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Business Growth
May 15, 2014

Lazy Bees And Bee Watchers - Management Lessons From Dr. Seuss

Sponsored Content provided by Dallas Romanowski - Managing Partner, Cornerstone Business Advisors

The best business leaders achieve results because they know how to get things done. Unfortunately many organizations have accepted mediocrity by allowing the organization to have too many “Bee Watchers.” In Dr. Seuss’ classic book, Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?, the town near Hawtch-Hawtch hired a bee watcher to watch over the lazy town bee. “A bee that is watched will work harder you see…”

“But in spite of his watch, that bee didn’t work any harder.” So the town hired another watcher to watch the watcher. When that didn’t work, they continued to hire more watchers.

You probably remember this story from childhood or if you’ve read it to your own children. If you haven’t, I’m sure you can guess the moral of the story. 

Successful business leaders and employees achieve results by getting things done. Star employees are attracted to companies with a Performance Culture while mediocre employees settle for jobs with low expectations. Mediocre managers allow mediocre employees to keep their jobs and unintentionally motivate high performers to find jobs elsewhere. 

Over the past six years Cornerstone Business Advisors has fine-tuned an Employee Coaching and Performance Management System called Performance Culture. The system creates a common understanding of a company’s vision and what must be done to achieve that vision. With a clear vision, leaders can define expectations for both performance and core values. The 90-day coaching and evaluations create traction by facilitating candid, transparent conversations that include accountability and rewards. 

The system works because if your business fails to achieve its goals, you will not have a team rated as stars. If you have star employees without achieving your desired business results, you either have mediocre managers or poorly aligned performance objectives. With the Performance Culture System, you will know what must be done to take your team to the next level. When a business achieves its 90-day goals, we encourage businesses to reward their “star” employees on a quarterly basis.

The Moral of the Story: Don’t settle for lazy bees or bee watchers. 

If you would like to test pilot the Performance Culture System with a 90-day trial, please let us know. 
 
An excerpt from the story:

“Oh, the jobs people work at! Out west near Hawtch-Hawtch there's a Hawtch-Hawtcher bee watcher, his job is to watch. Is to keep both his eyes on the lazy town bee, a bee that is watched will work harder you see. So he watched and he watched, but in spite of his watch that bee didn't work any harder. So then somebody said "Our old bee-watching man just isn't bee watching as hard as he can, he ought to be watched by another Hawtch-Hawtcher! The thing that we need is a bee-watcher-watcher!" Well, the bee-watcher-watcher watched the bee-watcher. He didn't watch well so another Hawtch-Hawtcher had to come in as a watch-watcher-watcher! And now all the Hawtchers who live in Hawtch-Hawtch are watching on watch watcher watchering watch, watch watching the watcher who's watching that bee. You're not a Hawtch-Watcher you're lucky you see!”

Cornerstone Business Advisors provides access to experts in business strategy, management, process and finance. The Cornerstone team includes former C-Level executives, successful entrepreneurs and advisors who offer unmatched experience in delivering advanced, custom-tailored, results-oriented solutions for business leaders. Cornerstone has worked with hundreds of companies that range from fast-growth start-ups to Fortune 500 corporations.  It developed the Performance Culture System™ to help clients implement best practices and drive high performance throughout their organization. For more information, visit www.launchgrowexit.com, call 910-681-1420, or email [email protected].

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