Breaking The Bottle Neck.
A local business owner was sharing his story of how he was generating around $800,000 in revenue a year. He set a goal of getting to a million a year, but couldn’t get there. He was sharing his story with a friend who asked, “Have you considered having a consultant or coach come in to look at your operation?” Like most business owners, he hadn’t, but he was determined to get to the million dollar mark. He hired a coach to shadow him for two weeks to see what improvements he could make to reach his goal. Within two hours, the consultant found the problem. It was the business owner who was inadvertently holding his own business back. All decisions had to go through him and it was bottle-necking the productivity and efficiency of his company.
This story is far too common among business owners. Here are some lessons we can learn from Him.
1. Trust Your People
If you’ve taken the time to interview and hire people, you’re going to have to trust them with your business. If you can’t trust them, you’ve hired the wrong people. When you create a culture of trust, people will perform better. Your company’s culture will overrule any strategy you put into place. Either your people feel empowered to do their job or they feel micromanaged and untrustworthy. Yes, it’s natural to want to have your hand in all areas of the business, but if you’re going to grow and be healthy, you’re going to have to let your people handle the minute details and focus on the overarching growth of the company instead.
2. Create Processes
Switching from a permission based culture to a process based culture takes time, but is necessary for the growth of your company. Many of the things that are coming across your desk for permission can be replaced with rules and processes thereby eliminating much of the bottleneck. Give your leaders a set of guidelines to guide them in their decisions and set parameters for when they need to come to you. Allow them to make decisions you might not make, and give them room to fail. They will become better leaders for it, and your company will be benefit from it. Making this switch is mentally difficult, but if you can do it, your company will experience tremendous growth.
3. Bring in outside help
Don’t be afraid of letting someone outside the organization to take a peek behind the curtain. We all have blind spots, and a professional outside set of eyes can spot things you are too close to. Growth happens when we allow ourselves to be vulnerable to coaching and training. Every person you meet is an expert in something you aren’t. It’s important to bring in experts to help you grow yourself, your business and your people. Yes, it will cost you money that you don’t think you have, but not doing it can cost you more. Training and coaching from qualified people will always yield a return on investment and propel your company forward. If you’re serious about the growth and health of your company, bring in outside help to give you insight, inspiration and an increase in productivity.
If you are ready to make change and move forward call us today. We believe that significant, sustainable positive change begins with individual and team leadership. Our approach introduces, develops and reengages individuals with their purpose, and reconnects them with their talent and natural influence. An organization comprised of engaged, connected and inspired leaders creates an intentional culture and extraordinary results.
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