Stability is a Myth
How many times have you hired someone because they seemed like the right person? They do well in some situations but they slip in situations they should otherwise succeed in. Now the Manager has to put things back together. We spend time recruiting, training, and re-training people over and over.
Does this happen often? Do you have people that have a tough time doing things on their own?
Think Long Term
As a business owner or leader, you have to take a long term view and understand that Steve Jobswas right: “A small team of A players can run circles around B and C players.” Hiring the best people is the single most important activity. If you have lenders or investors, they are operating on a shorter cycle. They are looking for returns based on their liquidity and capital event schedules. When we react to their needs, we rush our process of building great teams. This ultimately impacts the business outcomes.
As a leader, it’s your job to drive the business and not let operating from a position of weakness effect your decisions. If you need capital to grow your business, go get some. There is an abundance of capital circulating this country. If you have lenders that are calling notes, go sell more so you can be a debt free company. Often leaders get focused on these distractions and the real issue is they need to sell more product or service. If you sell or ship your product, you can solve all your issues with revenue.
We know that the cost to operate a business is increasing over time. If you are not growing your revenue in business and operating in a status quo stability mindset, you will eventually decay your business. Be prepared to feed it some cash.
Having a perfectly balanced staff is a myth in business
Just like in staffing, it’s never just right. You are either under staffed or over staffed. I have driven results in more cases with an understaffed team then an overstaffed team. When there are too many people in the office, things slip. When urgency is in place, there is no time to waste on office chatter.
Have you ever been to a restaurant when you are one of the only customers? You would think your service would be exceptional. I know this isn’t for all situations, but I find that servers begin to focus on other things, like their side work and forget about taking care of the customer. Operating lean is a good thing for business, people rise to the occasion and will reach their potential.
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