First published 26 April 2021 on Your Best Year Starts Here with Nigel Risner.
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Nigel brought a model to this one that's been around for years, and he was the first to say so. Skill set on one side, will set on the other. Plenty of skill and not much will, you find a way to motivate them. Loads of will and not much skill, you teach them. Got both? Then you should be handing them more work. Neither, and Nigel's answer was blunt. Fire them, and if you don't, you're as guilty as they are.
He reckoned I'd have seen that last type in estate agents' offices. I had. The one who walks in at four minutes to nine, sits down on the dot and pulls a little box of cornflakes out for breakfast. As far as they're concerned, turning up was the job.
I talk about something similar on stage, usually about customers, though it works just as well for staff. A is your avatar, the person with the will and the skill. B stands for beware, because they've only got one of the two, and the question is whether they're coachable. In my experience it's easier to train someone keen than to put the will into someone skilled. C stands for see you, as in see you later. With customers it's the ones who cost more than they pay, the kind where your team swear every time they put the phone down. Keep enough of those and your staff start leaving too.
Nigel called the worst ones psychic vampires and said they're your biggest competition right now, more than the office down the road. He also admitted that if he'd known all this when he ran his finance company 25 years ago, the business would have looked very different. His test is whether you'd trust someone at the family barbecue, or let them meet your friends before you'd even got there. Mine is the rehire one. If you started from a blank sheet of paper, who in your team would you take on again?
Nigel then asked if he'd still get the job as my podcast partner. I haven't sacked him yet.
The short version
- Skill but no will, find out what's missing and motivate them. Will but no skill, teach them.
- Someone keen is usually easier to train than someone skilled is to motivate.
- Work out what a difficult client really costs you, including morale and staff turnover.
- Ask yourself who you'd rehire from a blank sheet of paper.
- Nigel's barbecue test. Would you let them meet your friends without you there?
I just want everyone to understand, you either teach people, you motivate them, you delegate, or you fire.
Nigel Risner
If they've got the skills but they lack the will, very often they're never gonna fit.
Neil Martin
