As a business owner have you ever asked yourself any of these questions? How to I get my employees to go above and beyond my expectations? How do I maintain loyalty and develop my employees potential? How do I control job turnover and create longevity among my staff? Well as that business owner I’m willing to wager that you have all of these answers already. Many business owners have seen a business model that they either believe they can duplicate or improve upon, that’s why they believe they are capable of being successful. Take some time and solve these and other issues that you may be facing with this very simple exercise. Approach this with an open mind and be as detailed in your responses and you can.

Step 1: Take a regular 8×11 sheet of paper and turn it length wise. Now draw one vertical line down the middle and another horizontal line through the middle of the paper creating for quadrants. If all else fails just fold the paper to create the quadrants, this will help you as you complete the exercise.

Step 2: Take a moment to reflect on every thing that you enjoyed about your previous employment experiences that pertain to the organization itself. In the top left quadrant write down as many of these things that you can remember. For example, did they offer an excellent training program that allowed you to easily become comfortable performing  a required task or tasks.

Step 3: Now take another moment and in the top right quadrant list all of those thing that made you or others feel disconnected from an organization. How was the overall morale and why, are easy ways to dig deeper into this quadrant.

Step 4: Each of us at some point or another has had a superior that has inspired us to be greater than we are. Those who are lucky have had many of these leaders guiding them through their professional career. In the bottom left quadrant list all of the characteristics of these leaders whom have earned your respect. Yes this quadrant might be a little more difficult that the others, but the next one should go rather smoothly.

Step 5: Lastly, it shouldn’t be very difficult to think of all the characteristic of those leaders whom no one respected and no one followed for whatever reason. List these qualities in the bottom right quadrant to finish your assessment.

Now here comes the hard part. Just rip the paper right down the middle from top to bottom. You should be holding in your right hand the potential reasons for all of the problems that you possess and in your left hand you hold all of the answers.  Take some time to really look at your business with an objective eye and ask if any of the things in you right hand are festering within your own organization and just how soon can you begin to replace them with more of the things in your right. Take the challenge, go for it!