Trust the People You Work With

Episode 052

Ben Walters: [00:00:00] Ben with SuperPumped Podcast continuing our series on turnover. I've worked in a lot of different organizations of all sizes, from nonprofits like the Cincinnati Art Institute to Playhouse in the Park, to even big, downtown companies, major flags, major corporations.

Ben Walters: One of the things I see that causes turnover, is a lack of chain of command. And what I mean by that is that sometimes you have an employee and they maybe have an official in the org chart. A direct report boss, right? Most people do. But here's the thing. In many organizations, you also have other people up the chain or maybe sideways in the chain that also feel they have the right or responsibility to also direct that employee.

Ben Walters: I've been in restaurants where you have an owner who's giving one set of directions, and you have a general manager who's giving another set of directions. And maybe you have an assistant manager that's saying another [00:01:00] thing.

Ben Walters: And the frontline employee is like, wait a minute, what am I supposed to be doing here? And they're confused. And do you know what they end up doing? They end up just saying the heck with this place, you don't know what you're doing. One person's telling me this, one person's telling me that, they get frustrated, they get really just down on themselves, and they're like, I'm out the door. And what does that create for you? It creates turnover. That person leaves, you've gotta then start that whole process over.

Ben Walters: But if you can clean up your chain of command, and I have been guilty of this myself as an owner, nobody wants a meddling owner because it messes up chain of command and it confuses everything. I've actually, talking about turnover I've lived it where I've created my own turnover just by my own stupidity and my own mistakes, rather than trusting my managers, trusting my direct reports to do their job, and even trusting that they're gonna trust their people down the line.

Ben Walters: So rather as an owner, then come in and usurp the GM and the assistant GM and the [00:02:00] crew chief, let 'em do their jobs.

Ben Walters: And when I get to thinking about this, I just need to remind myself, in every organization there should be a queen. In this particular hive here of bees, the Queen bee sets the tone. The queen bee is the authority. And then under that, you've got worker bees. You've got drone bees. There's no confusion, there's no turnover. Everybody does their job. And do you know what's awesome about the bees? They make sweet honey. That is awesome. I want, in your business, your people to be buzzing around, productive, excited to go to work, to make the sweet honey, whatever that honey is for you, and to slay your turnover dragon.

Ben Walters: This is Ben with SuperPumped. Thanks for joining me today and go out and eat some honey this weekend. 

Ben Walters: If you enjoyed today's show, I have two quick next steps for you. First, subscribe or follow us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or [00:03:00] YouTube. And second, jump on over to superpumped.com to find out all the incredible ways we can help you launch your SuperPumped Business.

Ben Walters: Keep well and I'll see you next time.