Full Focus Limited
P O Box 33489
Takapuna, Auckland
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David Martin: 0274 902 401
Kathy Martin: 027 2800 564
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How to get your employees to do what you want them to
Have you ever found yourself cursing your employees? You ask them to do one thing and they’ll do something else; you ask them to do 30 and they only do 10. What you 
say (or think you’ve said) gets misinterpreted and often the job turns out no where near like you expected, or wanted.
Most business owners run up against this issue. It’s one of the most common frustrations we hear. You want your employees to do exactly what you want them to do, and to do it the way you want it done. Sounds simple enough doesn’t it. But how do you do that? How are you going to get your employees to do what you want them to do? And how do you get them to do it right the first time?
Sit back for a moment and consider how hard it is sometimes to even get yourself to do anything (I’m thinking diets, new year’s resolutions etc.). Considering you have that much trouble getting yourself to do anything, how are you going to get someone else to do it?
Here’s a simple method that could make a big difference:
Make your business systems dependent, not people dependent.
If you’ve got the right systems, and they’re implemented effectively, you will get the right results through your people. Almost every time.
During a recent family holiday break we got to talking to the Manager of the island's resort. Needless to say, his employees are all people who work and live on “island time”.
His comment was that he even had systems and procedures for the systems and procedures. It was the only way he found to keep the resort running smoothly and achieve the standard of results he needed.
He’d found telling his employees to do one thing, would lead to a vast array of different results, yet he’d given the same instruction to everyone. The environment in which they operated really condensed the whole effect so that without systems & procedures, chaos would take over in no time flat!
You’re probably wondering how you’re going to go about putting systems and procedures in place. This isn’t going to happen overnight. But if you consider the frustration up till now, maybe it’s worth investing some time. Create a systems
and procedures manual – this could take many forms, eg. hard copy, online version, onscreen pdf etc, depending what suits your business type and what’s going to be easily accessible for your employees.
The time spent will be far outweighed in the long run by the time saved by your employees doing it right the first time!
Put the systems in place. Have a procedure to follow. If people follow the systems the work will get done in the way you want it done. The systems run the business, the people run the systems.
We have more information about this topic, or on how to get your systems and procedures established and put into practice.
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