Secrets to Avoid Sabotaging Your Success
As entrepreneurs, we are expected to lead the way and be on 24/7. Sometimes, owning a business comes with massive pressure, frustration and headaches. In most cases, we bring stress onto ourselves by not properly structuring our business. We know this is true because we talk to spa leaders everyday and we work together to resolve these issues. You can’t be successful by yourself. It takes a team, but not just any team. The team needs to be carefully selected. Here are 5 BIG mistakes entrepreneurs make when building and managing their teams.
1. No Position Description.
One of the biggest frustrations of having a business is managing the team. Are you running a business or a babysitting service?
90% of your frustration can disappear if you take the time to interview and select properly.
A well thought-out, detailed position description and expectations list will dramatically reduce stress and frustration. With this structure in place, you will have more time to focus on your business and minimize time spent on managing people. Imagine how much more productive your business will be when the entire team knows exactly what is expected of them.
2. Not Enough Delegation
The philosophy “no one can do it as good as I can” needs to disappear.
That’s a sign of weakness and poor leadership. You must be able to delegate, you can’t do everything yourself. However, you need to invest the time and money in training the person(s) you will be delegating to. The secret to successful delegation is detailed instruction and clearly outlined expectation of results.
3. Too Much Autonomy
The definition of autonomy is”the quality or state of being independent, free, and self-directed.” Autonomy is an issue we frequently encounter in the spa industry. Autonomy is good if the team member is an A player. In many cases, spas are managed with too much autonomy to undeserving team members. Giving too much autonomy usually indicates the inability to track work progress, to identify potential problems, or to evaluate team member performance. Sometimes, you get blindsided by problems that are costly and aggravating. It’s a better practice to take few minutes every week and evaluate. This will help you stay on track to insure your success
4. Quick to Hire, Slow to Fire!
The problem is sometimes you get in a bind and you hire just to hire. You hire fast just to get the job off your hands… But when you get the wrong person on your team, it ends up costing you a fortune!
When Jack Welch was the CEO of GE, he practiced cutting the bottom 10% from his organization. So if you do end up hiring the wrong person, don’t hang on to them. Continually monitor your bottom 10% and replace them until you have a super team. You don’t want a sinking ship.
5. Re-Creating the Wheel
This is a biggie… we see this too often. You don’t need to be re-creating the wheel over and over. You need to have proven effective structure, systems and training manuals. Once they are created, your job is much easier.
How many times have you found yourself answering the same questions over and over again? Do you constantly search for your shortcut notes on scraps of paper or post its? Anytime you find yourself doing or saying the same thing twice, it’s time to create a template. That way, the next time the same situation comes up, everyone knows what to do. You have more important things to do… like marketing your business and generating revenue!
“Everything is a system. The purpose of a system is to free you to do the things you want to do.” quoted from one of my favorite books for business owners, E-Myth Revisited, Michael Gerber, author.
Hope you found this blog helpful. We would love to hear your team building stories or your current challenges. Please leave your comments.