LEADERSHIP INSIGHTS CONT .
friend sitting two rows back introduced me to my seatmate . I found myself in an impromptu consulting session . This CEO told me that his team seemed to be in chaos . I asked how many priorities they had . He said dozens . I winced .
How is a leadership team supposed to stay focused on dozens of priorities ? The CEO admitted that he personally had the ability to juggle many balls at the same time , but his team did not . The insight the CEO gained was that it would be smart to prune the number of priorities down to a more manageable list for his team to execute .
The best leaders I ’ ve ever seen have three priorities or less — period . This applies outside of business as well . I was meeting a newly elected governor recently to volunteer as an advisor while he built his team . He had been extremely successful in the private sector before going into government service . Over an informal breakfast at a diner , he outlined his grand plan for the state , and it included only two priorities . I admired the focus .
Randy Street , the Managing Partner of ghSMART , declared this year that we would only focus on one priority , and we are currently crushing that priority year-to-date ( which happens to be recruiting more colleagues to meet rising client demand ).
The CEO of a large health care company we are advising spent three months at the end of last year whittling down his global company ’ s priorities to three . If these larger organizations can narrow their priorities down , so can small-business owners .
HIRE AND FIRE UNTIL YOU ARE 90 % CONFIDENT THAT YOUR TEAM WILL EXECUTE THE STRATEGY SUCCESSFULLY
This is the hardest of the three pieces of advice . Most leaders seem to assume to some extent that they are “ stuck ” with the people on their team . You are not stuck . Life is short . If there are people on your team who are not a good match for what you need them to do , then support them as they look for a better job — for their own good and for yours .
Write a scorecard that identifies the specific outcomes you want someone to achieve in a role . Conduct long interviews with your finalists and really understand what they have done throughout their careers : what they were hired to do ; what they accomplished ; what mistakes they made ; how they worked with bosses , peers , and subordinates ; and why they left their jobs . Do 5 – 7 reference interviews for key roles .
Hire with confidence . Keep making changes to your team until you can look yourself in the mirror with a straight face and declare you are 90 % confident in your team to deliver the results you seek in your business plan . If you want to reliably scale your company , get good at hiring . If you want to have less tasks on your plate and have people to whom you can delegate , get good at hiring . If you want to learn and grow yourself from the talented people around you , get good at hiring .
BUILD RELATIONSHIPS THAT ARE FOCUSED NOT JUST ON GETTING ALONG BUT ALSO ON ACHIEVING MEASURABLE OUTCOMES TOGETHER
I find it off-the-mark when business “ how-to ” books or keynote speakers encourage us to build better relationships at work to be more harmonious , as if harmony is the end goal . Though it ’ s nice to have friends at work , I don ’ t think people come to work every day with the goal of getting along with everyone . They come to work wanting to work on a highperforming team that ’ s making an impact , making money ( if they are in the for-profit world ), and getting things done .
We suggest you reorient your mindset about your relationships at work from getting along to getting things done . Asking yourself the following questions can help you achieve this :
• What are the communication cadences we need to set up to make sure the right people are talking at the right time , empowered to make the right types of decisions , and can see a dashboard or scoreboard of the results they are achieving together ?
• How do I modify my work style to communicate more effectively with key people around me to help them succeed ?
• If we are being successful , how do we know ?
• What are the metrics and results we should track to know if certain people and teams in our business are succeeding ?
In summary , it is difficult to successfully grow a business . Of course there will be some sweat and tears along the way , but we hope you try the three actions we recommend in this article . By prioritizing better , hiring and developing a more talented team , and building relationships focused on getting things done , you will achieve more success with less sweat .
Dr . Geoff Smart is Chairman & Founder of ghSMART , a leadership consulting firm that exists to help leaders amplify their positive impact on the world . Dr . Smart and his firm have published multiple New York Times bestsellers . He stays active in his community and has advised many government officials .
GeoffSmart . com
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