I want to share another story from a client interaction. As always, please know the details and information in this story have been changed to protect their confidentiality. 😁 Here’s the question I want you to think about as we dive into this: how does someone earn back your trust?
You see, my client has a business that is growing rapidly. She is to the point in her mature business where she wants to add some additional product lines. It’s a super exciting time! But the problem is that she has allowed two underperformers to stay on her team. During this time of growth, she is having to restructure her team and move the leaders around so each business arm is now covered by a leader.
These two guys are guys she has been micromanaging, not by choice but by necessity. So now that she has moved them to a role with even more responsibility, the fear she has in her gut is overwhelming. Rightly so.
So let me share with you what I shared with her, they are not delivering on their productivity and execution frameworks, two of the 9 fundamental pillars of business. Remember how we always talk about you need to master the 9. Well, when you have a team that is made up of leaders who can very much influence the 9 pillars of your business, they too must master the 9. If they can’t, they are going to damage those pillars within your company. And that is exactly what is happening in here. They are not productive and they are not executing, so the two arms of the business these guys are responsible for are failing in both of those areas.
A conversation must be had with each of them individually. She needs to level set and ask them how they are going to resolve the situation. Then, she is either going to support their answer, address their answer because it’s unacceptable, or adjust their answer because it’s a reasonable suggestion but not the best suggestion. And based on what they come back and say, they will either adjust their mastery of the pillars and stay onboard or she will terminate them. Either way, the business has to have the 9 pillars and each person has to carry his or her own weight.
Are you going through something similar? Do you see how underperformance not just hurts your team and keeps you busy, but it actually damages your 9 pillars?
Be Legendary!