Tag Archive for: company health

Lessons from sports

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We learn a lot as kids that we forget or ignore when it comes to our jobs and businesses. Watching a youth baseball game this weekend, I saw a team of nine year old kids model how we can be better at work.  What lessons from sports can we apply to running a business?

I watched a team of talented boys in their first summer tournament. The kids were all good players, but it was their first game and they were over-matched by the opposing team. The other team looked like they have been together for a while and played many games together. They had built up skills and trust through experience and coaching.

The team I rooted for got behind early, but they never got down. They fought hard. I saw:
– The boys congratulating each other for good plays.
– Coaches giving instruction throughout the game.
– The players taking the coaching and immediately trying to apply what they had been told.
– Players shaking off mistakes and getting on with the game.
– Parents and friends encouraging the players from the bleachers.

The score didn’t show it, but those boys won on Saturday. In a small way, they learned lessons and skills that will serve them well their entire lives.

It was a simple baseball game but it sure does mirror what a successful business looks like. They were keeping score (P&L), tracking runs, hits, strikes, balls, outs (KPIs), making adjustments (adapting strategy and tactics), supporting each other (recognition and teamwork), taking coaching (feedback and accountability), and trying to win (meet a common goal).

Maybe business leaders and team members should approach work like a bunch of nine year olds playing baseball.  We can take a few lessons from sports.

Contact us at CONTACT US or on our LinkedIn page at https://www.linkedin.com/in/cmatt/  if you need help setting your team up for success.

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Organizational Clarity is Critical

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A lack of organizational clarity may be the root of many of the issues you face.

Without organizational clarity, you have no accountability.  Team members don’t know what is expected. They don’t know how their performance will be judged. They don’t know what the standard is.

When employees aren’t clear on expectations and outcomes, they operate in the dark.  Fear rather than confidence affects their decisions.

The results are confusion and inefficiency.  Money isn’t spent wisely.  Employees don’t feel the freedom to take care of your customers.  People invest energy creating cover for themselves in the event they are questioned.  Trust is eroded.

Remove doubt and the problems it causes by providing clarity.  Your company will not operate at peak performance until you do.

The question then becomes “how do I create clarity?”

Creating organizational clarity starts with leadership.  Make sure your company vision and values are known.  Create a strategic plan, making sure there are goals and targets that everyone understands.  Every group or department should have known and published key performance indicators so they know if they are doing the right things and doing things right.  Make sure best practices and processes are documented, shared, and enforced.

Clarity doesn’t come without effort.  You may even need outside help to guide you on the journey.  But it is worth it to have a healthy business environment and engaged employees.

If you need help creating clarity in your organization, contact us.  https://opalpg.com/contact-us/

http://linkedin.com/in/cmatt

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The 4 C’s of Accountability

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Do you wish you had more accountability in your organization?  Business owners commonly express the need for more accountability when talking about their challenges.  I have found leaders actually mistake other issues for a lack of accountability.  Leaders build accountability over time using what I call the 4 C’s.

Clarity – Sometimes people mistake accountability for clarity.  People and teams can’t be held accountable if their goals and responsibilities aren’t clear.  You must provide clarity before you can have accountability.

Communication – Team members need to know they can have an open dialog with their manager to discuss issues and ideas.  Likewise, leaders must make themselves available to their teams on a regular basis in both group and one-on-one settings.  Lack of communication can lead to culture and accountability issues.

Coaching – Some managers and leaders struggle with having difficult conversations with team members who aren’t meeting expectations.  People can’t improve without knowing where they fall short.  It is the leader’s responsibility to identify inadequate performance or behavior early and help their team member correct it before it becomes a problem.

Consequences – Sometimes managers jump straight to applying consequences when they ask for accountability.  You have to check yourself on Clarity, Communication, and Coaching first; otherwise, you risk creating a culture of fear.  Fear is the result of people facing consequences without knowing why or being given the chance to improve.  If you have the other three C’s and have built a strong culture, positive peer pressure may address some issues organically on its own.

Accountability isn’t a system or an action.  It is a culture.  Leaders build accountability by consistently providing clarity, having meaningful communication, proactively providing coaching, and only then having consequences if the team isn’t self-correcting.

If you need help building accountability, let a fractional COO help you.  Contact us at https://opalpg.com/contact-us/ or https://www.linkedin.com/in/cmatt/.

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Let’s talk about Process

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Process is the most basic element of operations.  In a nutshell, it is how you deliver your products or services.  You probably have several processes that define the steps your teams perform the essential tasks that produce revenue and drive customer satisfaction.

But it doesn’t end there.  Your business has many other processes that you may not think about much or realize they even are processes.

Your sales process is one of the more obvious ones.  Your sales team should have a structured way in which they uncover leads, develop customers and opportunities, and communicate the closed deals to the rest of your team.

Other processes include invoicing your customers, for example.  How you hire and onboard new employees are both processes, and how you separate them from your organization when the time comes is a process too.
Why Process is vital

To start, well-defined processes make your business more effective and efficient in several ways:

  • Adds clarity – Everyone understands their role and how it fits into the bigger picture.  They know their deliverables and how other teams use their output (the “knowledge assembly line”) to serve your customers.
  • Saves time – It keeps people from expending brain power on re-inventing the wheel over and over and allows them to focus their energies on delighting your customers and preventing or solving problems that inevitably arise.
  • Reduces waste – Documented processes remove ambiguity and help prevent re-work.
  • Enables training – Defined processes and best practices can and should be used when training new employees so they can contribute to the organization quicker at the level you expect.

Having defined processes contributes directly to the bottom line.  If they are optimized and everyone is using best practices, you may save time, materials, or even do more with fewer people.

Beyond that, employees thrive when they know what to do and have the tools to do it.  Knowing what is expected can improve morale too.
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