By Scott Yelle
Is your business in an uncertain spot?
Follow the words of Mr. Shackleton. His story of leadership is an amazing one. He kept his crew alive in the early 1900’s for over a year when his ship became stuck in the ice in Antarctica. An amazing feat for that period in time! One of the keys to his success was creating structure that every member of his team could follow day in and day out. This structure allowed them to focus on the task at hand versus getting caught up on the dire situation they were in. The team trusted the process, trusted their leader and that led to the survival of the crew against some daunting odds.
Do you have the structure your company needs to thrive?
Every highly productive company, whether your company is big or small, has an infrastructure and proven process’ in place that allows the team to thrive and produce results every year. That structure helps remove some of the variables that come from running a business. That structure allows you and your management team to effectively lead your team to execute at an elevated level.
Start with the basics. In every key department, for example, operations, finance, sales and human resources, should have the key components and processes to make that department function effectively documented. If I was in human resources, my hiring process should be written down and taught to anyone that might be involved in the hiring process. If I were in sales, I would have the key steps in our sales process documented and I would coach to the process to improve our chances of closing a sale. If I were in operations, I would have our receiving process documented so the team knew what to do and how, even if a manager wasn’t around. Having your best business practices and processes documented can save your company time, money and instill confidence in your team.
So maybe you are saying to yourself right now, “I’m not big enough to do these things or I don’t have those departments.” Every company is different, every company has a different organizational structure, but every company has things they do repeatedly as part of their business function to be able to deliver the goods or services they provide to generate revenue. Think of the processes that make your company go day in and day out! Write them down! Use them as your road map for building consistent performance and success! I bet you do them without even thinking about them!
But how do you scale your business? How do you train a new person in these critical steps that make your company productive and create a consistent customer experience? How do you get through the seasonal highs and lows in your business? When you create structure and best business practices for your company, you can do those things and more!
Bottom Line:
Basic structure provides a foundation for your company to continue to grow and build upon. Having enough is critical, but not so much that you stifle creativity and empowerment of your team!
Scott Yelle is founder and president of New England Sales Solutions. He can be reached at syelle@salesxceleration.com.
