The PF Women Team at our Annual Team Retreat ~ 2018 Today on Seth Godin's blog, he said: It's tempting to decide to make a profit first, then invest in training, people, facilities, promotion, customer service and most of all, doing important work. In general, though, it goes the other way. Yes, it does. If you are waiting to make a profit before you do these things, in my experience you're not going to make a profit. So many organizations, ministries and churches are struggling with financial issues. I know your pain. As anyone who follows our story knows, our ministry was in a ton of debt four years ago when I came on as director. Since that time, we've gotten out of debt and turned a profit every year. God has done amazing things through out team, for which we give Him the glory! I find that what Seth is saying here is absolutely true, with one disclaimer. For Christian leaders, spiritual disciplines must always be first. Before we started i...
This marks the sixth month that I've been writing the advice column I was asked to write for the Tampa Bay newspaper, Insight. Things are going super well! So well in fact, that yesterday, their Editor-in-Chief, Alisha Perella, asked me if I would consider doing an advice column for their sister-paper, Epoch. So now I will have not one, but two advice columns running in Tampa area newspapers! So cool, huh? And, on top of that, I've been asked to contribute some feature articles aside from the advice columns. It just keeps gettin' better and better. I love writing, if you couldn't tell...
Once they publish the paper, I have been posting a copy of my columns here for blog readers who don't live in the Tampa area. If you are interested in reading previous columns, click here. This month in Insight, I tackled the the problems of an unhappy small-business owner.
T.R.
Deanna is an author, speaker and certified coach
who loves living in the Tampa Bay area with her husband of 25 years and their
three children.
*Photo courtesy of www.freedigitalphotos.net
Once they publish the paper, I have been posting a copy of my columns here for blog readers who don't live in the Tampa area. If you are interested in reading previous columns, click here. This month in Insight, I tackled the the problems of an unhappy small-business owner.
Dear Deanna:
I own a
small business and to say I’m feeling strained right now is an understatement.
I feel it on so many levels and could go a lot of different directions in
asking your advice. But the main factor is a group of the employees that have
not been happy about many of my decisions the past year. They continue to work
and give a fair performance but at the same time they give off constant vibes
that they are not pleased with the decisions I’ve had to make. I am feeling so
much tension, it’s wearing on me. The business that used to be my dream is
looking more like a nightmare. Sales are decent but morale of a small group
within the larger group is low and affects me on a daily basis. I’m at a loss
as to how to change them, or have personal peace.
T.R.
Dear T.R.,
First of
all, you can’t change anyone but yourself. Trying to change others is an
exercise in futility. A few questions --
Are you
confident that you have made the right decisions, as the owner of this
business? Do you have peace that you have done the right thing? Are you happy
with you decisions?
If so,
you’ve got to stand firm. Leadership is not easy. If it was, everyone would be
doing it!
You long for
peace, yet it will always be elusive if you base it on what these few employees
do or don’t do. A mentor in business once informed me that at any given time,
20% of the people who are listening to a speaker are not “for them”. They
shared this with me after I had told them that I had made a decision I was very
confident about, that a few others weren’t happy about. I was concerned about
people’s reaction to my decision. They asked, “what do you want?” I said, “I
just want everyone to be okay with it.” And they said, “What’s wrong with that
statement?”
Suddenly I
realized I had a completely unrealistic expectation.
Everyone
will never be okay with what I decide. After hearing the 20% statistic I began
to feel blessed in my situation, because not even 20% of the people in my
scenario were even aware of or affected by my decision. Yet, I had based so
much of my mood around whether EVERYONE was happy.
It is doubtful that every single one of your
employees will be happy with what you decide. And furthermore it isn’t your job
to make them happy. I’m guessing you probably didn’t create the business with
the central goal of making your employees happy. You developed your business to meet a need in
the world. You brought employees alongside you to fulfill that goal. You do want them to be happy but cannot take
responsibility for their personal happiness.
If they are
not happy and it continues to manifest in attitudes and actions, perhaps you both
need to evaluate whether their continuing to serve on the team is a good idea.
Sometimes the answer is just a difficult decision waiting to be made.
Figure out what you want to do, and once you
have a peace with it, move forward confidently.
Mail your questions for future columns to
deannashrodes@gmail.com. Due to space and time every question will not appear
in the monthly column, however Deanna welcomes you to interact with her where
she blogs daily at
www.deannashrodes.net.
*Photo courtesy of www.freedigitalphotos.net
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