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Embracing
Stewardship: Part 3
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Hemachandra:
Many of our retailers feel a strong sense of mission when they open
their stores, but some struggle to walk their talk — to reconcile their
spiritual beliefs with the day-to-day realities of owning a retail
business. You are offering a model more in tune with many
retailers’ personal belief systems, but still in conflict with much
modern-day common wisdom about how to be successful at business. Is a
leap of faith required here?
Block:
First of all, nobody walks their talk. So, let’s just get real for
a moment. You can’t accuse anyone of not walking their talk, because
you’re not walking yours. This is life work, to walk your talk, so you
have to forgive yourself.
The key thing is not to let your anxiety distract you from why you
started the business in the first place. Let’s say a purpose of the
business is to create a new or alternative model of how commerce can be
conducted. Usually you still will revert to patriarchal,
high-control, alienated, entitled ways of being when you get scared. How
can you manage your anxiety in a way that doesn’t distract you?
You say, “I want this business to make a lot of money, and I am going to
prove to the world it can make a lot of money doing things in a way
consistent with my vision and my values.” Sometimes you have to take a
hit economically in order to protect that.
Most New Age retailers know that what they are working on is their own
consciousness; their own faith; and the capacity of their employees and
customers to be committed to the success of the business. And most
customers of New Age businesses want them to be successful. This is an
enormous advantage. So, maybe you should start treating customers
as if they are part of the employee or membership circle.
Have meetings with your customers and say, “We want your help in
figuring out how to make this a better business.” Why are they going to
be willing to waste their time helping your business? Because they want
you to be successful. People drawn to New Age businesses want
every
business to operate according to an Aquarian, New Age instinct.
Until you start looking for ways to think and act in partnership, of
course it is a leap of faith. Anytime you imagine a possibility of
something that doesn’t exist now, your faith is confronted every step of
the way. The fact you don’t walk your talk is no reason to lose faith.
All you do is say, “God, I’m a human being, after all. On I go.”
Hemachandra:
Is stewardship something you do to enhance employee performance or
something you do for its own sake?
Block:
You don’t have to choose. Now, good work done for its own sake is
powerful in the world and can be economically successful. But you
don’t want to be self-indulgent — as if you are entitled. This work is
not about doing what feels good. It’s about doing what aligns with your
purpose. It’s about doing things
on purpose
— being intentional about the kind of employees you want and the
customer experience.
I think sometimes that gets misinterpreted as doing your own thing and
having a ball, which can get you away from your intention. Your
intention is to create something in the world.
All the evidence we have says that the nature of high-performing groups
and teams is aligned with a deep sense of accountability, commitment,
and ownership. It’s not aligned with high control.
Hemachandra:
Do most businesses over-emphasize compensation as a motivator for
employees, using pay as a reward-punishment system?
Block:
The whole issue of compensation and benefits is one of equity and
justice. It has nothing to do with motivation. People have been studying
the impact of compensation on performance for years and can find no
relationship. So, the idea that you can’t expect much from people
if you can’t pay them much is a fool’s stance. What you can expect from
people has nothing to do with the level of your ability to pay them.
Conversely, setting up complicated incentive schemes of compensation
doesn’t get much back for you. Don’t waste your money setting up
elaborate pay schemes or intricate profit-sharing schemes, because pay
and performance are relatively unrelated.
There has to be some equitable framework— some justice — to pay. You
have to make sure people feel they are being paid as fairly as the
business will support. That’s why going over the economics of the
business is very helpful to people. They often are naive about what it
takes. Some of them can’t even read an income statement or a balance
sheet. Unfortunately, some owners don’t pay much attention to
that, either. I ran a business for years and never had a budget until we
lost money one year, and then we got interested.
Hemachandra:
What about performance appraisals? How should retailers conduct
personnel reviews?
Block:
Hopefully, most independent retail stores do not do performance
appraisals, because they are demeaning. Performance appraisals formalize
the experience of, “They own the place, and I don’t.”
You instead should be having a conversation about commitments, a
conversation in which you and the employee say, “Look, let’s talk about
what promises we want to make to each other about the next three months
— what commitments we want to make to try to build this business.” And
then every few months you sit down and talk about how things are going.
But to formalize reviews with, “I am your boss, and I am going to
develop you with the following comments,” creates children out of us
all. Performance appraisals aren’t objective, anyway. They all are
subjective.
Hemachandra:
Do conversations about commitments take place one-on-one; in an
all-inclusive group; or both?
Block:
I think a group conversation — “How are we doing?” — is great. It’s
great to have peers sit down and have a conversation with each other
about what they want from each other and how they are getting along.
Most of the work is done through peer-to-peer relationships. The better
you can create a team environment, the better it is for your business.
Let people take two hours a month when they sit down and talk about how
things are going and what they want from each other.
But whether one-on-one or in a group, don’t call them appraisals or
evaluations. As soon as you use these terms, it activates all our family
anxieties. People get nervous and don’t hear most of what is said. All
they do is feel bad.
Hemachandra:
In a company based on empowerment, without appraisals or evaluations,
how are people fired?
Block:
If people don’t deliver on their promises, you tell them they are in
trouble. You’ve got a certain protocol — a just, fair protocol.
You let people know when you feel they are not delivering on their
commitments or they are not serving customers well or treating each
other well or caring for the business. You just tell them, “Look, you
have six months. Let’s keep talking about this.” But if it doesn’t
change after six months, you say, “I can’t afford to carry you any
longer.”
There is nothing about empowerment or stewardship that argues against
firing people. Stewardship does argue for more authentic and
honest conversation.
Hemachandra:
How does stewardship affect the hiring process?
Block:
Who can make the best decision about who to bring into the business? Is
it the boss — the owner? Is it the employees? Is it some combination?
I would tell people you are thinking of hiring, “I want you to talk to
the people who are here now, so you know what you are getting into, and
so I can listen to them about whether we think you would fit here.” Take
that conversation quite seriously — give it at least an hour. Take
advantage of the wisdom of everyone in the business as to whether they
think the person is a good fit. You don’t have to take the advice, but
you know more that way. You have a more complete picture.
The question of fit is not about whether the person is any good or not,
but this approach recognizes that the relationships among peers are
really important.
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