October 1, 2015- ISSN# 1545-2646
Red Cards in Business
In the game of soccer or as the rest of the world calls it – football, when a player receives a red card they are disqualified from the game and the team must continue to play a player down. The action which the player committed was to such a level that the official penalized the person for their action.
This red card not only sends a message to the player but also to the team as they must now complete the game with out that player. They do not get the opportunity to put another person in their place. The rest of the team must now, not only do their role on the field but must also take up the slack or void left by the missing player.
In business there are days when we all have wished we could red card employees, patrons, vendors etc. The actions they display sometimes very much warrant a disqualification and should be asked to leave the business playing field.
The challenge is that we don’t have red cards but need to manage the actions of everyone involved in the business.
It is difficult to manage your customer directly. You can manage the environment, the service, the product, the interaction etc. If any of these controllable elements are out of balance then the event can go sideways. The customer gets upset and displays behavior which may just warrant a red card but it was your team which provoked the incident.
You may need to deal with employees who behave in such a manner that they too should be awarded a red card but again you not only penalize the employee but now all of the team mates are also penalized by having to pick up the gap in that employees work efforts. Again you may not be able to directly control the employee but you can influence the environment and other factors which contribute to the place where the employee resonates from.
This week take a look at your staff, your customers, your vendors and ask yourself – do they deserve red cards? If yes, what is causing them to act in such a manner and do you have the opportunity to influence that situation to help avoid the need for the red card?
Are there some preventative actions you can take to engage them in proactive dialogue to avoid the unnecessary red card event?
Giving out too many red cards in your mind? Give us a call (313) 527-7945 at JKL Associates and we can give you some relief.
Questions or comments – email us at partners@jklassociates.com or call our Office at (313) 527-7945
Copyright – JKL Associates 2015
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