Starting the New Year off Right

If you’re a business owner, executive or leader and you’re wondering how to ensure next year isn’t a repeat of this year, then this article is for you.

I received a bunch of notes from people after I posted an article around this time last year on My One Prediction for the New Year. (In case you missed the newsletter, here’s the?link.) One message, in particular, stood out. It’s from a CEO, whom I’ve known for years. I thought what he wrote was so spot on that I asked him if I could share this with you. He graciously agreed.

Your recent post is right on target—the reason we are where we are today is all about how we have built the company and our team over many years. I just wanted to share this with you because it will resonate so well with everything that you are telling your clients and readers, and it is the secret of all of our success.?

I didn’t need any MBA to figure this out as it always just made logical sense to me that to build a championship-winning team, you cultivate and care for all your people, and you also reward your winners handsomely. They are, of course the greatest assets, and fortunately, over a long period of time, we have built a whole stable of MVPs at American Benefits Group (ABG).

Today we have an entire team of people?with 10-20 years tenure, and many of them are Superstar performers. Every ABG employee gets a nice bonus every year, and individual performance-based bonuses can be as high as 30% of compensation. In addition, every employee t gets COLA increases every year, which have ranged from 2 to 4% annually. The superstars also get elevated with expanded positions of responsibility, and appropriate salary increases when they rise.

Bob Cummings

CEO and Managing Principle

American Benefits Group

Compare this story to the one I told about a client of mine, who after a stellar year, had a year-end bonus in the amount of $250 deposited into her account, with no note or thank you card from his boss or the company.?It probably won’t surprise you to learn that she’s since left this organization.

Bob told me that with the year-end bonuses, he included a note to all his employees as well as a book that he thought they’d enjoy.

You may not find it surprising that ABG was recognized as the Company of the Year by Manage HR. It turns out one of his clients nominated them. He credits his people for this great honor.

There’s a lot to be learned from this story. Here are a few areas that stood out for me.

• Treat people the way you’d like to be treated.
• Share the wealth.
• Do good things for your people consistently.
• Keep things simple.
• People don’t work for companies. They work for people.

I hope you found Bob’s story as inspirational as I did.

The question now is, what will you do differently this coming year so that nine years from now, you can say, “I have a team of people who have been with me for over ten years?”

I’m here if you’d like to?schedule a call?to discuss this. I've been advising some very successful clients on what it takes to keep good people these days. I'm happy to share with you some innovative ideas on creating workplaces where employees love to work, and customers love to do business. Talk soon!

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