Buying Employee's Loyalty

Buying Employee's Loyalty is something all employers should try to do in good times and bad times. Reason is because as we understood from many management books is that high turnover can be very harmful to the company, especially those that are in the Knowledge Industry. Any staff that leave takes with him specific knowledge, skills and experience which can be very valuable. If there is an intention to replace the headcount, the organization fit and job fit might not be suitable and the corporation definitely will need time to make the new hire fully functional, usually a few months.

Of course it is unrealistic to achieve zero turnover or use legal covenants to bind the employee to the company. Doing such actions would destroy the employee's loyalty to the company and in the end he will try to rationalise his efforts in the company and not give extra value to the company. He might bad mouth the company outside and this could hurt the company's ability to attract talents. Worst thing is to leak out information of the company or take great miscalculated risk causing severe damage to company he is working in.

In this bad times, it is an opportunity to buy the employee's loyalty by treating them better than other companies which can be easily done. Treat them like customers, meet their needs using the remuneration system. Show that you care about their welfare, in fact if the company is making money, part of the profits should be shared to the employee during this bad times. Employees see that they are treated well during a downturn will be much willing to increase their loyalty to the company. Such satisfaction and happiness working in a company that cares for them in bad times can translate into greater efforts put in their jobs. The benefit is even greater in good times when other companies' staff recover from lower morale while the company that takes care of the employee's in bad times move to higher morale.

Are you buying your employee's loyalty now? Do it where possible. This recession would not last long, your company will last longer but at the end will your company be stronger or weaker after the economy disaster?

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Gathering Wisdom of Talents

Gathering the wisdom of talents is another skill the managers or entrepreneurs should learn.

Quoting a saying from Han Fei Zi,

"Low level ruler will gather all his efforts and skills, mid level ruler will gather the efforts of all, high level ruler will gather the wisdom of all."

A great ruler will rule by gathering the wisdom of his men. This applies similarly to managers as well. They must be able to gather the wisdom of his team members. The reason is because of the unique individual experiences, we can look at a problem or solutions at many angles. As such, we can be assured that most angles are covered and mistakes would not be made so easily.

So what skill is needed to "gather wisdom"? I believe there are three ingredients required.

1) Culture/Trust
2) People Skill

Are you adopting an open culture? If your culture is not open, no one will open up and you would not be able to gather their wisdom because it is locked up inside their brain and not communicated to anyone. For a culture to be open, there must be trust, trust that credit is given where it is due and trust that what they said would not be used against them.

Managers also need people's skill, to motivate, to understand and again to create a 'trusting' environment.

As a side note, if you notice, one of the ingredients required is also the five qualities that is required to be a great general, as stated by Sun Tzu. (Please click here to read the article "Five Essential Characteristic of General" and quote in Chinese Wiki)

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Nurturing Talents

Nurturing Talents is part of any managers or employers job scope. It is very important how you nurture your talents.

If you plant pomelo trees, you can enjoy its fruits that gives out a nice smell and is sweet when eaten. If you plant hedge thorns, you will be pricked by its thorns. Thus it is of importance that the ruler takes note of what he talent he is 'planting'. - Han Fei Zi, Chapter 33

From this we can see that we have to be careful how we nurture talents. If we do not nurture well, the results can come back to 'prick' us. Managing talents is always one of the most difficult part of a manager's or employer's job because there is no one size fits all management approach due to the differences in each employees.

But I feel the most basic any managers should do is to take out some time to understand their team members, in which environment they perform well, why they are doing this job and most important of all, as the saying of Sun Tzu is seen below,

When the general regards his troops as infants, they will be willing to follow him through the greatest threats and gravest danger. When the general treats his troops like beloved sons, they will be willing to support and die for him. An army may be so overly pampered by the general that it cannot be useful, so excessively loved that it cannot be commanded and so disorderly that it cannot be disciplined. Such and army is like a bunch of spoilt and arrogant brats , and cannot be deployed. - Sun Tzu Art of War, Chapter 10

treat your team members like family members, show them that you genuinely care about their welfare. Do try your best to join your team members in any dinner or game session so that you have more time to bond with them and also understand their character better. When you understand them better, you can better assign suitable tasks to them and also avoid 'destructive' conflicts.

So go and put the dinner or game appointment in your schedule now. Get yourself invited to lunch. Chat with them and be open.

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Importance of Strategic Planning

What is the importance of Strategic Planning? Well there are at least two ancient sages that say that and they are Sun Tzu and Han Fei Zi.

In conclusion, those who have considered more details during planning and assessment in the temple will win while those who have considered fewer details will lose. The more details considered, the higher the chances of winning and vice versa. How much more certain is defeat if no planning is done at all? By observing the planning and assessment process, I am able to see whether victory or defeat is expected. - Sun Tzu Art of War, Chapter 1

Strategy, it decides between success and failures, thus its assessment is of utmost importance. - Han Fei Zi, Chapter 2

Well I can guess most of you would have said: "Of course I know strategy is important. Its obvious". Wait don't go away yet. You know strategy is important, so are you achieving your dreams, or in the process of achieving your dreams? If you are, think about how much planning have you done for the your strategy to achieve your dreams. I am quite sure there is a handful of you out there who only manage to sit down for 1hr (hopefully this is an underestimate) to do the planning and research. I know because I also tend to do that. The reason is because we find it quite 'painful' to do it especially when we know circumstances change and we might have to change or even scrap the strategy, thus finding it a waste of time.

But let me assure you, beside the importance of strategic planning, during your planning and assessment, you can learn a lot of things on the way which will cut down your learning curve in the future. So do make it a habit of planning your strategy and also assessing its effectiveness maybe once a week. Learn how to set goals and execute your strategy well. All the best in achieving your dreams!

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