My business coach one time told me that the most significant piece of advice that his business coach gave him was to ‘own the whole‘.  As he said this to me, and I didn’t quite understand.

I was responsible for the Design Department and I did that very well.  When I found out that my business was in complete implosion crisis situation – (I’m talking nuclear meltdown level) – I was shocked and could not believe it.  I blamed everyone for failing to do their jobs.  I blamed the GM. I blamed the other department heads.  I blamed the accountant. blamed the majority shareholders for not caring.  I blamed the previous owners whom I bought the company from for selling me a house of cards.  I blamed my partners.  I blamed everyone but myself.

What I failed to do – was ‘Own the whole‘.  And after a few weeks of contemplating what my business coach told me, I finally understood.

Owning the whole was a state of mind: Everything is your responsibility.

Even though I was not directly responsible for the sales department, I needed a base understanding of how things work in order for me to question practises in my own business.

Even though I was not directly responsible for finance, I still needed a basic understanding of how cashflow, expenses and receivables work so I could catch anomalies in monthly reports or statements.

Not being directly responsible in Operations, still meant that I needed to step in and ask questions and challenge purchasing plans.

I was so focused on my department alone – that I spent no time understanding other departments.  And by doing this, I was an awful shareholder, and partner.  I not only let my partners down, but I let down my whole staff.  I was a garbage leader.  My staff trusted me to run my business because their livelihoods depended upon it.  Because of my negligence, good people got laid off and all of us nearly lost our jobs.

No-one is going to care about your business the way you do.  If everything collapses, team members will find other jobs.  On the other hand, you’ll likely lose your house.

Ask questions.  Understand how the department works.  Trust but verify.  Hold people accountable.

It nearly cost me everything.

Eddie

Fix your problems properly

Up until about 5 years ago, I’ve missed the power of this skill for literally decades, and I don’t know why. It’s so obvious, and I believe it has cost me hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years.

You’ve been in tons of meetings before.  Issues discussed, problems talked about.  At the end, everyone walks away, and 2 months later the problems that were discussed resurface.  Or even worse, you’re in a seasonal company and the next season the same problems come back to haunt you yet again.

It’s happened to me, and it’s maddening.  It’s a sick cycle carousel.  

The Story

Back in 2021 I reluctantly took over a department that suffered from a lack of forward thinking and lack of systems.  I had no experience in this department, and I was admittedly very insecure at coming in and overhauling something that I didn’t understand.

My approach was simple:  Ask a ton of questions.  Dumb questions.  Questions that are so obvious they likely didn’t need to be asked.  I needed to understand why we did the things that we did in order to provide vision and direction for rebuilding.

Not only did I learn a lot, I also realized that I asked a lot of questions that others were curious about also.  Most of the things in this department were done, just because ‘we’ve always done it that way’.  Anyways – this isn’t the reason for this story.

The reason of this story is to talk about ‘Actionables’, (which is not a real word).

‘Actionables’ are all about asking who would be responsible for actioning a specific task to be part of a solution to the issue that was discussed.  Then – simply asking when the individual would think they could complete that task.  Once asked, I would get that commitment from them and then I would simply write down and assign that task in our Project Management System to the team member.

Because it was written down publicly – it was publicly agreed upon, the task had ‘teeth’.

At the end of each meeting I would summarize and speak to the entire team of all the tasks, who was responsible, and when those tasks should get done by.  Then I would ask the team if we have missed anything, and if we’d all agree the meeting was closed.

The following week we would meet again, and the first thing we would discuss was all of the tasks created the week before.  If they weren’t completed, then the team would work together to help the individual solve it.  It would – by default – vet out the under-performers, or disengaged as they themselves publicly subscribed to the task or project.  People would embarrass themselves for not getting – or forgetting about their tasks.

It seems so simple, yet I struggled with this for years.  This literally changed my life, and the department I lead, and turned the department around in about 9 months.

Steps to a Successful Meeting:

1. Get yourself a global project management system.  Consider things like Podio (what I use), or Monday.com.
2. Have someone be your ‘scribe‘ so that you can focus on digging out the issues and running the meeting.
3. As issues are discussed and solved, find the ‘Actionables‘.  Assign these actionables publicly to the best people for the job.
4. Ask for completion time.  Get a commitment.
5. Have the scribe assign tasks according to the above in your Project Management System.
6. Then you call out all of the agreed upon tasks, the due dates before the meeting ends.
7. Follow up with a second meeting the next week, go over all the issues.  This allows the entire team to hold each-other accountable.

If tasks are frequently missed, it allows the team to step in and help.  If the task is missed because of disorganization, laziness or carelessness, the person embarrasses themself in the meeting.

It’s an excellent place for the whole team to hold each other accountable.

When my kids were young and were in organized sports, my daughter wasn’t the sports-type.  However I knew that team sports was so beneficial to the growth of a child.

My daughter would be out there looking at flowers, sitting down bored.  Disengaged.  As a dad I so wanted to see them engaged, and I would frequently cheer, holler and applaud for one minuscule fragment of effort.  It seemed that even just getting off the ground aroused a cheer from me.

My wife had the same experience when she was a child.  She didn’t care about soccer, she just wanted the ice cream bribe at the end of the game.

We found this to be a problem at my company.

We were new ownership on a team of well established people.  We were trying to win the hearts and minds of the people, and it didn’t work.  It seemed that we were over-appreciate, over cheering and over praising for people just showing up for work, or putting a piss-poor effort.  Heralding people for just doing their jobs.

We focused too much on a ‘we’re all friends’ great culture.

“How you manage underperforming staff reflects on how you value your whole team.”

There were some legitimate people putting in an effort that deserved praise, but for a lot of them, especially ones who have been there (and possibly felt they were untouchable) we continually cheered for them hoping one day they would just lift their asses off the soccer field.  We expected and asked more from them, but were too afraid to challenge because of the potential of them walking away. The entire team deserved more effort from them, but they only wanted was the ice cream at the end of the game.

We were celebrating mediocrity.  There were high paid people that weren’t going over and above what we asked, or anticipating significant needs of the company.  Ultimately that left us in the dark, and without information to make good business decisions.

We encouraged an environment, where putting piss poor effort was acceptable.  How you treat lack of performance reflects on how you value your team overall.

Don’t ever celebrate mediocrity.

You are not a charity, and there are no volunteers on your team.  You are signing everyone’s pay checks, and you demand excellence.

How you allow misbehaviour reflects on how you value the entire team.