Silos hurt

If your organization has only a few functions or “verticals” operating well, but others are not, the overall output of your enterprise is still problematic. Why, because the customer cuts across your organization horizontally.  

Any one customer experiences your marketing department, then your sales department, then your scheduling, then your product or service, then maybe some contact with accounting or service. They are touched by all your functions, and if any one of them is poor, to them, the whole company dropped the ball.

I’d rather have “good” performance across all departments, than excellence here and dysfunction there.

What customer experience are your various departments creating and how do they compare?

We run on gross margin

If we had a ten-million-dollar business, but sold things for what they cost us, we’d have no money to pay fixed costs, let alone have a profit.

We run our business not on gross sales, but on gross margin. We have to sell things for more than the cost of producing and delivering them. If we want to be competitive, then we must control our costs, so we can make a gross margin at a price the market likes.

Weak leaders

Weak leaders surround themselves with weak people.  

Strong leaders surround themselves with strong people.

Who have you surrounded yourself with?

Simple ideas, ruthlessly executed

Many great businesses have been built on simple ideas that are important and powerful and produce results.  

(We sell like this, we serve like this, we communicate like this, we deliver like this…)

Once those simple ideas have been identified, they are ruthlessly executed, day in and day out.

What simple ideas drive your business?

Ask the right questions

If a leader asks the wrong questions, he will always hear the wrong answers.

A smart leader knows what questions to ask. Sometimes you have to hang around, observe, and ask some questions so you can learn what the right questions are. The right questions get to the heart of it; the core issue. Keep asking. Keep going up stream, deeper, and find the source; the cause, not the effect.

Once you identify the root, you can effect change faster than ever.

What questions do you/should you/will you ask today?

Salespeople with the will to win

In choosing your key employees, especially salespeople, we don’t need to look for brilliance – those who had the highest GPA or IQ.  That doesn’t predict the high performance.  What does?

Ambition, desire, competitiveness – one who hates to lose and will fight against internal and external obstacles and do what it takes to win.

Give me a man or woman like that, and I’ll show you a winner. 

Don't drink with those you lead.

Wisdom tells us not to drink with the people we lead.  (This may be different than having “a drink” with them.) For if we do, we become one of them and are no longer their leader.

Say dumb things? Act stupid? Run your mouth?

Just don’t do it.

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Abdication vs Delegation

When leaders fail to do their jobs, and turn parts of it over to others because they don’t want to deal with it, or don’t know how, that is called abdication.  Abdication is “A formal resignation and renunciation of powers. Stepping down.” It’s a sign of weakness.

Delegation is a sign of strength. You choose an able subordinate, explain what outcome is expected by when, and let them do it, while checking in on their progress and taking responsibility for the results.

Do not abdicate.  Show strength and delegate. 

How much risk is right?

Too little risk and too little reward in your life is called boredom.

Too much risk for too little reward is called danger.

Too much reward for too little risk is called “too-good-to-be-true.”

The right amount of risk for the right reward is the sweet spot where we can engage and win.

Which one of the above would characterize what you are doing these days?

Order Out of Chaos

A leader has to go into confusion, disfunction, and inefficient situations and emerge with clarity, forward motion and efficiency so that the whole team is producing results.

We like to think our handiwork will last forever, but just when we think we have it all figured out and taken care of, the germ of chaos grows again.  Leadership is a continual process of creating order out of that chaos.  

That’s the job. Embrace it.