GROW YOUR BUSINESS
"One of my immutable laws – the written-in-
stone code by which I run my company – is
“Under Promise, Over Deliver” (UPOD)."
I
magine your staff is a team,
about to play a big game in the
fascinating new sport, YogaRugby.
(It's part yoga, part rugby, part
interpretive dance...with tennis
balls. I think.) It's crucial that your team
wins the game, but when you take the
field you realize you're doomed. Only
a couple of your players know where
the goal is, no one knows the full set of
rules and two of your guys are actually
playing for the other team. Even if the
competition forgets to show, your team
will never win.
The scenario sounds absurd, right?
That's because it is. And yet almost
every struggling business I work with
has that exact problem. Entrepreneurs
may blame lackluster performance on
the strength of the competition, lack of
innovation or poor cash flow, but the
real problem is, much like the motley
crew described above, their team is a
mess.
The fix for this problem is simple: In
order to win the game of business, your
team must know your vision for the
company (the goal of the game) and the
immutable laws (the rules of the game)
on which your company stands. When
your team has a clear vision for where
you're going and knows exactly how you
expect them to conduct themselves in
the pursuit of that vision, there's a good
chance you'll see it come to fruition.
And once all of this is ingrained in your
team, you'll know exactly whom you
need to fire: anyone and everyone who
doesn't get your vision or share your
immutable laws. Yes, it really is that
10
simple. You may think qualifications are
most important when hiring employees,
or that personality is key, but even the
most skilled and likable people on your
team can (and will) lose you the game
if they don't subscribe to the vision or
respect and follow your rules.
Abraham Lincoln is considered to be
one of the most effective presidents –
he managed to win the Civil War and
keep a divided country together, no
small feat. He was able to do this
in part because he had an amazing
team, one of the strongest cabinets in
history. Ironically, most of the people
on his team didn't really like each
other – or him. In fact, when he formed
his cabinet, he surprised many people,
appointing his four fiercest rivals for the
presidency. These were people who not
only didn't like Lincoln, they basically
thought he was an idiot, that he was
seriously under-qualified for the job.
But in appointing them to the highest
positions in his cabinet, he was able to
bring together the men who represented
the different factions that threatened
to further divide the United States, and
unite all of them around one vision: “a
new birth of freedom.” He ensured that
everyone on his team followed his rules
– most importantly, to rise above petty
rivalries and disagreements – and in the
end, they achieved the “impossible” and
won the war.
One of my immutable laws – the
written-in-stone code by which I run
my company – is “Under Promise, Over
Deliver” (UPOD). Following this law
with my first business, a computer
services company, made us distinct.
When a client would call and ask, “How
quickly can you get your team out,” my
stock reply was, “We'll be there within
24 hours.” I knew my competition would
promise to be there within two hours,
and while we could probably get there
within that time frame, occasionally it
would take us six hours. We couldn't
provide two-hour service consistently
(and I believe my competition couldn't
really provide it, either), which meant
that in some circumstances, our clients
would be frustrated. To ensure we
always over-delivered for our clients,
we promised 24 hours and then when
I was sure we could get a team out
quickly, I would call the client back and
say, “Great news! We were able to get
our team together and dispatch them
immediately.” Every client was thrilled
with our service.
The problem was, not everyone on
my team subscribed to the UPOD
immutable law I put in place. One of our
dispatchers, I'll call him Bart, always
over promised. Bart made the team
crazy, sending everyone into a panic
trying to make good on his promises to
clients. They'd say, “But Bart, we don't
have people today,” or “We need an extra
hour,” and then Bart would scramble
and everyone would be tense. Though I
liked Bart a lot – he's one of my favorite
people – he was the wrong guy for our
company because he didn't follow our
immutable laws and, consequently,
made our company look bad every single
time.
Imagine how the Civil War may have