I DARE YOU TO BE TRAINED-----

I dare you to be trained like an entry level person is in your company is.
I think you would be appalled and you would certainly get the best of what your company does not the haphazard stuff normally thrown at people.

Good solid training for people who touch your customers could be your best secret weapon. I don't know how training got to be so low on the totem pole.
And don't give me budget reasons.  Get the nerve to do what's good for the business at the very pedestrian level. Then you'll earn the money in sales to do some of the rest that you want to do.

I have five adult children who all worked many jobs as teens and college students.  Not one of them was trained to do their job and certainly given no context about how their work fit into a larger picture.  They were scared at first that they couldn't do the jobs from cutting donuts to repairing tires to cutting vegetables for an industrial kitchen to launching a ferry.  Then they asked questions, figured out their own way, kept wanting to do a good job, lost respect for their supervisors until they realized their supervisors  didn't know what they were doing either. Everyone was faking their way through the day.  And then they took their gumption, their desire to do good work, their talent and left these workplaces.

Recently i read an article on the decline of training due to fear that trained people would leave anyway  and the cost of continuous training was too much.  Whoa. How about creating a workplace that people don't want to leave??  And one of the tools for retention is people's inherent pleasure in mastering work. Being good at something, doing it well, is a motivator itself.  I remember pick by light warehouse workers with bandaged fingers who knew their productivity numbers and relished digging in to beat their results from the day before. I was looking at retention and job satisfaction. They liked the aesthetic of picking--the speed and finger skill they used.  I had a good supermarket bagger the other day and I complimented her. She said she loved to bag things just right. It was a challenge and doing it well pleased her. Without the compliment. I asked if she was trained to do it.  And she said, "Oh yes, by the best, my boss" Lucky lady.  On the job examples of good work trumps all other approaches to training.   

Think of well-trained entry level people as a primary retention tool. It taps intrinsic satisfaction that can't be bought. And it sets the thermostat for excellence as they stay and grow with your company.

STRIVE FOR DULL

One of the best companies I worked for was described as "ploddingly dull" by Wall Street analysts and yet  they loved the company.  This well managed company set realistic goals and met them year after year after year.  Company leaders told analysts what they were going t do and then did it.  This company kept analysts on their side by keeping them informed--in-depth.  New efforts and innovations were shared. The company was trusted and its success pleased analysts.  

At the moment in time I worked in this company the culture that created
"ploddingly dull" was:

Competent at all levels--people just got the job done
Details got done right--boring wasn't boring
Leaders did not exhort people, they involved them
Leaders set direction and got out of the way--course correcting gently
Change was constant but graceful, not disruptive
Innovation took place in prudent experiments
Talent development was systemic and part of the job. Nothing grandiose.
Business opportunities were scanned for using intuition with analysis

Left foot, right foot, staying the course.
How about a winning ploddingly dull strategy?
Do not yawn.

ARE YOU OUT OF CONTROL WITH OVER-CONTROL?

It isn't that easy to get the point set right on the continuum of control.
In his book (Passion for Excellence) that just does not lose relevance,
Tom Peters talks about the combination of loose/tight that high achieving have.
The winning combination is to be tight on "what" and loose on "how".

I see too many companies doing the reverse.
Their strategy has no sharp edge.
The focus is not clear at all levels of the organization.
There is both a conceptual and operational lack of alignment.
But there are checklists galore.
Behaviors are spelled out down to the last twitch of an eyebrow.
There is constant measurement of too many things.

I used to see a lot of "tell n sell" in companies.
I thought it wasted the potential of engagement--meaning with the work not with being happy on an assessment.
Now I am seeing "command and control" again.

My assumption is the top leaders are scared.
They can't get their own hands around "what" needs to happen--other than Wall Street numbers.
So they focus on the "how"
That is not the executive leaders job.
Let your people figure out how.  Or get new people.
You can not checklist you company to extraordinary results.
You smother ingenuity, commitment and satisfaction in the work.

Re-read Tom Peters.

TIMIDITY CAN BE A GOOD HEATLHY REACTION TO A NEW TOP ROLE

I'm thinking about the entry of new top leaders into a company.
Their job is  to generate confidence and immediately start making important 
decisions. Bold, self-assured, without being arrogant, jumping in, turning the ship around, creating new direction, starting a new chapter, blah blah blah they take action. The "first 90 days" mantra" hangs over their heads.

Any new top leader worth their salt should be a little bit scared, a little excited and a little overwhelmed.  This is one time to know you are a little bit timid and with reason. Don't negate the wisdom of a little timidity.  If not, you will make big bold decisions too soon based on too little first hand smell and touch or you will wait too long to make a decision that matters most for forward movement to occur. You will probably find someone you like that knows how to please you and will give this person's opinion too much credence. You may get paralyzed by too many disparate points of view.

You will have timid people around you as well, wondering what your impact will be on their scope and power.  They will pretend frankness or couch their opinions like a well seasoned diplomat. These are ways they manage timidity.

Egg shells prevail and no one wants to step on them. No one. That's the blind spot. Everyone is timid and pretending not to be.  AND the other blind spot is that this timidity is normal, to be expected and healthy.  It is not healthy to act until you finally feel grounded in your own data, have developed your own point of view and have integrated it for yourself. So that it sits securely with you. It is the opposite of being hurriedly pushed to action.  It is the feeling of being very ready to act. The decisions sit in your gut and are comfortable. People around you are ready too. Timidity has turned to trust. You know this moment.  Don't act until you are there.