Sure, I’m getting funky with definitions and semantics here, but the truth is that employees do not work for you. They work for themselves.

I’ve been struggling with finding an easy way to convey this concept – or perhaps it’s more of finding a way for managers and leaders to believe it. BUT – I think I found an example that might work.

Lessons from Baseball
The president of a local company recently told me that he used to be a little league baseball coach. Each year he’d carefully watch the young players at their tryouts, identifying their best strength.

“That one would be a good third baseman.”
“That one has what it takes to be a good shortstop.”

Because he placed the kids in positions where they had natural strengths, his teams always excelled. In fact, his teams were usually ranked among the best in the league.

In the nine years his company has been in business, he’s seen fairly consistent growth (except for two years in the middle there that were kind of shaky). But a few years ago he started backing away from doing ‘hands on’ work and started looking at the strengths of his employees. And here’s the key: He made adjustments to workloads and even the type of projects his company did, based on the strengths and passions of each employee.

Passion = Motivation
“When an employee is working in his area of passion, you don’t have to motivate him,” says this president. “The employee motivates himself. They actually work harder, because they’re doing it for themselves.”

As a result of stepping away from the hands-on work and putting people in positions for which they have an existing passion, production and profitability have both increased. Gross revenues were up 30% between 2005 / 2006, and almost 90% between 06 / 07.

No, they’re not working more hours. The workweek at this business is still only 40 hours, 45 max, and they’ve only added two employees in that time (they’re now at 12 employees).

“The increase comes from people working in their areas of passion—working for themselves. They work hard and they love it.”

And get this: No one quits.

So to all the managers and leaders reading this, if you’re beating your head against the wall (even in private) trying to get things moving better at your business, consider the success this company president is having.

It makes no sense to waste energy forcing a square peg into a round hole. Maybe stepping back and carefully, thoughtfully rearranging the workload so people are working closer to their area of passion could bring the improvements youv’e been seeking.

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Filed in Work, Business, Opinion, Training, Motivation, Management, Leadership, Teambuilding