As a small-business owner, I’m accustomed to focusing on numbers. Did we hit the goals for the month? Were we able to improve sales? Did we increase profits?

While I know it’s important to keep a close tab on financial metrics like these,  I’ve seen owners turn numbers into an hourly obsession.

As a business leader, ask yourself, which would you really rather have today: A healthy economy or the ability to replicate your best employees and the experiences they deliver for your customers?

This might seem like an odd question, but in a down economy it is more important than ever to define expectations for employees, communicate effectively and hold everyone accountable to deliver the results that keep your business going.

In the years ahead, there will be three things that will most impact the growth of your company. Unfortunately, two of them are completely beyond your control:

1. The economy. It’s ugly right now and you can’t control what happens next.
2. Your industry. You’re just one small part of the segment so you have minimal impact.

However, the third thing you have total control over:

3. Your employees. You totally control this, so you can replicate your best employees to drive experiences to a new level.

Make no mistake. It doesn’t matter if the economy is booming or if it’s a bust. You will win more and lose less if your employees stay consistent with delivering the experiences that customers value most. In turn, customers will thank you by providing their loyalty and by going out of their way to promote your business and share their experiences. And, by the way, so will your employees!

Do you want employees who come in, punch the clock (literally or figuratively), go through the tactical motions to get the job done, and then punch out? Of course you don't. What leader would?

You want employees who care about the success of the company. This happens when they buy into the brand. When they know what the brand means to the company and to them personally. When they know how to do the behaviors and deliver experiences that bring the brand to life. And when they understand why its important to the company and to customers. When this happens you will have achieved a brand-driven performance culture.

The guru on driving organizational "change", John Kotter, has a great quote, he says, "The central issue is never strategy, structure, culture or systems...The core of the matter is always about changing the behavior of people."


Think about your employee base as one big computer. There are two main components to making the computer perform: hardware and software. Your company has the same two components. Hardware is equal to the strategy and structure of the company. Software is composed of the beliefs and behaviors of the people in the company. If you don't have software on your computer, how useful is it. It simply won't perform to its potential. If the beliefs and behaviors of your employees don't fit inside the structure of your brand, your company will not achieve optimum performance. 

Most people desire to go to work each day, do a good job and help the company grow. But sometimes employees need a little bit more from each other, the company and its leadership. A little bit more in the form of recognition for doing a good job, organized in a way that helps the employee to understand what doing a good job looks like and shows appreciation.

I get approached by company leaders asking me why they can’t seem to get their employees to go the extra mile for the company, to show a commitment to seeing that the company does well. What I think they are looking for is employees who care so much that they’ll put in whatever extra effort is needed day in and day out, to ensure their jobs get done and done right. The reality is that if leaders want to see that kind of commitment, then they must show more appreciation in the form of positive recognition.

Most of organizations I talk with have tried and failed time and again to implement employee recognition programs that actually drive alignment and behavior change. Most company programs end up like your neighborhood ice cream man simply serving up a consistent Flavor of the Month that employees laugh at.

If you have an existing employee recognition program or are thinking about implementing one, how are you going to measure success and return on investment? Ask yourself these questions:

How is your program:

• reducing people time and investment necessary to effectively build and sustain culture?
• enhancing existing employee performance systems and employee touchpoints?
• reducing operational costs of changing culture, engaging employees and servicing customers?
• streamlining and improving internal communication and breaking down organizational silos?
• increasing customer satisfaction?
• improving effectiveness of training initiatives?
• growing revenue?
• replicating high-performing employees?
• increasing employee satisfaction and loyalty?

Recognition should be a strategic, leadership-driven process for acknowledging others in the workplace for good work that is aligned with the overall business objectives and strategies of the company.  Don't bank your recognition strategy on plaques, glass prisms, overpriced toaster ovens, toolsets, spa treatments and motivational posters!

No matter what industry you are in, customers choose to do business with you based on what they truly want from your company and the experiences they have with you. We all know people these days are looking for the lowest price. But if the best deal comes at the expense of not honoring the brand promises you make, people won’t continue to invest in your brand, nor will they refer their friends to help you grow your business.

For me, this reality has never rang as true as it did after I tried to buy new technology from my business cell phone provider. I really wanted the newest model that recently came out with all its bells and whistles.
Given that this provider has gone out of its way to tell me---via paper bills, online, and through CEO messages---that they want me to have “simply everything” I need, as well as rewards for being a loyal customer, I had high hopes for an easy transaction. Imagine how shocked I was when the salesperson in the store told me that I couldn’t put the new phone on my existing business account. “If you really want it,” he said, “you’d have to open up a separate account and pay more than your current arrangement.” In response, I calmly pointed out the thousands of dollars I spend with the company each month, as well as my willingness to upgrade many of my employees to the latest technology if we liked the first purchase. The current and potential revenue didn’t matter to him as he replied: “I’m sorry sir, I can’t help you.”

 Those final words that ended our interaction also ended my 10-year loyalty to the provider. I’m sure missing my money each month might sting, but not as much as the lasting impact of missing what matters most to customers.

My provider could have closed the gap between who they say they are with what I (and I'm sure many others) actually experienced by training employees to deliver on customer needs and translating how employees can actually “do” the promises the company makes.

In this age of uncertainty, I hope you’ll never forget the importance of positioning employees to behave in ways that add value to every interaction and experience your company has with customers. These employee behaviors will lead to consistent experiences that will go far in providing stability to your business, and to helping your brand differentiate and rise to the top.

We are knee-deep in what is now being called the “Great Recession.” I’ve read and heard various viewpoints
on things people can do, usually directed at the recently unemployed, to keep up their spirits and position themselves for success in today’s economic environment.

Cameron Herold, founder of BackPocket COO, recently showed me a list he shares with the CEOs he coaches, of things people can do to succeed in a recession. After studying his list, I came to the conclusion that not only do CEOs need a list, but so do the 90 percent of people who are still employed and trying to battle their way out of these troubling economic times. I’m referring to the everyday leaders and the employees who follow them.

So the economy is awful right now. Some say we’ve bottomed out, some say we are making a turn for the better and still others say watch out for more downsizing, missed earnings and layoffs to come. I say, “So what?” Focus on what you and your company— if you collect a paycheck for work, then yes, it is your company too—can do to thrive in this “Great Recession” while your competition complains about it. The Brand Integrity team and I came up with the top things we are doing and others can do to thrive during these times.

Let’s start with the obvious:

1. Keep your glass half full. Have a positive attitude.
2. Focus on the vital 20 percent. Typically, 20 percent of your efforts yield 80 percent of your desired results.
3. Create a hyper-focused work environment. For example, we start each day, even before checking our e-mail, by building our individual “Top 5” list of things we want to accomplish.
4. Make a “Stop Doing” list.
5. Reinforce important relationships. Make extra effort to connect with your best customers and prospects.
6. Add more value instead of lowering the price.
7. Recognize daily success around you. Find success, even if only incremental improvement, and recognize it!
8. Communicate, communicate, communicate.

These eight things to do to thrive in a recession are difficult to refute and are simple, though not easy. They take focus and energy. Pick the ones that seem most relevant to you and your company, and obsess about executing them. You may be astounded by the resulting increase in discretionary effort, a reserve of productivity in you and people around you. With encouragement, your company can create a healthy, high-performing work force that truly thrives, even during a “Great Recession”!

Many of the most profitable companies today are also recognized as "best places to work" in their respective industries. Leaders of these companies have made a conscious decision to put their employees first.

Turning your organization into a profitable, best place to work isn't about lavishing employees with incentives, perks, and creative work schedules. It's about providing the knowledge, tools, and direction to help employees see how their daily performance makes an impact on the company's success. I mean, let's face it, people don't get out of bed each day, brew their coffee and run off to work simply to make their boss and/or company owners more money. They do it to earn a living and to feel like they're making a difference.

And the majority of companies often fail to make the connection between mission statements, values, brand promises, strategic goals/objectives, etc., and the day-to-day work of employees. Without giving employees direction on how to do all this "stuff," they can't possibly embrace it, commit to doing it, and (most importantly) take action to deliver great experiences for each other and for customers.

Best companies to work for solve this dilemma by putting into practice what I call the “How Factors.” The How Factors are a simple, logical framework for ensuring that employees aren’t frustrated by an overload of “strategery” that they don’t know how to do or how to impact.

There are three How Factors that every company should do:

1. Set clear behavior expectations. Develop and integrate proprietary brand-driven behaviors that clearly define what successful performance is at the company level and individual level by job function.
2. Deliver strategic and consistent communication. Integrate expectations for doing these behaviors into critical leadership and human resource practices, including recruitment, hiring, onboarding, and performance assessments/evaluations. Then, continually educate and motivate employees through a strategic, performance-focused recognition program. If executed well, this program can also be used to capture and share the best practices that have the highest impact on achieving business results.
3. Drive accountability for success. Measure employee understanding and action on the behaviors and experiences that bring the brand to life through performance assessments and evaluations. To fully evaluate success, managers also should measure performance against the clearly defined company strategy.
   

Companies that do these How Factors are rewarded for their efforts beyond financial benefits. If your company isn’t building respected and trusted relationships between management and employees, or employees aren’t taking pride in their work, get laser-focused on the How Factors. Set and communicate behavioral expectations and watch how accountability for success flourishes, putting your company on the pathway to being a more profitable, best place to work.

Every employee in your company comes to work each day with a set of beliefs that they have crafted through years of life experience. Employees have their own individual belief systems, which encourage them to behave in certain ways at work.

Most companies are inconsistent at best in delivering a productive work culture and profitable customer experiences. Why? Because most companies have not defined what it is that employees should believe each day at work. By establishing a belief system for your company, you are able to set clear expectations for employees on what they are to "think" about your brand and what it means to the company, employees and customers. If you don't define your company's beliefs, you leave it up to each individual employee to define their own set of beliefs about your company and you lose the opportunity to guide their thoughts and actions. This ultimately leads to inconsistencies in employee behaviors (how employees do your brand) and in the experiences delivered to employees and customers. 

Think about companies you've interacted with that clearly don't have a belief system that employees buy-in to...

Now think about the companies that do enroll their employees in a belief system that unites and drives the entire organization...

Ask yourself...who would you rather work for or do business with?