If you are in pursuit of important growth objectives,  you need every team member to be galloping to goal.  If a few are just limping along – or even worse laying around on the job – you must be so frustrated!  What are you going to do?!

Before withholding their oats, putting them out to pasture or shooting them –  watch Seabiscuit, based on the true story about a horse that seemed best at sleeping and eating.  Judged as “plain lazy”.  He was ridden and beaten to the point of collapse.   He could have easily been stuck with the Loser Label, but someone on “his team” must have seen our Quote of the Week: On Winners & Losers.    With the right trainers, the right treatment plus lots of belief – Seabiscuit beat the unbeatable War Admiral.   It was an underdog-to-champion story on many levels.   And it was invigorating for the Depression-ridden United States.

One of the heros was  Tom Smith(played by Chris Cooper), a horse trainer, a horse healer, viewed by many as a crackpot. My absolute favorite scene (see below) is when  he  first meets Seabiscuit’s owner, Charles Howard (played by Jeff Bridges). Mr. Howard asks Mr. Smith why he likes to work with horses who are pretty much useless….why he takes on such lost causes.  Mr. Smith’s reply:

“Every horse is good for something.   He can be a cart horse  or a lead pony and he’s still nice to look at. You don’t throw a whole  life away just because it’s banged up a little.”

Don’t you love those lines?!   They inspired  me to create “The Biscuit Bang Up Theory- TM”.

If you have someone on your team seems lazy or lame or otherwise unproductive, find out what’s causing the limp.  Do what you can to repair it.  Or reassign the person to a job in which they can still thrive.

The mending and recuperation process is a big investment – but not as big as the firing, hiring and training process.

Do your best to hire people with the skills needed to perform well.  Then when they get banged up – and they will – remember  “The Biscuit Bang Up Theory – TM”

Grab some popcorn and watch the first minute and a half  of the clip below.   Or feel free to watch the entire thing.

copyright 2010 – Business Class Inc