Process v People

As an executive coach, I spend time at networking events with a range of other business owners and leaders. These events will usually have a guest speaker who informs and educates the group on their area of specialty. I have come to appreciate each speaker on their own merits but can tend to categorise them as the following.

• Marketing Guru – To show you the latest and newest way to build a digital and online presence. How to make money on Google and Facebook Advertising.
• Financial Guru – I can fix your broken business in three easy steps
• Compliance Guru – How to comply with the every increasing regulations concerning business.

Today I listened to a Financial Guru present how to fix your business in three steps. Grow Sales, Grow Profit, Grow Cash Flow. He talked about systems and processes and driving your business through processes and scripts.It was suggested that your customer service people work off scripts. Agreed may be a great training tool, but hardly the environment to gain engagement and continual improvement.
Whatever they end up touting, It never changes my ideal, it never changes my belief. simply this. Everything comes down to leadership. Everything! if you don’t have the leadership awareness no matter what you are trained, taught, coached; it doesn’t work. Leadership is the key.

It was suggested that I outsource everything that isn’t mission critical for my business. There is some sense to this, but the list included things that i wouldn’t. I disagree with outsourcing Customer Complaints and the Recruitment of my staff. And when I think about the why I disagree it comes back to the fundamental way I think about business.

When I thing about improving a business, I believing in improving the leaders and the staff in that business. I don’t think about putting in a system and a process to control. I think about ways of engaging and empowering my team to deliver more than any system or process can. If I am going to lead a team, surely then I would want to have input into the recruitment of the team.

Business processes and systems can support leadership, but the best way to lift your business is by lifting you and your team. If you rely on systems and processes, you will forever be limited by those same systems and processes. You will have managers controlling process and you will have staff doing the minimum required.

But if you focus on becoming a great leader, you can unleash your team to deliver better results.

By focusing on people, you unleash the energy. By focusing on process, you limit the energy. Everytime you need to choose to harness the power of your people over limiting them with systems and process

Tony Curl
Leadership, Life and Style

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