By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

            Yabba Dabba Doooooooo!

           The 5 o’clock whistle just blew and Fred Flintstone unleashes his signature response:   Yaba Daba Doooooooo!   The work week is through.

          Do you know any Fred Flintstones in your office?  Maybe even on your staff?  You know who we’re talking about: folks who mentally checkout  long before the end of the day.

           So what can you do to insure that your employees bring their “A” game to work every day and that your employees stay in the game as long as it takes? Even without overtime pay.

        Turn the ordinary into the extraordinary.

                    Fred Flintstone has an ordinary job. He digs rocks out of a quarry. Boring.  But  Fred  might feel better about his job if he understood the impact of his work. Maybe he is  digging rocks that may become the building blocks of a grand office building or a new arena.  The key is to consistently  update the Fred Flintstones on your staff of the critical importance of their work.  Help them know and understand specifically how their individual puzzle piece of the business  fits into the big picture.

Making Every Day Pay Day

         Then every day is pay day.  Your employees earn self worth, adding so much more impact to their pay checks.  Now your employees are more likely to work because they HAVE TO  not because they’ve got to,   not just because  they’ve  got bills to pay.  They HAVE TO   complete that final puzzle piece. They HAVE  TO see the big picture for themselves.

         Then fully engaged in their work,  your employees might find the the 5 o’clock whistle  muted in a symphony of creativity and productivity.    Then your employees may even see work as therapeutic.  Vincent Van Gogh, the artist once said that work can cheer you up:  “How much sadness there is in life. But one must not give oneself up to melancholy, one must seek distraction in other things and the right thing is to work!”

              Making every day pay, your employees are more apt to work even past 5’oclock — no matter how loud that 5 o’clock whistle blows.   Give your employees a specific puzzle piece — let them see how their job  fits in the big picture.  Then on Monday morning you just may hear another resounding Yabba Dabba Dooo, another work week has begun.

             I welcome your comments on how you’ve helped the Fred Flintstones in your office stay fully engaged in their work.
                                                              Today’s ImproveMINT:
Help your employees see how their individual job–their piece of he business–  fits into the big picture to  keep your leadership skills in mint condition.