The Real Cause of Nearly All Employee Problems

From what I hear when I talk to my clients (or talk to business owners in general), one of the biggest struggles they face is leading / managing employees. And it's a problem that never seems to go away, regardless of the employee. In fact, besides marketing / sales, from what I hear in my discussions, it is the most troubling problem of most small businesses. Unfortunately, from my experience in military / government, as well as talking to many who are in medium / large corporations, the problem isn't just a small business problem. It a global problem.

The ultimate question is,

"Is it the employees fault or is the leader's / manager's fault?

My response lies in something an old Navy buddy used to say. He'd say "JJ, if you walk into a room and everybody else in the room is *screwed up - maybe it isn't everyone else."

Ok, so what's the moral of that quote?

Well, I guess it's that if you continually have problems with employees, then maybe the problems with employees is just a symptom of a bigger problem. Because they are most likely just reflecting your leadership - or a lack thereof.

So, you have two choices before you. Either you can continue to blame your employees because most of them never seem to get "it". Or you can look in the mirror and make the real commitment to the only change that is within your power in this situation - a commitment to become a better leader.

So, if this is something that is keeping you up at night, do something about it. Before it's too late, look at the mirror and commit to becoming a better leader - make it a goal, make a plan on how you are going to do it and build in a method of accountability so that you won't give up.


* Ok, my buddy didn't really use the word "screwed", but you didn't come to this blog to read a bunch of "Sailor-trash" language.