Athletes at their peak performance say the game slows down. They see things as if they were moving in slow motion, enabling them to see the entirety of what’s happening more clearly.
Many business owners feel that they are constantly scrambling to keep up. They’d love to have time to reflect on their business and the direction they’re headed.
Let’s discuss why these feelings persist and how you can “slow the game down” in your business to alleviate the feeling that you’re constantly scrambling.
Let’s begin by examining why we feel that we’re always scrambling. Here are a few reasons business owners think that they’re scrambling to keep up.
They are: Constantly reinventing the wheel, afraid to delegate, and allowing technological changes to dictate their activities.
Let’s explore each in more detail.
Constantly reinventing the wheel: Some business owners enjoy treating every event as a new learning opportunity; others simply hate taking the time to document their processes.
Whatever the reason, the lack of a defined process means you’re going through the same learning curve repeatedly.
It also means that you can’t pass this work off to anyone else because they don’t have a process to guide them.
Absent the ability to pass items off your plate onto someone else’s plate and feel comfortable that they’ll accomplish the work in the manner you would have, you inevitably must scramble to accomplish all the tasks on your plate.
Afraid to delegate: Humans have difficulty trusting others, so we are afraid to delegate. We are concerned that the task will be completed with the quality and timeliness with which we would have completed it.
While this is a natural tendency we all possess by virtue of our humanity, it’s one of the most detrimental tendencies in that it locks us into a heavier workload than we or any human being can manage on our own.
Allowing tech change to dictate activity: The rate of change in technology is mind-boggling. Even those whose job is in technology find it difficult to keep up with all the changes.
The real challenge for business owners is deciding which technological advances to adopt and which to forego. All too often, business owners adopt new technologies to ‘keep up’ without considering whether the latest technology will help them improve their operating results.
In other words, they are allowing technology to direct their business efforts instead of choosing which technology will advance their business.
Now that we understand why the game isn’t slowing down, let’s discuss how we can slow it down.
Slowing the game down
One of the simplest ways to slow the game down is to identify and document processes that consistently produce good results.
This enables you to complete tasks more quickly and, ultimately, pass them on to others so that you can continue to devote your time and energy to developing even better approaches in the future.
Another way to slow the game down is to understand and embrace this simple concept: people live up to, or down to, your expectations. If you let your employees know that you believe that they possess the skills and abilities to make good decisions and produce excellent results, they won’t disappoint.
It’s human nature not to want to disappoint those who believe in us. Develop this trust mindset and you’ll enjoy a staff that produces great results for you - even in your absence.
Evaluating new technology in terms of how it will help you achieve the goals you’ve already set, then choosing to employ only those technologies that will accelerate the achievement of your goals, will slow the game down for you.
You’ll avoid wasting time on technologies that don’t help you achieve your business goals. It’ll also help you develop a healthier attitude toward technology.
If you employ these three tactics, it won’t take long for the game within your business to begin ‘slowing down’.
Beware the one-sided goal
All too often, business goals are one-sided, which means they have a singular focus. That singular focus creates unforeseen consequences, hence my ‘beware’ caveat.
Here are a few examples of one-sided goals and the potential consequences they create:
The company's chief financial officer notices that the average age of the accounts receivable is going up—customers aren’t paying on time. He pressures the collection department to bring the accounts receivable current, but forgets to say, “By the way, we want to retain the customers.”
It’s easy to see how aggressive collection efforts could result in some excellent customers going elsewhere.
The sales force must add any number of new customers by a certain date.
That mandate could result in the sales force ignoring existing customers, which could risk their retention. It could also result in salespeople making promises that the company can’t fulfil. They may bring on customers who are not financially sound, which could result in financial losses.
You’ve incentivised your purchasing department to minimise acquisition costs. Suddenly, you find that repair costs are rising, and production is slowing because the materials the purchasing department chooses are inferior to your company’s operating needs. You’re also getting an increased number of customer complaints over late delivery.
These aren’t hypothetical examples. I’ve seen companies make these kinds of mistakes when they establish one-sided goals.
Something to consider: When establishing goals, allow the first goal to become your primary goal. Then ask yourself, “What unwanted consequences might this goal create?” Then, add to your goal conditions to avoid unwanted consequences. You’ll create fewer headaches for yourself and your staff.
Fairness: A misguided concept?
Tolerating poor performance in the interest of fairness is a misguided concept.
Over the years, I’ve seen many business owners and leaders justify their tolerance of poor performance by saying they want to be fair to the under performing employee. There are two things wrong with their concept of fairness.
- They aren’t considering whether they’re being fair to their other employees.
- They aren’t considering what the under performing employee is experiencing.
Let’s explore each in more detail.
Fairness to other employees: Owners and leaders, in their attempts to be fair to the poor-performing employee, forget that the person’s co-workers have to pick up the slack and clean up the messes left by the under performing employee.
Is that fair? I don’t think so. That’s why I use a group meeting format in my business coaching to establish goals and priorities, celebrate successes and solve problems. In this group format, all employees get to see who is performing well and who isn’t, who is functioning as a valuable team member and who is not.
Employees witness all the attempts made to help the poor performer and the failure of the under performing employee to embrace that help.
In other words, when a consistently poor performer’s employment is terminated, they know that it was done with just cause and appreciate that the owner/leader removed an obstacle to their staff’s success.
Fairness to the under performer: Typically, people who consistently fail to perform to expectations are fully aware of that fact.
That means that every morning, they awaken wondering whether today is the day the axe will fall and whether they will be out of a job.
That’s a horrible way to live!
No one with a heart wants to terminate someone’s employment; however, in fairness, we not only alleviate a lot of stress, fear and anxiety, but we also enable the person to move on to a better fit for their skills and abilities.
During my early years as a chief financial officer, I had to let an employee go in two instances, with two different companies. In both cases, the individual saw me roughly a year later and thanked me. They said, “I’ve found a job I really enjoy, I’m making more money, and I really enjoy the people.”
Employees often stay in jobs that don’t make them happy because they fear the uncertainty of finding another job.
It’s a matter of the devil you know against the one you have yet to meet. This is why it’s often up to us, as business owners and leaders, to terminate the employment of poor performers.
Takeaways
Stop kidding yourself. You’re not tolerating poor performance because you want to be fair to the under performing employee.
Instead, think about whether you’re being fair to your other employees. Then imagine how much stress, fear, and anxiety the poor performer is experiencing. It’ll change your whole perspective on fairness.
In situations in which clients have acknowledged that they need to terminate a poor performer, but continue to postpone doing so, I ask them “Is it fair to allow that person to live in daily fear of losing their job because you don’t want to have a five-minute meeting in which you tell them that they no longer have a job with you?”
Realising that they’re prolonging another’s pain to avoid discomfort typically inspires them to act.
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