How To Spot The Givers And The Takers.

And how takers cripple your business

Robert Kennedy a former president of America once said: 

“Ask not what the country can do for you but what you can do for your country”.  

The reason why this is an important quote is because there are many candidates looking for work who think purely about their own needs. They are selfishly absorbed in what they want in everything they do. Their whole mindset is “what’s in it for me” and this doesn’t change when they are employed by you.

To get takers to strive for reasonable performance you have to worry and stress over incentives and bonuses. With some of your business procedures takers have to be repeatedly told what to do because they are not thinking about your needs and building your business, they are obsessed with what’s in it for them. But why should you put up with this? It is certainly not making you happy, profitable and wealthy.

What do I mean by a taker?

Takers:

• Work to time not to the achievement of outcomes.
• Need more and more incentives and bonuses to be productive.
• Do not see and share your vision although told on a number of times.
• Have to be asked to do things more than once.
• Do not follow procedures that are the basic requirements of the job even when told.
• Seek security rather than rewards based performance.
• Are not flexible.
• Do not understand that some days and weeks much more work is needed than others to ensure the company achieves its goals.
• Are not willing to go the extra mile unless rewards are offered first.
• Take their sick leave even when they are not sick.
• Take sick leave after the weekend or on your busiest days.
• Are always looking for ways to get other people to do things for them.
• Are always looking for ways to get other people to pay for them.

Takers would certainly not embrace the thought “Ask not what the company can do for you but what you can do for your company”. If you said this to them I am sure you would get a “why should I” response.

It is critical to spot the “Why should I” brigade before you invite them into your company and this is how you do it.

Look and Listen to the language and actions of all the candidates in what they write in the selection criteria and the way they talk in a phone screen.

Takers will say:

• “I have done this and rarely talk about “we” the team achieved this”
• “I am looking for at least xxx thousand to undertake this role”.
• “I want”

Takers are not good team players they are not about the benefit of others just about themselves. Givers however will talk about we and will be willing keen and eager to work on a trial basis to prove themselves. Givers are far happier and enthusiastic which attracts staff and customers to want to work and do business with them. Givers are profitable personnel. Takers provide the bare minimum performance and show no loyalty to anyone but themselves, frequently talking about their needs above all else.

“Whoever renders service to many puts himself in line for greatness — great wealth, great return, great satisfaction, great reputation, and great joy.” 

                                                                         Jim Rohn

                                                         Writer lecturer and speaker.

 A highly profitable and unified team achieve results that are far larger than the sum of the results achieved by the individuals because they create synergy.

Therefore 1+1+1+1 can =10

When you have a team of givers you see:

• Tasks are not just undertaken, but they are undertaken happily.
• The tasks are undertaken more quickly
• The team members start discus non-work related topics.
• The standard of workmanship is higher
• More creative ideas are generated.
• Colleagues can instruct / delegate /allocate work to employees in your chain of command without it causing you inconvenience and offence.
• The team undertakes tasks more energetically and with “fun”.
• Laughter becomes more frequent along with “making fun of each other”
• The team member’s start asking each other’s opinions on matters out of each other’s area of expertise (i.e. a miner asking a geologist about a mining  type issue)
• The level of trust built up in the relationship, collaboration and reliance steadily grows.
•  When disagreements occur, they do not become “personal attacks” and the disagreement does not produce hard feelings.
• The team members begin spending some of their spare time together away from work (e.g. fishing, sports, drinking)  

                                         “No tree has branches that fight amongst themselves”

                                                                      Indian Proverb

Four Very Important Learning Lessons

Lesson One: Have selection criteria where the applicant has to write sentences and you can pick up on the “I did” language.

Lesson Two: Have a phone conversation with the candidate and ask them:

• How they ensured they got on with their team members?
• What results did this team achieve?
• Can I talk to the business owner or your immediate manager to find out more about your team working skills?
• What do you hope to achieve for this company?

Takers will struggle to find good answers for these types of questions particularly because they were probably not liked by their team or their boss.

Lesson Three: Listen to their language in the interview.  If you asked them, what salary package they are looking for and they say well I am worth this, or I would not start for anything less than X, then be very careful. All highly profitable personnel really want the positions they applied for and would do anything to prove their worth before requesting a high salary.

Lesson Four: If you have got one of these people in your work place I can guarantee you and your team are not as profitable and productive as they could be.

“Ask not what the company must pay for you, but prove what you can do for your company and great rewards will follow, for both you and the business” 

 Committed to hiring the right person the first time round and recovering all the costs of the campaign!

David Osborne

www.profitablepersonnel.com