A friend of mine recently told me about STEAK!

Not the meat, but the 5 things needed to make sure you are working with great people, rather than just people who turn-up for work then go home not really caring about your business.

The “5 key STEAK Essentials” are
  • Skill – what is their skill level, is it suited to what you want them to do?
  • Training –  are they willing to be trained? What training do they need?
  • Education – are they broad thinkers and educated about the world, or narrow minded?
  • Attitude –  what is their attitude to you and your business? Do they go the extra mile to help you succeed?
  • Knowledge – do they know about your business, the market, your customers, your products and services?

It might be worth you doing a quick score for each of your staff on these 5 things, then wondering to yourself whether your people are the right ones for you. Don’t be afraid to ask the question, even if people have been working with you for a while.

Once you have scored your people, look at the lower scores and figure out how to improve them. The key one out of the list is ‘Attitude’. People with a great attitude can sit down with you and help score themselves. People with a poor attitude will make excuses. If you can work with them, great. But poor attitude is a killer in business, and no matter how talented they are it might be worth thinking about how to get them off your proverbial bus.

Finally, a key element of working with great people is making them great. And this isn’t too hard actually. All we do is tell them “I want you to be great at your job. What do we need to do to make that happen.” Often this simple question will open up a whole now vista of planning things to upscale how good your people are, and make them great.