What to do About Non Performing Team Members

Peter Drucker once said:

“Executives owe it to the organization and to their fellow workers not to
tolerate nonperforming individuals in important jobs."

My friend Scott Heintzelman, CPA has written an excellent blog expanding on this concept. I encourage you to read it.

Scott's blog: Help, I Want to Fire a Family Member From the Business

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Ronald Reagan once said,

“There are no great limits to growth because there are no limits to human
intelligence, imagination and wonder.”

Earlier this year, I sent business owners the book Finish Strong by Dan Green and inspired them to dedicate 2009 as the year to Finish Strong! As we search for way to Finish Strong this Thanksgiving, in addition to being thankful for friends, family and good health, we can be thankful for our intelligence, imagination and wonder. For these are the things that will bring our businesses growth and prosperity during the next year.

Does a Small Business Need Leadership or Management?

The answer is both. Have you ever heard the expression “Too many generals and not enough soldiers?” Well it works both ways. Too many soldiers without a strong general will surely find themselves fighting the wrong battles.

Businesses with too many leaders fail from their inability to manage and implement day-to-day business issues. Likewise companies with excellent managers fail because they did not innovate, motivate, change nor watch for strategic threats.

It’s important to develop managers who can lead and leaders who can manage. So what is the difference?

For example great managers manage costs, inventory, cash flow, processes, information systems, facilities and operations. When it comes to leadership, great businesses lead their people, drive the company vision, guide their team and customer perceptions, and ultimately generate a positive and productive corporate mindset and culture.

As the business owner, you are responsible for leading your business to success and getting your people excited about your vision for the business.

Too often leadership is seen as defining a step-by-step business strategy and expecting people to follow the steps or suffer the consequences. Coming up with a strategy and relying on your position as business owner is not enough.

That model fails you, your team and your business. People will learn to do just what they have to so that they can meet expectations and not lose their job. True leadership is the art of understanding and rewarding your team so that they are motivated to make your business a success. It’s important to recruit competent people who can manage the day-to-day tasks and operations so that you can lead your organization forward.

The final test of your success as a leader is the financial statements. Financial statements are the final result of the accounting process, and accounting can be simply defined as the quantification of business activities. Perhaps business owners should give consideration to changing the name of their income statement from “Results of Operations” to Results of Leadership”.

Measure What Matters

Do your business's internal measurements give you a competitive advantage in the marketplace? Do they judge the success of your company the same way your customers do? Are they leading indicators that have predictive ability, and correlate with value as defined by your customers? If you get what you measure, what exactly, do your internal metrics get you?

Yesterday I attended a progressive CPA course and walked away with a deeper perspective on the different ways to measure an organization’s success.

If you would like to discuss these matters, please contact me. I am ready to have a meaningful conversation on how to implement Key predictive Indicators that matter.