / accountability.

The company I mentioned above were looking for their third National Sales Manager in 4 years, I smell a problem.

Big Picture
A study by Deloitte Access recently reported Australian companies are drowning in their own red tape, wasting valuable hours of employee time and costing the economy billions of dollars:

• government cost about $27bn pa to administer & $67bn pa to comply with.
• businesses themselves costs $155 bn pa - $21bn to develop & administer and $134 billion a year to comply with.

Click here to read the article

In this same report, Deloitte Director Chris Richardson said. "Businesses are wearing self-inflicted wounds.” Australia's "non-productive" workforce is scarcely any smaller than it was two decades ago wearing self-inflicted wounds including employee turnover with bureaucracy and micromanagement on the back of too many measures.

It is critical for businesses to decide on what is important and put measures in place to support their teams to achieve their objectives. This will ensure that they not only survive but also succeed because they know what they need to do and have the tools to get themselves there.

Perhaps it is better to follow the advice from Christina Guidotti (Partner of Thought Leaders Global) “…..to be more productive, focus only on the things that matter.”

**Charlie is an expert in developing external sales teams and people, particularly where relationships and solution selling are the key differentiators. www.charliepidcock.com.au

“Clients do not come first, employees come first. Take care of your employees and they will take care of your clients” - Richard Branson

After nearly 50 years of economic prosperity and “the war for talent” have created an environment where leaders need to work consistently and diligently on staff engagement to ensure they not only avoid the high cost of replacement, but even more importantly enjoy the benefits of a better ROI in the medium to longer term.

Setting strong foundations where companies consciously develop loyal, hardworking employees who target then build relationships with customers fitting the strategic vision, will sets your business up for significant gains.

The benefits of meeting this challenge ensure your employees understand what is expected of them and how to achieve this is significantly amplified in this sweet spot where profits and ROI soar.

When you find the right person, developing them and keeping them for long enough is like hitting a sweet spot. In most traditional businesses it is almost impossible to make money in the shorter term, sustainability is the key.
The Right Things to do come down to these three key areas:
    i.         Finding - Identify, Locate and Attract
    ii.        Developing – Capability, Strategy and Systems
    iii.       Keeping - Foster, Motivate and Stimulate

“Train your people so they can leave, treat them so they don’t want to” - Richard Branson

**Charlie is an expert in developing external sales teams and people, particularly where relationships and solution selling are the key differentiators.​