What signs are you missing?

It happened to me earlier in the week but I didn’t write about it because the connection to employees didn’t seem strong enough. Now the exact same thing happened again, only from a different direction.

Today Maddie and I ran the same route we did on Wednesday, only from the opposite direction. I was coming up to a sharp bend in the road and smelled lilacs. I realized that it was that same lilac bush I’d smelled on Wednesday. Both days I smelled it before I could see it, as it’s located right in the middle of that bend.

What is one of your staff doing when you can’t see them - good or bad - that you’re missing? What signs (smells) are they giving you before it happens, that you could pay attention to more closely?

If you knew the sign or precursor to a problem with an employee, you could prevent it, saving them and you re-work, embarrassment, or injury. If you knew the precursor to the great act of customer service, or speedy and accurate task implementation, you could plan to be there to see it and reward them.

The first time I smelled lilacs and knew what was coming before I saw the bush, I thought the above but now that it’s happened twice from two different directions I’m even more sure it’s crucial. If these are signs (smells) that you can see from more than one place it means they are things we can use to guide, support and coach.  It’s important not only to notice the things (smells) that happen before an employee needs us, but to know that we should be looking for them helps us to plan.  Most of us are so busy acting on our email, attending meetings and writing our reports that we barely look up - so we miss these opportunities to help.

Our number one job is to guide, support and coach our staff. If you want to get more emails, meetings and reports done have great staff who do great work via your guidance, support and coaching!