It’s easy for a leadership team to lose sight of the magnitude of its responsibility. This is normally due to the blocking-and-tackling of running a business. It’s a huge job. It’s an even bigger job when company leaders believe it’s up to them to do it all. Running day-to-day operations, coming up with new ideas, handling personnel issues, putting out fires and much more.
Guess what? If you’re doing those things, you’re DOING TOO MUCH and NOT ENOUGH at the same time! The latest Gallup Workforce study (Nov. ’18) indicates companies grow 50% faster and achieve 35% higher profits when leadership teams dedicate at least 12 hours monthly working ON the business.
Wow – you might want to read that again!
What does working ON the business mean?
Working ON the business is best done partly as a full leadership group, and partly on an individual level. Working ON the business includes –
- Think about the FUTURE and your company’s place in it
- Develop a VISION, a Point B your company aims to achieve
- Identify how key TRENDS will impact your company and how you can leverage them
- Develop GROWTH strategies
- Evaluate your company CULTURE and whether it is aligned with your vision and growth goals
- LISTEN to your employees
- COMMUNICATE the company vision, growth strategies and culture plans to your employees
12 Hours a Month
It’s pretty easy to micromanage everything. You may think that you can get things done better and more efficiently than anyone else. That might even be true, but all the time you spend doing jobs that other people could be doing is time that you are not running your business. When you get bogged down in simple details that your employees could be working on, you are not being an effective leader.
Every minute that you spend working on tasks that can be delegated is a minute that you are not planning, strategizing and building the best business possible. This is why it’s important to work ON your business, not in your business.
You are in charge of the big picture. When you see areas that need improvement, delegate the work out, so you can continue to be the troubleshooter and visionary that you need to be. It may take some practice if you’re used to getting really hands on in your business, but your employees will appreciate the trust and responsibility you give them, and you will quickly learn that you can do the job of leading your business that no one else can do!
Action – start now on a plan to dedicate 12 hours a month to working ON the business. That’s 3 hours a week, about 8% of a 40-hour work week. Many leadership groups choose to dedicate 2 hours a week as a team and 1 hour a week as individuals to working ON the business. Start now!
