How Do You Stay Ahead?

by James Canada

In this ever-changing world, what is your company’s strategy for staying ahead? One of the first goals should be to hire nice people. Establishing internal quality starts with our recruitment and selection of personnel. Motorola’s quality strategy states, “Hire people who like other people.” Traits such as kindness, caring, compassion, and unselfishness carry more weight than years of experience or stacks of degrees.

For our organizations, we want people who are team players, problem solvers, and good communicators. We can’t afford NOT to be picky! Take for example, Stew Leonard, who owns a supermarket in Norwalk, Connecticut that does more business per square foot than any other supermarket in the world. This store has an excellent reputation for having happy employees who, in turn, provide outstanding customer service.

Leonard interviews seventeen people for every one person he hires to sack food in that store. He is quick to point out that you can teach almost anyone to sack groceries, but it is very difficult, if not impossible, to teach character or to change a person’s personality or work ethic.

Internal quality is measured by the feelings that the employees have toward their jobs, colleagues, and companies. They want the equipment, technology and training to be able to serve their customers well. Essentially, employees want to do a good job and feel much happier when they know they have helped someone. They appreciate seeing one of their ideas for improvement carried out. They also want recognition for their ideas and for doing a good job.

As leaders, we need to hire and seek out these attributes in people. As employees, we need to strive to obtain these attributes in order to succeed in the changing workplace.

James H. Canada is managing partner/CEO for Alliance Technologies LLC, ITEN mentor and author of “Corporate to Entrepreneur: Strategies for Success.” Contact Jim at james.canada@alliancetechnologiesllc.com, 636-734-2337 or www.alliancetechnologiesllc.com.