Employee Retention II, Big Red Car, really?

Big Red Car here on a glorious Texas day — On Earth as it is in Texas, y’all!

Today, we talk about RUNNING A GOOD COMPANY, the first step to employee retention.

Each post (interjected amongst posts about other relevant and pressing topics) we will cover the next aspect of employee retention as laid out in this post. <<link

It will take us a few days, but we will get through it.

Running a good company, the building blocks

Running a good company — the first essential to employee retention — starts with having a plan. We have talked about this before. If you want to review those earlier discussions, then use the SEARCH function of the website. Don’t be lazy.

Here are the building blocks:

Vision

Mission

Strategy

Tactics

Objectives

Values

Culture

Business engine canvas

Business process graphics

Pitches (elevator, taxi, boardroom, company)

Dollar weighted organization charts

Performance appraisal system

Here is what some of these things look like when wrapped together. Not all of them, but some of them. [Click on the graphic and enlarge it to a useful size.]

Employee Retention? Why, Big Red Car?

The why is easy — people want to work for an enterprise and a leader who projects competence, confidence, and an ability to take the team to the Promised Land. This is why seasoned and salty serial entrepreneurs are able to attract and retain a team — they’ve been to the pay window and everybody wants to go to the pay window. Good people will follow good leaders from enterprise to enterprise.

Recently The Boss was working with a company which seemed to be crushing it. Meeting with the CEO, The Boss asked, “Do you have all the building blocks in place?”

“Yes,” the brilliant CEO said, whipping out a five inch looseleaf binder with tabs for each building block and a substantial amount of documentation behind each tab. It was really complete and impressive.

“How long?” asked The Boss.

“Work in progress. Took about three months to get it all done the first time and now every month I update one or two of them.”

When The Boss finished clapping, he asked, “When did you feel the first positive impact of your work?”

“Ten seconds after I finished the first building block. That would be putting my Vision together. For the first time, I didn’t have to be trying to remember it and try to say it the same way all the time. I had it down cold.”

The completion of this effort — which doesn’t have to be done quickly — will be enervating and liberating. I promise you. It will also transform your startup from an idea to a real company.

And, when you have a real company, your employees will want to stay with you and that’s called employee retention. On the other hand, you don’t have to do this work and you can wrestle with employee retention, meaning you will constantly be trying to fill out your team. Your move.

But, hey, what the Hell do I really know anyway? I’m just a Big Red Car. Be good to yourself, but drive yourself. Because, my lovely, you are as good as you want to be.