Empowering People

One massive challenge I witness is the ability of organisations and leaders to empower their staff. Make it safe for people to make decisions. When they don't it creates bottlenecks and business can not move forward as much. Here are the only 5 questions you staff need to answer to make a decision without you.

1. Is it right for the customer?
2. Is it right for the company?
3. Is it ethical?
4. Is it something you would be willing to be held accountable for?
5. Is it consistent with the Company's values?

If the answer to all 5 is yes then - DON'T ASK - JUST DO IT

The Layers Of Complexity

Working with different Business Leaders and Company owners everyday means I hear about their challenges and frustrations. One common theme is the growing layers of complexity they face each day in their business. There are a number of contributing the factors to this. Firstly the complexity (red tape) that large company's seem to drown their team leaders in. Complying with the requirements of the parent organisation can actually dictate much of the days work and hugely reduce productivity. Who reads these reports? Why is the ability to make decisions not pushed down to the managers on the job so they can be made and dealt with?

Complexity caused by growth is also a common issue. All businesses experience added complexity as they add client numbers, staff numbers, different products or enter new markets. The challenge is to get these company's focused, efficient and their leaders free from daily clutter so they can work on their businesses. It is the evolution of all organisations that as they grow and evolve so too does complexity and this requires new systems and an awareness of the likely problems that will present and tools to overcome them.

Whilst solutions to these issues are also varied the main focus should be on ensuring leaders int he organisation have the delegation and authority to make decisions as they need to rather than having to create a bottleneck by having to push them up the chain. Having simple team KPI's, measuring the numbers that are important to the lifeblood of the business and focusing the whole team onto some simple relevant quarterly goals is essential.

Of course the fact a business is growing in itself is good news.....making it fly is just gold!!

Karl

Getting Stuck In...!!

As another week screams to a close what have I learnt? Most of the businesses I come across have the same issues time and again. Namely lack of sales, lack of accountability, a bottleneck with the owner and concerns around how to make the business get some traction in this market.

Across my team it is the same with those they are working with.....accountability (setting realistic targets, getting buy in from those who need to hit them and then holding them accountable when they don't!), measuring KPI's, Planning, internal communications (the right info to the right people in the company), having a unique point of difference on which the business bases marketing and sales pitch and most of all the bottleneck that the Owner of the company causes....because all key decisions have to come to them.

It is time for some time out before we roll our sleeves up next week and get stuck in again.

Karl

The Hardest Things For a Business Owner to Grasp?

It is the realisation that they need to step aside and get out of the way of the growth of their business. It is coming to terms with the reality that they are restricting their own business growth by being slow to change and evolve, by not seeing the extra skills their team can offer, that they are indeed the No 1 bottleneck in the company taking that next big step!

Now that's a challenge for anyone let alone a persona who grew the company from scratch, has a large amount of emotional attachment and passion......it is reality though!

Karl

Excuses are Crap!

One thing we face each day as we assist Business Owners to execute their Business Plan is the inevitable round of excuses. Lets face it as a Business Owner there are a thousand things going on and lots of white noise that can detract from the real issues. So how do we get around this? Quite simply we hold them accountable for their own plan. We confront reality and we tell them how it is.....novel I know!!

Another reality for Business Owners is that sometimes they never hear the truth.....sure they get well meaning watered down reports or feedback from loyal staff but sometimes when we work through the issues facing a company the reality is the main blockage or bottleneck slowing progress is.....you guessed it the actual owner. They need to know this, the reasons why and be shown how to get out of the way of their own business. Of course with many personalities this needs to be done in the most productive way.....but it needs to be direct, give the facts and be honest! If a business can functon perfectly well without the owner then thats added value, makes it sellable and more valuable.

On another note I'm glad Mr Weatherston was found guilty yesterday. An appalling crime that deserves an appallingly long Prison sentence.

Karl

The Perfect Employee 100%-Yeh Right!

One of the absolute bottlenecks we tend to find when working with Business Owners are the inevitable and sometimes ongoing issues they have with staff. Reality is issues relating to staff performance are usually time consuming, not pleasant or avoided totally. At best this means inefficiencies and at worst it means money straight off the bottom line for the business in question and lets face it things are tight across all industries in this economic climate.

I'm not going to go into the necessity for living company values, clear goals, well written and measurable job descriptions in this blog because each of these are important in their own right. What I do want to put across are the benefits of using a profiling tool as part of the recruitment process. If you are not using a tool of some kind then you are flying blind. The changes in the market now mean that as opposed to 12 months ago when good applicants were hard to find, now there are many more looking for work so getting someone good should be easy right? Well in many cases we get it wrong!!

Most employers in small & medium sized businesses tend to be the owners (and doing many roles). Time restraints mean one, perhaps two interviews are the norm. If you get an applicant to spend an additional 15 minutes completing an online profile then you can quickly get a wealth of information that will outline suitability for the job. There are many such tools available however the best we have found are the EDisc Profiling tool. 

Put simply if you throw one of these into the selection process you will greatly improve your chances of getting the right person for the job! Do some research and ask those that use such tools for feedback.

Karl (see our website)