It has been a while since I last wrote about my chicken adventures. In late June, our flock grew to 20. Our three broody hens hatched 14 peeps. At some point, I’ll share that whole rather stressful adventure, but for now, I’ll skip over becoming a chicken grandma and instead turn my attention (and your attention) back to my mean rooster, Oden. If you recall, a few months ago I wrote an article titled “Right Seat, Wrong Chicken.” Oden’s behavior continued to escalate after recovering from the Great Chicken Massacre. It got to the point that I was working my chicken duties around his schedule, i.e., only entering the run when he was in the coop, which resulted in late nights and early mornings. 

A few weeks ago, my chicken coach came to visit. She marched right into the run and headed toward Oden. He sensed her lack of fear and retreated. Then she caught him and put him upside-down. And once a chicken is upside-down, the balance of power shifts—at least for the person who put him upside down. I held Oden for a while, and we eventually let him resume his daily activities. But I soon learned that until I caught him, he would still be aggressive with me. So, the following week—I did it! I caught Oden myself and held him upside down. Now I am at the top of the pecking order, and Oden has become a “Right Chicken, Right Seat” member of my flock.  

I can think of two ways to pivot this story toward business: overcoming our fears or becoming a better leader. Given the current shortage of employees, I’m going to pivot toward leadership. 
Most employers are struggling to find people to fill their open positions, especially people who show up on time and want to do the work. This shortage results in either settling for less-than-ideal candidates or slowing growth until more employees can be hired. 

It might help to think about the reasons for the employee shortage. After surviving the pandemic, many people have changed their priorities, and this shift has impacted the way they view their work. They may be less willing to take a job just to earn a paycheck. Based on my research, there isn’t a shortage of employees, but rather a shortage of enticing opportunities. I’d like to offer up three questions that may help you reframe your approach to attracting and retaining your ideal employee.

1. Is there consistency between what you say you want and what you accept? As we say in EOS, you get what you tolerate. In a time when finding qualified employees is very difficult, it may be tempting to tolerate employee behavior that is contrary to your core values. But that behavior is eroding your culture and lowering the standard for everyone. Addressing that employee with clear examples of the type of behavior that you won’t tolerate is the best way to tackle the problem.  If he or she can’t adjust their behavior, you will need to make the hard decision to let them go. It has been my experience that such decisions are rewarded as other employees step up to fill the void.
2. Are you clear about your vision and your core values?  Are you using those to inform your hiring decisions? A person with passion for your vision who demonstrates your core values on a daily basis will outperform any other employee. If you share your vision and core values during the recruiting and hiring process, the odds of attracting an ideal candidate will increase.  Yes, it will narrow down the number of candidates, but the quality of the candidates will be much higher.  
3. Are you managing your employees in such a way that they can’t imagine not working for you? This can be an uncomfortable question to answer. But if you can answer it in the affirmative, you will have an advantage over other companies competing for the same pool of candidates.  What would it take to have employees who are fiercely loyal to you and your company? (Hint, it isn’t a higher salary.)

If after answering those questions you find that there are opportunities for improvement, I’d like to introduce you to EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System), an operating system that helps owners and their leadership teams get what they want from their businesses.  When implementing EOS, I teach how to utilize a simple set of tools that help you clarify your vision, gain traction on that vision by instilling discipline and accountability throughout the organization, and then transform your leadership team into a healthy, cohesive, fun-loving group of people who actually like working together.  This system will help you run a better business and, quite frankly, run a better life.  

To get started on regaining control of your business, attracting the right people and accelerating your growth, all you need to do is email me. I can tell you that this system worked for me personally: ever since I addressed my Right Seat, Wrong Chicken issue, I have been able to live a better chicken mama life.

If you recall, the outcome of the big chicken massacre was a traumatized rooster (Oden) and an unscathed hen (we named her Sally the Survivor). The end result of one hen and a feisty rooster is an oversexed hen.  I needed to solve my immediate problem: finding more hens.  Since I have Icelandic chickens, breeding with other types of chickens isn’t an option.  So, I did what everyone does when faced with a problem these days and turned to social media.  In my Icelandic Chicken Mama Facebook group, I asked if anyone had any hens I could buy in my local area.  Fortunately, there was one woman who agreed to sell me some of her hens though the price was a bit steep.  We did the exchange in the parking lot of Buy Buy Baby in Clackamas, Oregon.
 
I drove them home and planned on waiting until after dark to introduce the hens to their new home and family, but then changed my mind and decided to give them a few hours to acclimate prior to heading to bed for the evening.  Well, that was quite an experience.  Oden, the rooster, was overwhelmed with all his new options, and Sally was less than pleased to have to share Oden’s attention.  I have a video of this introduction if you are looking for a little chicken entertainment.  
 
Now, I wasn’t excited about paying what I paid for my hens, but the reality was that I needed to solve my short-term issue in order to make sure Sally survived.  I considered my options – purchasing chicks, purchasing eggs or paying an arm and a leg for hens.  I picked the best of the less than ideal options and moved toward implementation.  
 
I’m sure there are many of us who haven’t liked our options over the past 16 months.  Wearing a mask, social distancing, not seeing friends, not traveling, cooking all meals at home, etc.  But one thing I’ve learned as an adult is we often have to make hard decisions based on the current situation we are facing.  
 
When I’m implementing EOS with a client, I work to help them get better in three areas: Vision, Traction and Healthy.  Vision means that everyone is clear on where the organization is going and how it will get there.  Traction means no matter where you look in the organization, you see people executing on that vision with discipline and accountability. Healthy means transforming the leadership team into a cohesive, fun-loving group of people who genuinely like working together.  
 
Guess which one is the hardest to do? Yep – transforming the leadership team into a cohesive group of people who are willing to be open and honest with one another.  Conflict is difficult for most people, and as a result, they avoid it.  The sad reality is that avoiding it doesn’t make it go away. In fact, in many ways, it festers and ends up causing more issues than you can imagine.  Engaging in a lively debate is critical to working through the issues facing an organization.  If your leadership team can’t engage in those conversations, the decisions that are being made may be taking you farther from what you are trying to achieve, not closer. 
 
If you sense that your team is not making the hard decisions because they are avoiding conflict, you could be heading for trouble.  If you are ready to take the bold steps to work through those issues but you aren’t sure where to start, I can help you.  Making the difficult decisions now will help position the organization for growth in the future.  Are you ready for a new future?  Email me now and we can start working on achieving it today.  

Many of you have asked who killed my chickens.  If you haven’t been following my ongoing chicken mama saga, you can find my last article here.  But, just to quickly summarize, something killed six of my eight chickens, leaving a traumatized rooster without tail feathers and an unscathed hen.  
 
My husband and I have spent days pondering the demise of our chickens.  To answer the question succinctly, we aren’t exactly sure. But there are two clues that shed some light on the answer.
 
First, one of the chickens was found in our backyard.  Our chicken coop is in the front field and requires either walking down the driveway or strolling through the woods to get to the coop.  Even back in our short-lived, free-range chicken days, no chicken ever wandered up towards the house.  They ran (or flew) for cover in the trees and away from our dogs.  So, something brought this chicken to our backyard.
 
The second clue takes a little to set up, so bear with me.  As you may recall, we have a chicken coop enclosed within a 10×10 run with a gate.  At the request of our chickens, we expanded this run to include a 20×30 play area that has poultry fencing on the sides and is covered with bird netting.  This play area isn’t designed to keep them safe at night, but during the day it does keep them contained, and the netting keeps winged predators out while preventing the chickens from “flying the coop.”  Our chicken coop has an automatic door opener, which protects them at night, and when we closed the run gate in the evening, the chickens were also predator-safe.  After the chicken massacre, we added chicken coop fencing around the play area and staked it down.  And we committed to closing the run gate every night to protect them even more.
 
In honor of my husband’s birthday, I dressed the dogs in their birthday bandanas from Bailey’s Bandanas. The morning after his birthday, JacX (the puppy) returned to the house after “doing her business” without her bandana.  That morning, as I walked up to let the chickens out, I was lamenting that I would have to order another bandana as the dogs look so cute with them on.  When I arrived at the chicken coop, I found the bandana.  Smack in the middle of the play structure.  You know: the one surrounded by chicken coop fencing.
 
Yep, our “bird dog” used her nose and paws to pry up the stakes, lift the fencing and enter the play structure.  Fortunately, the chickens were locked up in the run and she couldn’t get to them.
 
As I reflect on why JacX would do that, I think she might have started taking “liberties” with her title of bird dog.  Instead of thinking of herself as a dog that retrieves the birds her dad shoots, she started to think of herself as a dog who retrieves all birds, regardless of whether her dad shot them.  
 
And while I’m not happy with her at all, I think that in some ways we can all relate to her.  How many of us have taken ‘liberties” with our titles or our responsibilities over the past year?  Think about it – how many of us have transitioned to less formal business attire while working at home (or at least from the waist down)?  Or how many of us have found out that without all the idle chit-chat, we can actually get all our work done 15-20% faster, thus allowing us to shrink our work week?  Or perhaps we have “shirked” those responsibilities that we really don’t like doing or never found any value in completing?
 
As we move into a post-pandemic life, most businesses will start having employees return to work in the office full-time.  This will definitely be a period of adjustment.  I’d like to propose the following three suggestions on how to preserve the benefits of the past year while ensuring that the company is poised to grow and thrive in this new economy.  

1. Communicate.  Don’t assume your employees know what you have been thinking and planning for the past year.  As we teach in EOS, in order for an employee to hear you for the first time, they need to hear it seven times.  So, get clear on your vision and your path to achieving that vision and then start communicating.  If you feel like you are overcommunicating, or you’re getting tired of repeating yourself, pat yourself on the back and keep on communicating.
2. Be clear on everyone’s responsibilities. A year is a long time to firmly establish habits, good or bad.  So, as you move towards “re-entry” make sure that everyone is clear on what is expected of them.  One EOS tool that I like to use is the 5-5-5.  This tool can be used to reinforce core values, describe the employee role in the organization and define their quarterly “rocks” (business priorities). 
3. Be human.  One of the benefits of the past year is the melding together of our personal and professional lives.  We have learned how to work from home and balance remote learning for our kids, how to manage barking dogs during Zoom meetings and how to support each other during periods of tremendous stress.  My hope is that we maintain that same level of care and concern in our post-pandemic lives. 

If you find that you or your workforce isn’t ready to navigate the new realities, please reach out to me.  I can provide you some tools and techniques that will make this adjustment much easier for all parties involved.  And, perhaps, we can learn how to leverage some of those “liberties” into a more fulfilling life.