10 MiMfg Magazine December 2020
If COVID Was Your Best Manager This Year ...
By Catherine Juon • Traction Training Center
If you found yourself making overdue staffing changes this year after a big nudge from our friend COVID-19 — that ’ s a sign . Granted , you ’ re in good company — plenty of teams recently discovered the positive impact of letting go of people who weren ’ t the right fit . But why wait for a pandemic to be your best manager ?
The best way to build a team that routinely makes the tough calls , even without a pandemic push , is to create a clear and compelling vision . And a clear and compelling vision is just that — compelling . It ’ s not a lofty quote stenciled on the lobby wall … it ’ s a living , breathing embodiment of what your company stands for — and it articulates the dent you want to make in the universe .
One of the great privileges I have as a teacher , facilitator and coach of the Entrepreneurial Operating System ( EOS ®) is being invited to help leadership teams build a shared vision . It ’ s not that there ’ s a lack of vision ; rather , the issue is a lack of a unified vision . Everyone around the table is seeing a slightly different version of where the company is going .
You might be tempted to shrug off these minor differences as inconsequential but , when you ’ ve got one team buying technology systems to accommodate one scale of growth , the sales team ramping up on a different scale , and finance building a budget for something else altogether , there ’ s all kinds of “ static .” And static slows you down .
If COVID was your best manager , you know exactly what I mean . After you made some tough people moves to get more of the right people in the
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right seats , you likely felt some combination of relief , a new lightness and the sensation that things were moving faster and more smoothly without that static . It ’ s not your imagination .
Imagine where you could go — how much you could grow — if you systematically continued to strengthen your organization ? If your vision was clear and shared by all ? If you had simple , practical tools to help you continue getting the right people in the right seats ? If you had a handful of weekly key metrics providing an early warning system ? If the discipline of identifying and solving issues was baked into the DNA of your entire organization ? That ’ s not utopia — that ’ s what a strong company looks like . And with the new year approaching , it ’ s the perfect time to build your simplified strategic plan for 2021 to clear out the static in your company . 6
Catherine Juon is a Professional EOS Implementer with Ann Arbor-based Traction Training Center . She may be reached at 734-646-3201 or catherine @ 87plus . com .
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