Establishing clear lines of authority and …

1 Tivating their personnel. Many timesthey do not have the final decision onmonetary rewards, but have significantinput to the actual decision maker. Ob-viously the owner or president is ulti-mately responsible for the distributionof monetary rewards and/or benefits toemployees. Ideally this is done on astrict pro forma basis, with no freerides or undeserved promotions and/orraises; only for outstanding perfor-mance and dedication to work. Monetary rewardsObviously, the paycheck that anemployee receives is a monetary re-ward for the work he or she employment is all too oftenconsidered a right of the employee,when in fact, it is not. Continued em-ployment is, or should be, a reward forcontinued work well done. A job or the right to work must beearned. This is one reason that moststates in the are right to work states, whereby the employee can quitat any time without reason and, con-versely, he or she can be fired for anyor no reason (providing it is not basedon discrimination.)

2 Sadly, when some-one says working for the company, what they all too often refer to is at-tendance. All employees must know,however, that management has the rightto expect several things from the em-ployee in return for the paycheck theyreceive, such as: an honest day s work;loyalty; dependability and reliability;honesty; consistency; and assistance inreaching company goals and objectives. The payment of overtime premi-ums, paid vacations and paid holidays,contributions to pension plans, the pay-ment of health and/or life insurance ex-penses are all examples of extra mon-etary rewards some employees may re-ceive in exchange for the extraordinarywork they perform at their respectivecompany, and these perks are gener-ally reserved for worthy, long-term em-ployees. But these are not the onlythings that motivate employees, and notthe only things that employers shouldconcentrate their attention on.

3 I knowit sounds crazy, but employees do notalways mean what they say when theyclaim more money will make themmore satisfied. Of course more moneyalways helps, but often it is more thansimply money that will make themhappy and motivated rewardsSome of the best motivations foremployees are non-monetary, and in-clude things like: job security; recog-nition for effort; fair and consistenttreatment; honesty on the part of man-agement; being part of a winning team;pride in working for a company thathas a good reputation for quality; pridein the belief they are among the best atdoing their particular job; being facedwith newchallenges; respect for theirsupervisor; respect from their supervi-sor; input into decisions pertaining totheir jobs; belief that they have a chanceto grow based on performance; type ofwork they do; tools and equipment theywork with; the attitudes of their fellowemployees.

4 And how society perceivestheir are all outstanding motiva-tional factors. However, not all moti-vational techniques work on all is management s responsibility andprimary function to determine whichmotivations to use on which employee. Employees stay with an employeror company only as long as they per-ceive their benefits exceed the burdensof their fence company mayprovide some non-monetary rewards toyour employees already and, in manyinstances, you only need to remind orreinforce the situation. If not, please review the above listand begin to use as many of these non-monetary rewards with as many of youremployees as you possible can. TheyLast month I spoke about settinggoals, developing a mission statementand business planning. Assuming your company has donethose things, the next task becomesfinding the right employees and puttingthem in the appropriate positions to helpaccomplish the company s goals andachieve its mission said than done, right?

5 First, good employees, as mostbusiness owners in this or any industrywill tell you, are very hard to find. Per-sonally, I think that it would be easierto make a jumbo jet or the Statue ofLiberty disappear like the televisionmagicians do than to find an unlimitedsource of high quality, dedicated andhonest employees. That would be a neattrick that neither David Copperfield noreven the great Houdini, if he were stillalive, could pull off. I am no Copper-field or Houdini, so let s just assumeyou are one of the lucky companies andyou have sufficient qualified employ-ees on staff already. Now the challengeis to mold them, direct them and moti-vate them to accomplish the goals youhave basic purpose of motivatingemployees is to attain increased pro-duction and/or improved quality ofwork. Worker productivity and qualityof workmanship is generally equateddirectly with pay rates.

6 The more pro-ductive, quality work an employee pro-duces, the greater the rewards and thehigher the is also called proforma based pay, and is the basis ofour capitalistic form of government. But money alone is not the onlymotivation, and in many instances itcan cause more problems than it means of motivation aresometimes as important, or even moreimportant, than monetary we all should know, supervi-sory personnel are responsible for mo-Copyright 2006 reprinted from World Fence News August 2006 issue clear lines of authority and responsibilityBY TOM LUBY,PROFIT BUILDERS INTERNATIONAL quires the ability to give orders prop-erly. responsibility requires the abil-ity to follow through, assuring that theorders are carried out must always equal re-sponsibility, and must be sufficient tofulfill the requirements of the job.

7 Butnever more than that which is neces-sary to get the job and responsibility mustnever be dual, shared or person, and only one person, is re-sponsible for the successful comple-tion of every long as there is singular dele-gation of authority and responsibility ,the individuals with responsibility maybe assigned accountability; however,when more than one person shares theauthority and responsibility for some-thing, neither can be held accountablefor what might go wrong, and fingerpointing rears its ugly must be clearly definedand followclear paths. Without cleardefinition, there will be confusion. Thecompany s organizational chart (I hopeyou all have one) clearly defines thepaths, while job descriptions clearly de-fine the full scope of the authority foreach individual, from the presi-dent of the company down, must knowthe limits and scope of the authority ofhis or her position.

8 These limitations this scope must never be cir-cumvented. When an individual circumventsthe authority of any other, he effectivelyrelieves that individual of all responsi-bility and accountability for an un-specified length of time. Additionally, such circumventionharms the morale of that side effects will spread downwardto the individual s may be delegated alongwith equal and corresponding respon-sibility. The extent of such delegationmust be clearly spelled out in does not imply autoc-racy, but it does require the use of or-ders and order may be defined as thesignal which makes coordinated actionpossible. Orders cannot be given blindly;each must be tested to assure that it isnecessary, clear , complete, and rea-sonable, with compliance both possibleand complete order will supply a spe-cific goal or objective, with permissi-ble variations, and a time frame forcompletion.

9 It will note a method ormeans of performance. It will state who,what, when, where, and how, specify-ing the individual who will be held re-sponsible and accountable for its responsibilityThe prime task of every manageris the assumption of your own performance interms of what you were ordered to doand what you actually interest and, wheneverpossible, provide incentive. The incentive of reward, after thesuccessful completion of a task, workswell when properly handled. (Pleasekeep in mind the list of non-monetaryrewards mentioned earlier and use asmany of them as possible.) The use of fear as a driving forceis virtually obsolete in modern Amer-ican business practice. Punishment isappropriate after willful wrongdoing,but only if it is willful. Any other typeof wrongdoing merely implies a lackof training and a need for coaching.

10 Along with this, always rememberthe business mantra praise in publicand punish in private. Inflexible rule:You will see to itthat every order that is issued is carriedout. You will not forget it, change it, orcountermand it is your responsibility to doreally do work, and very well at that!The recognition of effort is one thatmost managers need to concentrate always seem to find time totell the employee when a mistake ismade, but too often are too busy to ex-press appreciation of a job well doneon a specific assignment. This oftenleads to a decrease in moral. Try to catch your employees doingsomething right! Comment on theirwork and complement them on ability to express their opin-ion is generally important to employ-ees and requires that management ex-plain why a different approach is ad-hered to or followed (within reason), ifit differs from the one they an employee is happy andcontent at his or her job and is properlymotivated to continue on a course, heorshe must be granted the authority , responsibility and matching account-ability for that authority to accomplishthe goals and mission of the company.