I have heard business described by many a metaphor but I particularly like this one.
Imagine your business is a massive stone wheel, nice and wide and with a flat outer rim for stability. It won’t fall over but is too heavy to push by one person. You and your team all need to be pushing the wheel in the same direction with roughly the same amount of energy. If you have one member even slightly pushing left or right and the rest are pushing straight ahead, it can make the job so much more difficult. Similarly, if one member is pushing too lightly, the it is usually the owners or senior staff that need to take up the push. You can extend this metaphor in several directions and you will start to notice how members of your team and even you, fit in to it. For instance, there is always one pushing too vigorously, even though this is a good sign of enthusiasm, you as a senior person in the business, know that that person should be conserving their energy for a the hill that your experience tells to is just around the bend.
In thinking about this metaphor it becomes clear that one of the primary roles of leadership in your business is to set the direction and the speed and then importantly monitor the rest of the team for direction and energy.
It’s a nice simple analogy that makes what you should be doing in business obvious but if you are like me, you will catch yourself all too often with your shoulder to the wheel, head down and grunting. Don’t’ get me wrong, there is a place in business for grunt work but we must remember that by far our most important job is one of setting and monitoring the course and speed of the machine.
Now, there is a nice easy way to get all of your team moving in the same direction. Most businesses in this area are best described and micro or small businesses. Invariably, there are one or more family members working in the business. Even if family members are not “in” the business, they often have a strong influence in the direction and the speed of the wheel.
So how do you get family members, some with differing views and positions, others with different skills and expectations, all pushing in your direction instead of against each other?
One method I have used successfully in several family business to resolve this type of what is essentially “conflict” is a tool called “Logical Level Analysis”
I will tell you in detail, how this works in the next issue, however if you can’t wait, please email me at peter@specializedmanagement.com.au and I will be happy to send you an advance draft.
Peter Athey – 0405 318 449 call anytime for more information or how you can apply this business tool.
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