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In Defense of Red Tape

It’s amazing how even very small teams can become bureaucracies, which then becomes an obstacle to forward progress. In these columns I encourage leaders to focus on clarity with their people. Skilled & experienced team members tend to make forward progress, as long as the outcome has been made crystal clear. But what precedes clarity?

There’s no doubt that creating goals with clear outcomes that your people understand is a high-payoff activity. So, yes it’s worth blocking regular strategic time on your schedule to sit quietly and update your goals.

Author Michael Gerber calls this strategic time, “working on your business, rather than in your business.” His point is that many leaders are so busy running the business, they fail to invest time updating the most important goals and outcomes, much less how to explain those desired outcomes to your people. So, yes strategic planning is critical, but again what precedes that?

After you’ve set your clear objectives, but before you invest time thinking about how to break the goals down into bite sized pieces and explain them, you need to establish your team.

Before thinking how to describe your goals for the next 90-days, so that you’ll be on-track to your long-term goals, you need to build your team first. What should you be looking for when it comes to building your team?

I look for leadership traits in any team-member. I want to interview people who have extraordinary skill and experience, that’s a given. They have to be able to describe past projects or initiatives where they stepped-up and the project outcome exceeded expectations as a result of their initiative. Get them talking to describe their leadership in their past efforts (business or personal projects, I don’t care).

Let’s say you’re impressed, and decide to give them a shot at working with you, serving on your team. You share the goals. Now that you know them you can custom-tailor how to communicate the outcomes you expect. But how do you ensure forward progress and eliminate unnecessary red-tape or excuses? Simple, now get out of their way.

My leadership formula is simple…

  1. Only hire people who are worthy of your trust. Invest every interview so you can decide whether or not you feel you can trust this person to achieve the outcomes you’ve set.
  2. Now give them authority. Create “bright lines” around resources and the boundaries of their authority. Make sure they have authority over whatever they’ll need to accomplish the outcomes you expect.
  3. Finally, get out of their way. Let them lead their part of the project. Let them create the plan, the timeline & the budget and present it to you, without you creating it for them. It’s OK to be available for support and help upon request, but for heaven’s sake don’t micro-manage them.

Your ability around these 3 things are a measure of your own leadership development. Hire those you trust and then get out of their way.

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About Mark McKenna Little

Mark Little is the ‘regular guy’ Financial Advisor whose unconventional approach to financial services acquired 1,242 clients.

Then in just 34 months he rebuilt his business from the ground up, shattering international records and boosting revenue by 412%

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