Today I want to talk about 10 reasons people don’t want to work for you. These are in no particular order and I’m not even sure if these are the top 10. These are just the first 10 that kind of came to mind. So take notes, look at these, look at your business, review your world, your life, your situation. And find out is this something you are dealing with?
So number one, and I think this is one of the bigger ones that people maybe don’t take as seriously, is just general lack of success history. What I mean by that is if you’re always changing what you’re doing, you’re always changing how you’re making money, if you’re changing business types all the time, if you’re changing service types all the time. If every couple years or less, every couple months you’re pushing a different product or a different service or a different thing, that lack of consistency where you just do not have a history of success. I think that’s really going to hurt some people. So we all know that person that’s kind of looking for that get rich quick scheme and they’re constantly adjusting what they’re doing or how they’re doing it. And I think people like that struggle getting good employees because there’s just no history of success and it creates a lot of inconsistencies and no real structure to work.
Number two, I think it’s just no core values. And not even written ones, but actually living by them. There are some just really bad people out there and people can sniff it out as much as you think you’re hiding it. But when you do things and say things to intentionally hurt people, when you do things to get one over, when you’re not operating in a win win-win scenario where there’s always somebody losing in every deal you bring to the table, every approach that you make. Just no core values makes it very difficult for somebody to trust to work for you.
Number three is a poor understanding of your mission. Finding really great people, they want to get on a mission that they believe in and understand and believe they can bring value to. So if you do not have a good understanding or very clear mission that you’re on, it’s going to be hard to get people to want to work for you. It just absolutely is and it always will because some of the best employees out there really want to be a part of a mission they clearly understand and they clearly understand how they play a role in that mission. So get some clarity on that if you don’t yet.
Number four is just general lack of awareness. People just don’t know who you are. If you’re all, “Social media is not for me.” Well then you’re just not paying attention. So just general lack of awareness. If the only time people know about you is when you’re making a post to hire somebody on Indeed or some shit, you’re not going to get the right employees because people want to know who they’re going to work for. People want to know about you. So if your website’s out of date and your social media presence is irrelevant, lack of awareness is definitely going to be a problem.
Number five, I think, is emotional leadership. What I mean by that is if you’re hot and cold, some days you’re great, some days you’re pissed off, some days you’re sad, some days you’re happy. And every day you approach it from a different emotional perspective, you’re going to have a really hard time getting people to want to work for you. Because people like consistency and when there isn’t a lack of emotional consistency as the leader, we’ve all worked for that person that one day they’re celebrating, the next day they’re screaming, the next day they’re sad, the next day they’re oppressed. It makes it really hard. That is real business. That is actually an emotional rollercoaster that happens, but if you can’t protect your employees from that it’s going to be a challenge.
Which brings me to inconsistent leadership (number six). Where one day the way people are operating is fine, the next day it’s not. You’re moving roles, responsibilities a lot, or you’re moving the target a lot, or you’re changing expectations a lot. That’s going to make it really hard for people to want to be around. Poor systems and processes (number seven). Again, employees just like consistency. They like A plus B, equals C. And when that equation changes because of inconsistent or poor systems and processes, it makes it really difficult.
Number eight, lack of roles and responsibilities. A lot of businesses start out where everybody’s wearing a lot of hats and everybody just has to step up and do whatever is necessary for the mission. That is not a long-term strategy. If you do not have clear roles and responsibilities, it doesn’t matter how much money you’re making or how much money you’re paying. People will not be fulfilled in their job because they don’t really know what their job is. They don’t really know what their role is. They don’t really know what their responsibilities are. And it’ll make it really difficult for them to want to continue to show up when every day they show up that they have a different environment that they’re working in or that they’re working on.
Number nine, there’s no clear path for progress and advancement. People want to know that they can grow with you. They want to know they can grow responsibilities. They want to know they can grow income. They want to know they can grow opportunities. They want to know they’re going to become a better person and they’re going to have more opportunity to advance within their life or career by working with you. So there’s no clear path for progress and advancement. I would highly suggest building that out. Just what does it take to grow here? What does it take to get promoted here? What does it take to make more money here? Whatever it might be in your world, building that clear path.
And then number 10, again, this was one that I’m not really sure should be on the top 10 list, but I think it’s important that when the team doesn’t win when the company wins, when you’re paying yourself a bunch and everybody on your team hasn’t gotten a raise in a couple years or when a big contract gets signed, no one really gets celebrated for that. If the team doesn’t feel like they’re winning when the company’s winning, that’s a big problem. In my opinion, that’s one of the silent killers of a team. When everybody’s working really hard, they accomplish the mission and no one feels like they won. Whether that’s recognition, awards, pay increases, promotions, commissions, whatever it is. If you look at your team right now and they don’t directly win when the whole mission wins, when you accomplish the goal and no one feels that they’re winning, that’s a problem.
Again, these are the quick first, these are the top 10 things that came to my mind. I’m sure there’s some of them missing. I’m sure there’s like, “Mike, you didn’t think about this.” I’m sure there’s something, and I’m sure there’s different ways to say this, but I believe those are the top 10 reasons people don’t want to work for you. Just based on what I’ve seen. Based on what I’ve seen with the companies I’ve coached, based on what I’ve seen from the companies I’ve worked for, based on the people I’m around that do grow really strong teams. And I’m working on it right now, as you’ve seen the kind of meet the team podcast and posts that have been coming out. It takes a really special person to grow a really successful team, and I think these are some of the biggest things I see when people struggle with it.
So that’s my list. If you have something you think I missed, screenshot this, toss it in your stories, tag me. Tell me what you think is more important than one of those top 10, and we’ll go from there.
Make it a great week, everybody. Win fast, win often and have zero doubt that you are on the path to success.
