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Berkshire | david.davies@sandler.com

Let’s talk about Excellence in Business.

We all want the Gold Medal. The accolades. For our company to be the best it can be.

But you’re not going to get to excellence through sheer hard graft. And, you’re not going to get to excellence by hoping that you become excellent.

You’ve got to really put in the hard work on your business.

What do they say about luck? Luck is hard-work meeting opportunity.

So, excellence is something you are going to have to devote time to.

It’s a mission to become excellent. But, what does that mean?

Firstly, you, as a Leader, are going to be deciding whether to become an organisation of excellence; or not.

Because, we are going to be doing a lot of different things to get there.

If you think about a well-run or excellent business. Then that’s a business where the Leader is working on the business, not in the business.

All businesses are classified into four categories:

“At-Risk.” - Leaders in this group have lost control of the business and possibly their personal lives, too.

“Average.” - These businesses are doing well enough to reasonably satisfy the Leaders but are vulnerable to regressing back to at-risk.

“Well-Run.” - These businesses are well managed by leaders, respected in their industry, and likely in the top 25% of businesses measured in terms of professional leadership. However, these businesses are still vulnerable.

“Excellent.” - Here, professional leadership is a way of life because there is a disciplined process that propels the business into the upper 5% of organisations.

As a Leader of an ‘excellent’ business, you’re not spending all your time on the things you loved to do when you were growing up in the business.

I meet so many people. People in professional services for example. People who were great Accountants, who find themselves running an Accounting Firm.

Running an Accounting Firm doesn’t mean you are doing people's taxes. Even though that may have been the thing you loved to do.

When I think about growing my former businesses, I was regarded as a great Salesman. So, I would always jump at the chance to dive back into Sales situations. Because that is where I felt most comfortable.

But you must resist that temptation. Keep working on the business, not in the business.

You must make sure that you surround yourself with great people.

Now, that seems natural. But most people don’t do it.

You should be hiring people that are better than you. Certainly, better than you at the things you aren’t great at.

It can take people a long time to get comfortable with themselves and hiring people who are better than them. Great people. People who could take your job.

You must make sure that they have the tools to succeed. You’ve given them the right training, you are coaching them, you’ve given them a roadmap of ‘where they are today’ and ‘where you want them to be’.

So, they clearly know what is expected of them.

They should clearly know the key performance indicators. What will keep them hired, what will get them fired.

And they have the authority and autonomy to get there.

They don’t have to come to you for every single decision.

Excellence is about work/life balance. You cannot spend 24 hours a day at work.

I’ve tried it. I’ve tried it several times. The second time I tried it I thought I had learnt from the first.

I hadn’t.

Spending 24 hours a day hyper-ventilating about the business is the road to failure.

You should have a team taking care of the business for you in many different areas.

Let them take care of their area of the business.

Personal time. Family time. Social time. These are important so that you and people can recharge your batteries.

Those are the things that make for an excellent organisation.

That is excellence.

It doesn’t happen overnight. Most of the overnight successes I have met have worked for decades to get there.

How are you defining excellence? What path are you following to excellence?

To sustain, optimal, organisational growth, you are going to need a sequential, continuous, repeatable approach.

Sequential – because it is important that each step is completed in order.

Continuous – because the ‘excellence’ I defined as the organisation changes. What is considered ‘excellence’ at the start of your adventure, could be perceived as merely ‘adequate’ in the future.

Repeating – because once you commit to an excellence program in your organisation you are never going to want to stop.

The model that makes ‘excellence’ a reality has 6 clearly defined steps.

1) Planning

Everything begins with Planning. Where do you want to go? How are you going to get there? All plans need constant evaluation and updating. Planning includes everything from your personal vision to performance benchmarks.

2) Positions

Define the organisations structure and the skills needed to achieve your plans. Create an organisational chart that illustrates your growth plan. Determine the skills and experience needed in each position to effectively achieve the plan.

3) People

Decide who in your organisation could take the organisation where you want it to go. Do not overlook the importance of hiring people who have the skills and experience the plan requires.

4) Process

As you put the right people in place have them look at processes. They will have the capacity to understand when and how process can be improved. The more tasks that have a process associated with completion the more you will ensure a high probability of success.

5) Performetrics

You cannot manage what you cannot measure. You can only hold people accountable to the things you measure. Make sure you have the right key performance indicators to judge successful performance. Performetrics are essential to achieving excellence.

6) Passion

This differentiates a Great Company from a Good one. When Leaders exude passion, it is contagious and finds its way to all employees. Knowing how to use passion to accelerate organisational performance is the ‘secret sauce’ in excellent organisations.

If you have taken a good look at the basics of your organisation, you may have defined some area’s for improvement.

You may have realised you don’t have much of a Plan for the business?

You may have noticed that your people don’t have clarity on their Positions?

You may be concerned about that you don’t have the right People in the business?

You may be unsure how many Processes are documented?

You may be confused about what Performetrics to track?

You may be wondering where your Passion for the business went?

 

Most Leaders face obstacles when growing their business.
If you would like to take the Leadership for Organisational Excellence Personal “Blind Spots” Survey drop us a note at david.davies@sandler.com and we will send you the “Blind Spots” assessment.

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