Undercover Boss - part 3

The final rule from Undercover Boss is this - increase opportunities and increase loyalty.

Keeping connected to your people and recognizing their work will go far toward fostering loyalty in your employees. Add to that opportunities for them to grow, to share their expertise with others, to be seen as a leader, and you will add to that loyalty. 

Why should you always be the one to be the leader? To be the example? Let your staff share something they do well. If someone is good at building customer relationships, video tape her and show it to the group, or have her role play it. If someone is good at organizing information, change his responsibilities so that he can use those skills to the benefit of your organization. Offer training or mentoring opportunities to develop latent skills in your employees.

So tell me about a time when you had new opportunities at work. What difference did it make in your morale?

Undercover Boss - part 2

Rule #2 from Undercover Boss - Recognize people's gifts and what they bring to the company.

Not only do employers need to stay connected to their front line people, but they need to acknowledge what those folks do. When the bosses on the show would do their "reveal" at the end, and tell the people they worked with who they really were, they would often say how great those people were and do something special for them - send them to training, give them new responsibilities, mentor them in career development, etc. The people's faces would light up. They would say, time and again, how much it meant to them that someone noticed what they did and thought it mattered.

So, recognize people - let them know you notice the work they are doing. They will want to keep it up to get your attention again.

So, have you worked for someone who did this well? Or did it poorly?

Undercover Boss - part 1

This spring, my husband and I watched the new show, Undercover Boss. In the show, a CEO or COO of a major company (White Castle, 1-800-Flowers, Hooters, and Seven Eleven, for example) went undercover in his own company to see how things really worked.

We enjoyed the show, and I noticed a few trends - some rules for business.

Rule #1: Keep in touch with those who work on the front line.

Each boss was amazed at the quality of work (in most cases, positive) being done by the folks on the front line and the difference those people made in the work of the company. They were surprised by the hardships their employees were dealing with outside of the job. Those front line employees had information about how things could run more efficiently or more pleasantly, but the upper echelon leaders rarely knew this information.

So, if you want to be successful in business, keep in touch with those doing the work of your business.

What is your experience in business? Have you been the one on the front lines? Did your boss ever seek out your input on important business matters?