On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview Shawn Casemore, who is the author of Operational Empowerment. Shawn is an internationally recognized speaker and writer. He is also the Principal of Management Consultancy at Casemore and Company Inc. After a 17-year corporate career in operation and sales roles, Shawn launched his company in 2008 with the intention of helping CEOs, executives, and business leaders to enable individuals and teams to be more productive, engaged, and participate to accelerate the growth of the organization. During this show, we discuss workplace communication, empowering employees, how to deal with new employees, and the entrepreneurial lifestyle movement.
Main Questions Asked:
- What made you leave the corporate world and become an entrepreneur?
- What do you mean by ‘empowering employees?’
- How will empowering employees increase your competitive advantage?
- How do you have a structure where there’s no manager, but make sure new employees have a direct superior, to have someone to go to?
- Is there a movement toward entrepreneurial lifestyle and independent contracting jobs?
- Why did you decide to write a book that slams operational excellence and leadership as we know it?
Key Lessons Learned:
- Your employees are most important, as they are the ones operating your company.
- If you can’t get your employees engaged, then you will never be able to grow your business profitably.
- We have a 1 in 3 million chance we will run into an employee, boss, customer, and supplier that thinks and behaves the same way we do. This explains why there is so much conflict and poor communication in the workplace.
Empowering Employees
- The empowerment of employees is all about autonomy.
- The management hierarchy that most businesses are built on was derived from the military, and is now out of date.
- Today’s employees are the most highly educated that have ever been in the workforce throughout history.
- Employees today don’t like being delegated down to, and are smart enough to not have to be.
- Zappos is an example of a company that has changed the structure so there are no managers.
Achieving Empowerment
- Put people in cross-functional teams. This helps improve their experience, morale, and communication.
- Get rid of formal management and have team leaders who are self-selected by the teams.
- Create a community of people on the front line, and create the tools to get the communication from those teams to the people that matter.
Operational Empowerment
- Every business has a series of operations such as the sales process and marketing systems.
- Empowering people is the key to a competitive advantage because it is the best way to service your customers.
New Team Members
- Integrate team members into the interviewing process.
- Skills can be learned, but you can’t train people to ‘fit’ and force people to have the right dynamic.
- Hire for ‘fit’ relative to the community and culture of the team.
- Building a team of people who work well together matters more than them working well with the boss.
Entrepreneurial Lifestyle Movement
- The entrepreneurial lifestyle is more attractive to employees, as there is more independence.
- This movement allows people to have multiple streams of income.
- The millennials want the autonomy and variety that is offered by this lifestyle.
- Millennials are resistant to fit inside a mold.
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The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic
Links to Resources Mentioned
Casemore & Co
Free Chapter
