Tim Hebert
Management Services Committee Member
A&W Electric, Inc.
I’ve learned a lot of lessons as a business owner over the past 25 years, most of them the hard way! One of the most valuable lessons I have learned is that you can’t be everywhere and do everything. As our company has grown, we have had to learn to trust others to get things done in a way that is consistent with how you would want them done. Here is how we chose to attack the trust issue and some of the lessons learned along the way.
1.) Establish a clear set of core values: I realize the term core values is a bit overused in today’s world. Simply put, what are the things you as a business owner value and want your team to replicate? While getting feedback on creating these values is important and helpful, you should understand as the company leader that these core values should be something that you stand for, that you are willing to hire and fire for, and are critical to the overall identity of your company. Once developed, share the values with your team. Ask them to use these core values when making decisions you are not around to make. One of my lessons learned is to explain what the core values mean, repeat them often, and make the connection between core values and actual behaviors. (Example: Thanks John. I just reviewed your root cause failure report, and your analysis was a great example of exhibiting our technical excellence core value!)
2.) Set some level of a scorecard: What are the key results and numbers that help you drive your business? Do you track them weekly? If the quarter is going badly, can you redirect resources to improve the situation? A scorecard is a list of 5-10 items you track and report on religiously. They can be things like inbound jobs, pipeline (quotes waiting for approval), overhead hours, etc. Lesson learned: Initially we focused on all “result” types of numbers (sales invoicing, gross profit, net profit, etc.). It is important to identify some key leading indicators as to where your business will be, so you can recognize that things are starting to go south before they do. One of the items we still struggle with is developing a good way to measure some of the qualitative items that are critical, like customer satisfaction, turnaround time, warranty rate, etc.
3.) Keep your team on the same page: I know we all hate meetings, but there can be real value in having periodic meetings that keep people on the same page, that help employees understand where the company is concerning goals, that bring items to the table, and that create solutions. There are many keys to running a successful meeting. Among them are a standard start and stop time (always start on time), a clear and concise agenda, and a meeting facilitator who can keep everybody on track. As issues arise, the facilitator must gather feedback (there’s usually a quiet employee with great ideas), keep the group on track, and summarize the discussion at the conclusion of the meeting. Once the meeting adjourns, there should be clear action items with a single owner, a deadline, and a mechanism by which to report back to the group.
4.) A company can only work on a few major priorities at a time: We have quarterly planning sessions to identify the key priorities for the quarter. Each priority has an owner, has guidelines that illustrate what success looks like, and has a deadline. Lesson learned: The priorities should be important enough that they must be solved, must be detailed enough so that everybody knows what success looks like, and must have a single owner (even if they don’t do all the work themselves). The status of these priorities is reported on weekly.
5.) Have a set of core processes: We all have repair procedures in our service center, but do we have clear processes for how we set up new customers, collect money, pay bills, make sales calls, etc.? We have learned a key lesson in the area of core processes.
We follow an 80/20 rule. Eighty percent of the things we do can be written as a simple process. This allows employees to spend time and effort focusing on 20% of the issues that require individual attention and unique solutions. When we tried to write processes for 100% of the unlimited possibilities of events, we found ourselves stuck in detail and indecision. Identify the 8-10 key processes, set up a system that allows people to easily and simply handle 80% of those issues, and spend your time and creativity on the other 20%.
6.) Create a system for accountability: We have found as we develop these systems, most of us prefer clarity over confusion. We all want to know if we’re doing well. Following are some things we do:
- a. Each task worth doing has an owner. That person may require help, but one person needs to be accountable. When jobs have gone poorly for us and we review the why, we find that without a documented leader, there are too many things that everybody thought somebody would do. There is no such person as somebody. Each job and task needs an owner.
- b. Each role should have a few specific, measurable indicators of success. Examples may be actual hours versus quoted, warranty rates, average collectible days, number of sales calls per week, etc. It is impossible to be successful if we have not defined what success looks like for our team.
- c. Timelines do matter because we live in a world of deadlines. Our business is no different. A task without an expected completion date is just a wish. Complex tasks may have steps along a continuum of time for completion.
- d. Chase the important things. If your company has set key priorities, then every activity (as many as feasible) in the company should be set up to support progress toward the overall organizational goals.
Summary
The ability to clearly identify our company’s core values and set clear targets to keep our employees on course has helped us create employee buy-in. This ensures we’re all on the same page and forces us to hold ourselves accountable, which has increased our efficiency because we now spread the workload and responsibility from one to many. Our entire team now feels like a part of the solution. This is not an easy process but has proven well worth the effort for our team and company.
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