The business improvement resource. Let us reduce your business taxes and improve profits by helping you plan ahead.

Looking Forward to Monday

By Adam Witty

*A Book Review*

by Michael C. Gray

© 2022 by Michael C. Gray

How can you build a cohesive business team, working happily together to build a successful company? A team that looks forward to coming to work on Monday?

Adam Witty, founder and CEO of Advantage/Forbes books, shares how his company does it.

According to Adam, the management team should understand that their role is to be the leaders of their organization. In order to be really successful for the long term, it must be a pleasure to work at that company and attract the best employees.

Leadership requires communication and getting employees really engaged with the company and their work. That means there must be regular meetings where company goals and measurable targets are agreed upon and employees know how the company is progressing to meet those goals.

The foundation for the company is a Noble Purpose. How will the company make the lives of its customers, community, and employees better?

Then the core values of the business should be crafted by management and the employees and agreed upon. Having clearly-defined core values will help establish whether a prospective employee is a "good fit" and gives one way to evaluate whether an employee is performing according to those values.

A BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) is another way to get a team pulling together. Adam suggests that the goal should be stretch-achievable within five years, so it's digestible by employees. The goal should be something employees can visualize and get excited about. For Advantage, the first BHAG unveiled during December 2013 was to increase the customer count from 65 active members to 1,000 by December 31, 2018. They called it "The Road to 1,000." Most of the employees except a few in the leadership group believed it wasn't possible. Adam also suggests not to have the BHAG be a revenue or financial goal.

Remember that employees should have fun along the way. At Advantage, the company had a Fast and Furious employee promotion. They leased a new Mustang for 2018 that could be rotated as a reward to employees weekly. After the end of the year, an employee was awarded ownership of the Mustang for life.

Having A-player co-workers also promotes team happiness. Employees want to have co-workers they know they can rely on. Advantage follows the mantra, "Hire slowly, fire quickly." Hiring the best takes longer, and pays dividends in the long run. Hiring the best also requires involvement beyond the Human Resources department.

If employees feel appreciated by receiving hand-written notes of appreciation, celebration of accomplishments, team meeting acknowledgements, and verbal praise, they will look forward to coming to work on Monday.

Looking Forward to Monday isn't just a great book for modeling in your company. I would think it would also be a great recruiting tool for Advantage Publishing. You could also follow the example by writing a book about your company's philosophy of creating a great workplace and sharing it with employees and prospective employees. It's a lot more interesting than a personnel manual.

Buy it at Amazon: Looking Forward to Monday: How to Create A Workplace That Breeds Greatness, Attracts And Retains A-Players, And Makes Work Fun.

For our new reviews of business and self-improvement books, subscribe to our newsletter, Michael Gray, CPA's Tax & Business Insight!


Home   Business Building Blog   Introduction   Seven Habits   Business Improvement   Book Reviews   Need Help?   Links


Michael Gray, CPA
2482 Wooding Ct.
San Jose, CA 95128
(408) 918-3162
FAX: (408) 938-0610

Subscribe to Michael Gray, CPA's
Tax & Business Insight


We respect your email privacy