This article first appeared on March 23rd, 2012.
Today I’ve decided I am going to pick at some scabs. I’m going to walk into Taskmaster Enterprises and instruct all my managers to go to all the direct reports and ask a simple question: What is stressing you out?
Actually, it’s not a simple question to ask. It’s quite confronting. Entrepreneurs and even managers don’t like to be made aware of new problems, because their lives are so busy sorting out existing ones. Ask people about their problems and you may well have to solve them.
But don’t be afraid. Finding out what is bugging people will make your business better.
You’ll find out where the bottle-necks and sticking points are in your processes.
You’ll get an idea of who is performing well and who isn’t.
You’ll be able to spot which areas of the business need resources and which don’t.
You will also find out that de-stressing people isn’t that hard. A lot of their problems will be relatively minor and easily fixed.
It won’t be fun, but it must be done.
Get it done – today!
Andrew Sadauskas is a former journalist at SmartCompany and a former editor of TechCompany.
