What a year end. 2010 was definitely a year to remember and the snows, subsequent big freeze and now the water shortages left their marks.
I was with my parents for a few days and they had their water turned off for 4 days which was a challenge.
I had to laugh though, when we went to the local council designated water point to fill our cans. One of the locals casually said “well nobody died”, which did put things in to context I guess.
It did get me thinking though, as in this case it was a genuinely lighthearted view of the problem, but I believe business owners hear this on a regular basis. It is synonymous with excuse making.
We missed the deadline for our customer’s order, but sure “nobody died”.
I was late for the meeting but “nobody died”.
No I didn’t follow our agreed procedures but “nobody died”.
You get the picture. It is infuriating and it just has to be dealt with.
An attitude like this quickly becomes the accepted culture, and like graffiti that is left on a wall, it spreads until it becomes a serious problem for any organisation.
If you want to compete in 2011 and beyond, then you have to develop a sense of urgency among your team. You have to stamp out complacency which is a killer of progress.
This means leading by example and holding people accountable for their actions or inactions. Working as a business coach I realise that actions are everything and accountability is key, so do you hold your team accountable or their actions? Are there consequences when they don’t deliver against agreed standards?
Do you as a leader have clear business values? A clear business purpose? A clear business mission?
If you don’t then you don’t have a clear benchmark for your team and your customers.
If you do then the benchmarks are obvious and very powerful. For example if one of your values is “speed”, then those on your team who don’t live this value can be held accountable.
Clearly it is never enough to just pick a value like speed and never define what it actually means. You must define clearly to all concerned what speed means. Does it mean speed to market with new products? Does it mean speed in responding to customer queries? Does it mean speed in delivering your products or services?Does it mean speed in completing team actions?
Be clear and concise and ensure that everyone understands what this means, and it will have a huge impact on the team.
People need to know what the purpose and mission of what they do is, in order to be truly motivated and on message.
“Nobody died” has no place in modern business culture, but it is alive and kicking, and most of us experience it on a daily basis.
Actions,
First and foremost listen. Listen to what your team are saying. Listen to their language. Is it a language of action or of complacency. What are your customers experiencing when they interact with your team. If you have a salesteam, jump in the car and go out with them to see for yourself first hand how they interact with your customers.
If you get any sense of the “nobody died” complacency among your team, you have a problem and you need to quickly work to resolve it.
Define your business values. Define your business purpose and mission and from today hold your team accountable to them.
Best of luck.
Ronan
Ronan Kilroy Certified FocalPoint Business Coach
Profitability, Productivity, Possibility.
