A Culture of Unbelief

Credit: Depositphotos.com

What is a culture of unbelief in small business? And, what creates a pessimistic mindset in employees toward their job and employer?

This type of culture stems from owners NOT following up on what they SPEAK.

For example, an owner saying they will FIX an issue causing employee frustrations, but not following through.

And we are NOT talking about temporary fixes. We are talking about fixing recurring issues permanently.

So how does the owner turn a culture of unbelief around?

Sounds trivial to some and insurmountable to others. However, when you start adding up seemingly small frustrations that employees deal with daily, they lose faith in the owner’s word. At which point, their job performance begins to suffer.

Pessimism Leads to Distrust, Leading to Employee Turnover

Not surprisingly, the large majority of employees we’ve worked with want to do a good job. But when there is a continual breakdown in communications of job details and inefficient tools, UNBELIEF sets in.

Yes, unbelief in the owner, in the company over all; unbelief in the future for them.

What most owners fail to recognize is, control systems that ensure job accuracy, maintenance of equipment, and every process that operates a business, is a powerful TOOL!

This lack of recognition seeds a toxic environment of skepticism, causing employee turnover and poor job performance.

Consider this: if you were fifteen minutes late to every planned family event, how long would it take for family members to lose faith in your WORD.

Sadly, in today’s culture many believe being a little late to events is NO BIG DEAL. In fact, they never consider being late as a disservice to others who take necessary measures to assure they arrive on time.  In like manner, when an owner doesn’t follow through with fixing business issues, people lose faith in their word.

As a business owner, you should consider EVERY word you speak. There is an old proverb that says, “The tongue can speak life or death; those who love to talk will reap the consequences.”

How to Turn a Culture of Unbelief Around

To turn a pessimistic culture around requires the business owner’s taking FULL responsibility for ALL non-conformance of workflow processes. Moreover, ALL operations that run the business.

However, to be fair to employers, once employees are given the right tools, then the employees are FULLY responsible for their part.

What are the right tools? A control system! It enables employees to check each stage of work, each call-to-action in a process, systematically.

For example, before departure, an airline pilot performs a comprehensive checklist to ensure an error-free takeoff, which ensures the safety of everyone onboard.

To be certain, pilots know the importance of adhering to systems of order and safety. They would not radio the control tower saying, “Hey folks, I have thousands of hours of experience flying. Therefore, I don’t need a checklist; I know what I’m doing!”

No, the pilot methodically reads and checks off on every call-to-action on the checklist. In fact, the co-pilot is part of this process-conformance insurance.

Why? One missed call-to-action of the takeoff process could be fatal!

Think about it, if the pilot fails to perform just ONE item on that checklist, it could lead to catastrophic NON-CONFORMANCE.

How many times have you seen in your business experience a very simple process oversight that led to a very costly mistake? A thoughtless error can cost a fortune.

Make no mistake, A CHECKLIST IS A POWER TOOL!

These tools are not rocket science. In short, control checklists are simply step-by-step call-to-actions that leave nothing to chance in performing a process.

Control systems are very inexpensive to develop and maintain. Yet the investment is priceless!

Did I mention? Great systems work!