Page 2 of 2 - Continued from the previous post.
6. Tough decisions. A company with good culture, good people, profitability, etc ... just doesn't happen. It only happens when the leader & team are committed to it. And this is where it gets tough. If someone is not helping make this a better place ... they gotta go. I don't care if they are good at their job or not. If they are cancerous to the organization as a whole ... they gotta go. You get the roll of carpet & I’ll grab a shovel. No individual is more important than the whole team. If cancer had taken over your leg … you’d cut it off … and move on. Tough choices need to be made & good leaders make them.
I've fired "stars" several times when their self-centeredness was detrimental to the team. And the team rose as a whole when they all saw they mattered more to me than one star. Frankly I am very good at firing people. I hate it, but I’m good at it. When I am clear someone is detrimental to the team, to our vision & goals, to the financial livelihood of my family and all the families that work for me … that SOB is outta here. (P.S. You don’t have to be a jerk about it. I like to make people feel good about their newfound freedom & job opportunities. LOL)
7. Communication is critical. Our people are not mind readers. If we have bad people ... they don't care what we think, what we want or what we expect of them. But if we have good people ... they do care. But they don't know if we don't communicate it. If they are "on board" and have bought into our vision, goals & purpose ... then they need to know what we're thinking from time to time. Don't keep them in the dark. Talk about the goals & objectives. Talk about the strategies & direction to get there ... with them. Talk about the challenges & hurdles in the way ... with them ... and they'll feel a part of the team ... and help us solve them.
They can't meet our expectations if they don't know what they are. Communicate in positive ways what you want & expect from them. I’m not suggested we be sugar-coating Polly Annas … just don't be a jerk. When I ask my people to step up their game or improve at something ... I also ask them what they need to achieve that ... and I provide it … if it's realistic. Once they learn you’re all about improving & not just riding their backs, the good ones will “get it” & rise.
8. Chaos is no way to live or work. The 55% ... and our bottom line ... DEMAND organization. A company that lacks simple systems, smart structure and clear leadership ... will always struggle. Smooth running businesses have both smart people & smart systematization. From simple systems & training to make jobs easier ... checklists so people don't have to remember every detail & things don't get missed ... to clarity on how we do things.
9. The fish stinks from the head down. All businesses have problems & challenges. But if we the leaders (head of the fish) don't address & fix them ... that is on us … the leader. If we don't have a good culture ... that is on us ... get to work. It isn't going to fix itself. If we don't have good people ... that is on us ... get to work. If we don't have good teamwork ... it's because we haven't built them into a true team.
No one else is going to build the organization into a great company FOR us. But if you are a positive leader that your people respect, they will HELP you build the company. Just remember them ... with reward, respect & recognition along the way.
10. To be successful we need to work on our businesses … not just in them. To understand this, let’s define “working on the biz” & “working in the biz.” Working in the business … is doing the daily job that must be done to pay the bills. Making sales, taking care of customers, building & shipping product, billing & collecting, accounting, paying bills, etc. etc. All of this needs to be done to exist in business. But none of these things “improve” the business long term or big picture. In fact, if all of the leader’s time is working “in the business” … how CAN it improve?
“Working on the biz” is doing projects that have long lasting positive effects. I would like to say permanent, but nothing is permanent. Even a great system will become outdated & be replaced. Working on the business … is investing some of your four limited resources (time, energy, focus & tangible resources) for a long lasting
return. Think ROI … Return On Investment.
The key areas are:
1. Learning (yourself)
2. Training (your people)
3. Systemization (of business activities)
4. Marketing (to create ongoing streams of business)
If you learn how to do something better … you will achieve more results in less time with less effort. This is the foundation for improving productivity. Achieving more in less time … and potentially with less mistakes, less risk & less cost. When you master how to do something key to your business … like hiring, marketing, time management, organization, etc … your results will be greater. If it took us 10 hours to learn excellent hiring practices … and it served us for the next 20 years of your business … we consider that a good ROI. If we take 2 hours to create a simple, repeatable system for an activity that happens in our business weekly … and it saves an hour a week … that’s a pretty good ROI. If we allocate one hour every week to train our staff to do their jobs better … and in the other 39 hours they improve their results 20% … that’s a pretty good ROI. If we learn about marketing & implement marketing strategies … one after another … that creates ongoing streams of new and/or repeat business … that’s a good ROI of our time.
I like to think of it this way. If I don’t work on improving my business … who will? Gnomes & Elves will not be coming in at night to systematize my operation. I know … because I asked them to … and they said their union contract forbade it. I reached out the Tooth Fairy & the Easter Bunny … but they said that was outside their scope of skills. I was going to ask Santa to build my business … because he has a pretty smooth running joint … but we all know he is busy nine months out of the year & vacationing in the Bahamas the other three. I asked my customers to help fix my business & that spooked them & they took their business elsewhere … creating new problems. So eventually I learned it was up to me.
My mentor taught me that all top business leaders work “on their business” most or all of the time. But they got there one step at a time. In small business we need to get there a step at a time too. He suggested I start at 90/10 … meaning I spent 90% of my time doing the things that paid the bills … so I could continue paying the bills. And 10% of my time dedicated (even scheduled in my calendar) to working on projects that would improve my business. This was when I was a VERY young man running my own chassis building business. I was working 80 hours a week then. He wasn’t suggesting I work 88. He was suggesting I work “in it” 72 & “on it” 8. I thought … “Heck, if I can’t make a living working 72 hours a week I guess I better quit” … so I bought in & did it. Over a surprisingly short time … I improved my business in every area … turning it from a “break-even & pray” situation to a very profitable operation. Over time, I shifted the work “in’ vs “on” ratio from 90/10 to 80/20 then 70/30 … and so on until I was 100/0 … and worked less hours. That is when I really made money. I went from zero profit to making $10k a month … in the 80’s … building race cars. For a young guy, I was on cloud nine.
There's more keys my mentors taught me that I'm forgetting ... but these 10 key things helped me build good businesses … that I felt would be worthy of sharing.
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