Opt-out vs. opt-in strategies

In order to be a successful entrepreneur, you must be able to manage others and create a system of success. The book "E-Myth" by Michael Gerber is a great guide to doing just that. Today, I'll talk about what I describe as the "opt-out" strategy vs. the "opt-in" strategy. \nAfter dealing with many different employees for more than a year, I started to see a trend. With very few exceptions, my employees were neither motivated nor proactive. Rather than lying to myself and telling myself there was a problem with each of my employees, I started to focus on the real problem: As is often true in entrepreneurship, it was the entrepreneur.\nThe problem started with a couple idealistic misconceptions that I held. This misconception was that my employees would be as proactive and would care as much about my business as I did. Wrong. Another misconception was that the employees would do more than I required of them. Wrong again.\nThe problem is that an employee's mind-set and an entrepreneur's are not the same. With few exceptions, employees seek to do what they are told to do and minimize errors. It is up to the entrepreneur to inspire or instruct the employees to do more.\nThis issue is actually much deeper than the entrepreneur-employee relationship; it is at the very core of societal progress. Most individuals only do what is required of them. Most people will hand in papers, study for tests and do other tasks that have a deadline. In other words, they will not "opt out" of required tasks. \nHowever, ask them to do a task "for fun" and with no deadline and they probably won't do it. In other words, they will not "opt in." Naturally, people will always place time-sensitive material in front of material that is not time-sensitive.\nThe solution becomes converting "opt-in" activities into "opt-out" ones.\nFor personal goals, it's crucial to establish concrete deadlines and targets. For my company, the solution to this problem became creating processes and regulations that had to be followed. In other words, my employees had to "opt out" of doing tasks because they were expected to be performed. Deadlines and rules were set. Rather than proactively following general guidelines, my employees had to opt out of not doing them.\nThe differences in results from the "opt-out" and "opt-in" strategies are not subtle; they are as clear as night and day. Use these strategies on yourself and your coworkers, and you will see dramatic results. Guaranteed.