“ THE SERVICE THAT THE STAFF GIVES TO CUSTOMERS IS NEVER GOING TO BE BETTER THAN THE SERVICE THAT WE AS LEADERS PROVIDE TO THE STAFF .”
BUILDING A GREAT BUSINESS
> that more often than not the real genius is mostly in doing the sort of drudgerous stuff that anyone who really thinks about it could do , but doesn ’ t . Most people don ’ t do this type of work because it seems too hard , too boring , too unrewarding . . . too something . For whatever reason the best businesses do it anyway , while their ( oft-complaining ) competitors can ’ t quite muster up the energy to make it happen .
8 . TO GET TO GREATNESS YOU ’ VE GOT TO KEEP GETTING BETTER ,
ALL THE TIME ! The most successful organizations and individuals understand this . From medicine to the arts , non-profits or pro sports — the best in any field are all going after improvement all the time . You can call it continuous improvement , kaizen , or whatever you like . The reality is that if we ’ re not learning , growing and improving then the marketplace is going to pass us by .
Early on in my leadership life I used to think we ’ d get to some point where success would allow us to coast . Man , was I ever wrong on that one . Fortunately , I realized the error of my ways in time . In truth , I think running the business well actually gets harder , not easier , the longer you go on . But once I made peace with that reality , then living this rule was infinitely less stressful for me .
9 . SUCCESS MEANS YOU GET BETTER PROBLEMS Although most of us are raised with the belief that effective work eliminates problems , the reality is quite different . We ’ re always going to have problems . The key is to pick the problems you want and then appreciate the chance to work on them , all the while working to get better problems still .
Don ’ t believe me ? OK , would you rather have too few customers and struggle to make your payroll , or have sales so strong that you have to struggle to keep up ? Obviously I like seeing sales levels right “ on plan ” best of all , but the reality is that generally I ’ d rather have sales be too high than too low . Similarly , I ’ d far prefer the problem of having too many good people in the organization and not quite enough opportunity for them all than to have too few good people .
10 . WHATEVER YOUR STRENGTHS ARE , THEY WILL LIKELY LEAD
STRAIGHT INTO YOUR WEAKNESSES I used to think there was this big conflict at work between “ good ” and “ bad ” qualities , either in me or in the organization overall . But the reality is that pretty much anything we ’ re good at is going to , at some point , be carried a bit too far and become a problem .
Embracing the reality of this law makes life far less stressful : instead of fighting our weaknesses we can actually predict them and then plan ways to manage around , or through , them . If we do that well , managers can be more effective and everyone can have more fun at work . And it also gives each of us — as individuals and organizations — the opportunity to understand why we do what we do , and to adjust our behaviors accordingly .
“ THE SERVICE THAT THE STAFF GIVES TO CUSTOMERS IS NEVER GOING TO BE BETTER THAN THE SERVICE THAT WE AS LEADERS PROVIDE TO THE STAFF .”
11 . IT GENERALLY TAKES A LOT LONGER TO MAKE SOMETHING
GREAT HAPPEN THAN PEOPLE THINK While most people seem to think that everyone else ’ s work or life or whatever is glamorous ( the grass is always greener and all that ), few things are actually very glamorous after the third or fourth day of doing them . Front line people think it would be great to be the CEO and be in charge of everything ; CEOs think about how nice it would be to just be able to go clean the cooler for an hour and not have anyone bother them ! And while there are the holein-ones of the business world that you can probably point to as exceptions , nearly all great organizations , nearly all long-term , sustainable businesses , take a really , really long time to build . They may seem from the outside like “ overnight ” successes , but very few of them actually are .
My experience here is that it takes about two years for us to achieve some level of equilibrium for any meaningful change or new business . It then takes another year or two to get good . And it ’ s only then — three to four years after we started — that we ’ ve got ourselves in position to go after greatness . Getting that greatness , in my experience , generally takes another two years , too . And then , in keeping with Law No . 7 , we just keep working to get better anyway !
12 . GREAT ORGANIZATIONS ARE APPRECIATIVE , AND THE
PEOPLE IN THEM HAVE MORE FUN Before some cynic says something like , “ well that ’ s easy for them because they ’ re successful , so of course they ’ re having fun ,” I ’ m going to posit that in this case , as in so many other things in life , the behavior actually very often precedes the feeling . Great organizations aren ’ t having fun just because they ’ re great ( though it ’ s usually way more fun to work with the problems of success than those of failure ); rather , they ’ re great because the people in them are actively appreciative and have learned to enjoy doing whatever it is they need to do to succeed in ethical and caring ways .
Paul Hawken wrote about this in one of the first — and still one of the best — business books I ever read , Growing a Business . “ Laughter and good humor ,” he wrote , “ are the canaries in the mine of commerce . If employees , customers and vendors don ’ t laugh and have a good time at your company , something is wrong .” +
Ari Weinzweig is the co-founding partner of the Zingerman ’ s Community of Businesses in Ann Arbor , Michigan . Starting in 1982 with 2 employees and a 1300-square foot deli Ari and his partner Paul Saginaw have grown the organization to include ten businesses including a bakery , a creamery , a mail order business and more ; a staff of over 700 ; and annual sales of over $ 60,000,000 . Learn about Ari ’ s books and ZingTrain ( Zingerman ’ s training business ) at zingtrain . com , and you can learn more about bringing a taste of Zingerman ’ s to your front door by visiting zingermans . com
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