Get Out of the Way and Let the Best People Drive

Business leaders, especially CEO’s, are often reluctant to relinquish having a a direct involvement in all tasks for their business.  Rather than fall back on  micromanagement, the most successful and productive companies are ones where business leaders can allocate the right work to the right people.    

In order to find the right task for the right person, it’s important to identify 4 components of each individual team member’s abilities.   

*The four components to abilities are broken down as:  

• Unique abilities - those tasks which almost no one else in the company can do, and the employee truly excels
• Very good - tasks which are performed at a consistently high level
• Good - tasks which are performed at an acceptable level
• Not a strength - tasks that are not the most productive use of the employee’s time

(*loosely based on Dan Sullivan's approach)

Identifying where a employee excels and attempting to structure his or her responsibilities according to strengths is not only of benefit to the employee but to the whole organization.  Ideally, a 10%, 50-60%, 20%, 10% breakdown between the four quadrants promotes individual job satisfaction and ensures that tasks are allocated to the best internal resources.    

This exercise frees up the executive to make the biggest impact and increase  company productivity by allowing people to play to strengths and reach full potential.

“The conventional definition of management is getting work done through people, but real management is developing people through work.” 

- agha hasan abedi

Pencil it In

Why should a significant block of time be scheduled for quarterly strategic meetings when busy executives have so many other pressing responsibilities?

Few phrases elicit as many groans in a company as the dreaded “Let’s schedule our quarterly meeting”.  The most effective quarterly strategics should take place over the course of 1 to 2 days.  When participants learn quarterly strategics will encompass at least a day, they aren’t just groaning at the prospect, they are now gnashing their teeth!  Corporate America has come to correlate “marathon” strategic meetings as synonymous with boring, unproductive, and even a waste of time.   Many employees actually see these meetings as a chore that’s simply a formality, with the real decision-making happening afterwards.  

It’s a shame that strategic meetings evoke such negative connotations.  What is more vital and exciting to a company than determining where the company is going, how it’s going to get there and how the team knows if it got there or not?  Too often, companies fail to schedule the appropriate amount of time needed to generate and debate these questions.  Instead, meeting organizers bow to the misconception that less is more.  To delve past surface issues, dive into poignant objectives and then outline concrete action plans, strategic meetings can’t be rushed.  Trying to compress strategic meetings will only result in ineffective discussion where little is resolved.  Making the time investment of a strategic meeting is actually investing in a company’s future.   

Setting aside the appropriate amount of time ensures the participants can achieve four key objectives:   

1. Review corporate strategy
2. Review industry trends and competitive landscape
3. Review key personnel
4. Review team development

Pitfalls to avoid when scheduling strategic meetings include: 

1. Not scheduling the meeting offsite is inviting disruptions and distractions
2. Including social activities and inviting spouses/family dilute focus
3. Over-structuring topics burdens the schedule 
4. Poor planning leads to poor execution 

An Order of Perspective with a Side of Innovation

How do you re-energize strategic meetings that seems to fall flat, or worse- are too complacent with everyone simply nodding their heads in agreement?

Companies that have been successful in building a dynamic team of members in alignment with the organization’s core values and purpose, could eventually run the risk of lack of perspective.  When all your cooks are preparing the same recipe, who do you get to taste test it?  How do you know when you need to add a little more spice? 

Every so often, companies need to invite an industry expert to dinner.  You set out your best china- your company structure, your differentiators.  They bring the wine- their expertise and experiences, and you sit down to a meal.  The result is not only an opportunity to measure your organization’s role within the industry, but as often happens during good conversation over a meal- you find yourself engaged in thought provoking topics.  

Having an industry expert present at an occasional strategic meeting provides an energetic perspective that solidifies into action plans.  Participants in the strategic meeting should come prepared with questions and a basic agenda.  The invited expert should be provided with key points to address prior to the meeting.  Some possible ideas include:

• What do you believe are pain points for (key members) in our industry?  
• What type of growth have you witnessed in the industry?
• What are the best practices you see being used collectively in the industry or by the competition?
• What are the latest industry trends?

Having a dialogue with an industry expert within the structure of a strategic meeting, is an invaluable tool to have an impartial observer qualify and possibly direct your organization’s strategic objectives and initiatives.