Some wags have said that businesses would run better without people to gum up the works.

Many techies have spent many hours on projects to either eliminate people or reduce them.

However, businesses who have top quality people and treat them well perform better.

We have some courses on people in our revised curriculum of the American School of Entrepreneurship, and we expect them to sell well. As soon as we get the website done, we’ll post them. The content is done, but not in all cases recorded.

But, in the short run, there are some steps you as the owner can take to improve effectiveness:

1. If you have ‘quiet quitters’ somewhere in your organization, have your supervisors or you pull them aside and find out why they’re not motivated.
2. Go through all your personnel and decide who’s cutting it and who isn’t. You should have standards (Key Personnel Indicators) for each of your positions. Talk to the subpar performers to see if you can improve their performance.
3. Take a look at the training you give supervisory personnel, by talking to the people they supervise. Maybe you don’t have any formal supervisory training. We have this in the works. It’s mostly common sense, but you’d be surprised at how much this is ignored.
4. While you’re reviewing personnel, do a 360 anonymous survey of what they think of the company, where it’s going, and even you. You might be surprised.
5. Do some ‘Ask Me Anything’ Friday afternoon roundtables. Again, useful information should be gleaned.
6. Pass out some awards for superior performance. Don’t just dwell on the negative.

As I review what I’ve written, I like it. So, we’ll probably record it for the School.