Apr 8, 2013

Small Business Employees Need the Power and Ability to Think

"I always saw what others did not see and never saw what others did see." - Salvador Dali


I saw this sign today, a little something Eva put together. 
A hypnotized person.
She looks reasonably happy.

My first thought was to post it on our business facebook page and say "This is the kind of employee we always hope to find."  I-Will-Do-Whatever-You-Say-Master kind of employee.

The more I thought about it, I realized that's exactly NOT the kind of person we want to hire.

We want people who can think.  People who aspire, inquire, conceptualize, design, create and invent.  People who push the envelope and ask "why?" 

I've run across hypnotized employees before and it was never a good experience.  If the clerk can't figure my change without the computer, she's hypnotized and the sale is paralyzed if the power goes out. I leave stupefied and beg not to return.

I saw an employee one time refuse to give a large drink for the price of a medium when he had run out of medium cups.  He repeated this during a busy lunch hour, creating many angry customers who left thirsty or ripped off and probably won't return.  Losing customers over fifty cents? (and we know the markup on fountain drinks to begin with)  That employee is hypnotized.

Besides hiring people who can think, you need managers who foster thinking as well.  If your managers are hypnotized, you're in big trouble.  I'd think about retiring.  You might not have what it takes to run a business in this century.

"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

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