Fun Work, Fun Profit
How To Have Fun Working And Double The Profits
“People will pay for the privilege of working harder than they will work when they are paid.”
—Chuck Coonradt
Fun Work Environment
It’s great when companies try to improve employee engagement and even better when they measure it. But if they don’t measure the right things in the right way, those actions won’t matter — and they won’t have a measurable impact on business outcomes or the bottom line.
Gallup has led the way in the discussion of engagement and link to bottom line impact over the last decade. Early work example:
“Companies with an average of 9.3 engaged employees for every actively disengaged employee in 2010-2011 experienced 147% higher EPS compared with their competition in 2011-2012.”
Generally speaking Earnings per Share (EPS) is perceived how successfully management has been able to profitably run the business. But this means very little to the rest of us, except that engaging staff is a good thing. Herein is arguably a simpler approach to use for your SaaS business to achieve its revenue growth expected outcomes.
The following five principles are timeless. It has led to proven performance and increased profitability over and over again. Gaining buy-in is key. But once achieved the resulting enthusiasm and energy will be phenomenal.
1. Aligning Corporate & Individual Goals
Just for a moment consider that there is plenty of science, research, studies indicating: “All organizations rise or fall on the personal goals of the individuals in that organization.” Would you agree? Individual goals are the foundation of corporate human resource development and planning. True teamwork is based on great individual execution of assigned responsibilities, not compromise and cooperation.
Goals are one of the ‘how to’ keep score of your progress for achieving your goals, either as an individual or for your SaaS business. The application of measurement and goal setting is not new. But our measurement and accountability have been viewed too often in a punitive fashion. How many people, for instance, look forward to those annual reviews if they are still around? Google got rid of them, for a reason. This perception meanwhile began to change when we began to listen to Deming’s numbers-based quality, people-oriented approach, or Drucker’s book “Managing for Results” and others to bring us full circle to caring about people (now remotely working) and letting them care about the company and offer. It is about time given it has been decades since the book came out.
If you removed the goals of any sport, you would remove the most significant aspect of the sport – goal setting and goal striving. Chuck Coonradt
Hence we must have that same challenge, that same opportunity, that same motivation when we walk into our workplace in the morning.
2. Clear Score Keeping
Did you ever stopped to wonder why sports goals are clearly defined, and business goals are not (or certainly less so)? Basically in sports, you gain immediate and realistic feedback that you can immediately relate to your performance, individually and as a team. This is usually not so in business. If you disagree, then is your SaaS business score-keeping:
- Objective
- Self Administered
- Peer Audited
- Dynamic
- Comparative
What’s the nightly news reports about a sporting event? The score: who won, the points earned by each team. Then comes more statistics. Do you have from last week work performance?
3. Feedback
Everyone needs to know every day whether they are winning or losing. Effectively the proven science is if you want to improve the quality of performance in any area, then you simply improve or increase the frequency of feedback.
4. Flexibility
Are people being allowed to perform in areas where they have natural interests and abilities? When people feel that they have no choice in what they are doing, they lose their enthusiasm, and performance suffers.
5. Consistency
If your SaaS business changes the rules in the middle of the year, then of course you suck out the will power that is key to your people’s performance. While it adds uncertainty going forward. This never happens in sports. In the workplace, when expectations are clearly defined and
uncertainty is minimized, it is easier for people to have the satisfaction of meeting performance expectations.
Consideration
What if? What do you think happens when these five principles are applied in the working world—when we apply the motivation of recreation to work? Can you imagine the enthusiasm level in your organization being as great for the accomplishment of your goals as you get in the bowling league or the company bridge tournament?
bEffective is here to help you get the fun back into your SaaS business, while boosting performance and profits at the same time. Put the above in place, check out our resources or opt-in to our newsletter to get tips and tricks until you put us to work.
“Don’t mistake activity with achievement.” ― John Wooden
Average Work Environment?
Today’s performance management practices are still a huge stumbling block for many organizations. It can be a living nightmare for both managers and employees. It begins with finding talent with ill-structured job descriptions. It continues with no on-boarding and lots of good luck wishes. Then turns with management dissatisfaction with performance that was began with job descriptions miss-aligned with the sales and corporate strategy.
There are several issues that come up between management and staff as a result that affect how quickly an organization reaches its goals. A few common performance management problems that managers see are:
- Non disciplinary steps or letter of expectations
- Disciplinary action, progressive corrective discipline
- Grievance
Types of Performance Problems
Quantity of work (untimely completion, limited production)
- Poor prioritizing, timing, scheduling
- Lost time, Lateness, absenteeism, leaving without permission.
- Excessive visiting, phone use, break time, use of the Internet, Misuse of sick leave.
- Slow response to work requests, untimely completion of assignments.
- Preventable accidents.
Quality of work (failure to meet quality standards)
- Inaccuracies, errors
- Failure to meet expectations for product quality, cost or service Difficulty staying on task
- Customer/client dissatisfaction
- Spoilage and/or waste of materials
- Inappropriate or poor work methods
- Work Behaviors Which Result in Performance Problems
Inappropriate behaviors (often referred to as poor attitude)
- Negativism, lack of cooperation, hostility
- Failure or refusal to follow instructions
- Unwillingness to take responsibility
- Insubordination
- Power games
Resistance to change
- Unwillingness, refusal or inability to update skills
- Resistance to policy, procedure, work method changes
- Lack of flexibility in response to problems
Inappropriate interpersonal relations
- Inappropriate communication style (over-aggressive, passive)
- Impatient, inconsiderate, argumentative
- Destructive humor, sarcasm, horseplay, fighting
- Inappropriate conflict with others such as customers, coworkers, supervisors
Inappropriate physical behavior
- Smoking, eating, drinking in inappropriate places
- Sleeping on the job
- Alcohol or drug use
- Problems with personal hygiene
- Threatening, hostile, or intimidating behaviors
All of the above at any level has, is and will cause your SaaS business to suffer both tangible and intangible costs.
While bEffective services can help you eliminate or avoid these costs with some simple, straightforward and needed changes in approaching boosting performance. In the interim, please do reach out, make use of our resource section and opt-in to our newsletter for tips and techniques.
“I have been struck again and again by how important measurement is to improving the human condition.” Bill Gates
Optimizing Your Work Environment
Visualize for a moment that you are an athlete. You are about the enter the sports arena (of your favorite sport). And 20,000+ people in the sports venue are ready and watching how you do your job. How do you think you would handle what athletes do daily, in for instance the four major sports in North America.
Thankfully for them, goals in sports are clearly define, and as result motivation is higher than what you may find in business. Now you visualize walking into your office, getting ready for the day and work begins as 20,000 are watching you. How do you feel?
For most work environments, it is time for change. Therefore your SaaS business needs to proceed with the following optimization for producing the right motivation and properly driving your revenue growth model:
1. Effective Goal-setting & Goal Striving
- Write goals down in detail and specific terms, and review regularly
- Make goals your own, where corporate and personal are one and the same
- Ensure goals must be positive
- Define goals in clearly measurable fashion, even for intangible types
- State goals in inflation proof terms
- Define goals in visible, direct, simple terms
- Goals must contain a deadline: how much, how many, by when?
- Goals must allow for personality changes
- Incorporate WIIFM into your goals
- Goals must be realistic and obtainable
2. Scorekeeping
Our progress in business, or life relate directly to our ability to measure. Measurement is:
- Relevant to the process
- Usually exact, or you know where you stand
- A support to make work enjoyable because you can see a way to win
If you are seeking to ensure that your SaaS business gets off the ground or proceeds exponentially. Then understand this, there is no way it will happened without a method to score.
Scorekeeping Basics
- Keep it simple and objective – for example in went through the hoop in basketball. It doesn’t matter if it was tipped in, or via hard fought rebound, etc.
- Be self administered – it is more effective similar to what you find in golf and tennis.
- Be comparative – for instance between past and currrent performance or against accepted standard
- Be dynamic – or compare performance while working similar to bowling
Establishing Scorekeeping
Do it carefully, or ask for bEffective’s help.
3. Feedback
Again consider if you had no feedback when playing your favorite sports endeavor. For example, if your coach similar to a business manager handed you a job description for your position, or 100 pre-determined plays to execute sequentially, or directed you to go out there and do it without a what reason, and then expects you to perform without any feedback.
You getting feedback is vital at work or in life, like in hockey. Did the forward pinch in and forecheck aggressively when your back was turn picking up the puck? Who was open for a break out pass and so on? Feedback is necessary to make the best possible call during work, as well as to improve going forward.
If you don’t think feedback is important, try telling your partner just once that their new outfit is okay. The problem with business today is in the absence of clearly defined goals and accurate scorekeeping, we are forced to concentrate only on activity and ultimately become enslaved to it.
Effective feedback is defined by your SaaS business’ Results to Resource Ratio. And what you are aiming to define are all the micro-measurements. When they are set the macro-measurements take care of themselves. Meaningful measurements allow that:
- Increasing the frequency of feedback (from annually, to monthly, … to hourly) improves the quality and quantity of performance
- When you can illustrate feedback by charts and graphs, the impact is even greater.
Data by itself is of little value. When it is framed by measure and made visual, the score so to speak is easier to digest, understand and for establishing a response.
4. Flexibility
Why is it that so many today, do not enjoy their work? Because their work is usually severely limited. They are told exactly what to do and how to do it. They don’t have very much fun. And most don’t perform as well. Research firms such as Gallup confirm this current state of affairs basically everywhere.
Of course in recreation, you have the flexibility to decide which sports you prefer. And generally speaking, you have fun at it and succeed. So, the more flexibility you allow your team within your business, the better they will perform and enjoy. Simply put flexibility leads to people committing to do what they freely choose, have fun and succeed.
“Don’t tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.” – General Patton
Surprise! They will make good decision making. Their behavior will account for the goals, scorekeeping and feedback. Behavior precedes results. The way you think determines the way you will act.
5. Consistency
Improving communication is often a challenge in business circles. Yet, it is not as serious in sports. What’s the gap? The gap is the work environment that is not well defined. Before developing goals, you must completely establish the parameters of your work environment inclusive of boundaries similar to your sports play area. Once established you cannot change the rules.
For example, one aspect of the work environment is what will get you immediately terminated. Another aspect is operational boundaries, or what is unacceptable behavior in the work environment or related to it such as with the customer. Within these defined benchmark areas: where level one is below minimum performance standards and requires coaching. Level two is above minimum performance standards. At this level your team is free to work with little supervision for achieving stated goals. Level three and four exceed performance benchmark likely involving a range of added compensation and or priveleges
bEffective services help you establish the above fun work environmment for achieving or exceeding expected outcomes. It will kick-start your SaaS business to win more, win consistently and acheiving revenue growth. Meantime please do review our resource section and opt in to our newsletter for tips and techniques for doing so.
“Good things come to people who wait, but better things come to those who go out and get them.” Walt Disney
Action Step
You’ve read our promise, for the challenge you may be facing along with the ‘how to’ solve it.
bEffective offers services to help your SaaS business establish its revenue growth methodology in whole or for the module you need help to improve upon.
Should you wish to do it for yourself, then check out our resources menu for ‘how-to’ solve the challenge mentioned above as well as others in this area of our website. Keep in mind the research and science dictates the ‘right’ revenue growth approach needs to be built in sequence, integrated and more for achieving the promise percentage, dollars through to consistent cash flow.
Alternatively, please do opt-in to our newsletter for relevant daily and tactical daily aids (see link in the footer).
Or simply begin with a comment about the article. We would appreciate it. Everything we’ve mentioned on our website requires leaderships which makes bold and decisive action. Be bold, decisive and insightful with your comments. We will appreciate it.
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