What’s on the Menu?

Last week’s article went as well as I could have wanted. I published the article, and it immediately created a response. The original question that came out of it was, what about those who don’t want to get better? My automatic response was that the website isn’t for them. I truly believe that, but you still must look at the question? What if I as a leader, have a leader below me, and they are ok with being average? We talked about forcing greatness on someone, is that an option? If you have a game plan, or what some might say a recipe for success, how close do you make people follow it? In today’s world if you don’t listen to feedback, they say you will fail. But I believe that we have a high chance of failing if the plan isn’t followed. So again, are we doomed to fail then? Let’s think about it from the recipe standpoint. If I own a restaurant and I create a meal that everyone all around the world wants to eat, do I let the other chefs change the recipe? To me the obvious answer is no. You want every dish to go out exactly the same way every time. The risk with that of course is that no one may want to work with you because you aren’t giving them freedom. I think this leads us down a few different paths. The first path we need to discuss is the path of average. If I want my team to be great and I have someone on my team who is ok with average, does it matter if he leaves? Short-term, yes. Long-term, no. If I am dealing with someone who is ok with being average, I shouldn’t let him get away from the recipe no matter what. So, if I have someone who is on the path of average, I am going to force him to follow my game plan or recipe. What if they are on the path of potential greatness, can they change the recipe? What if I have someone on my team who has more talent than I did when I was their age? Shouldn’t I let them fly and hit their potential? Here is my opinion, I am going to force them to follow my recipe on the main course. When I say main course, I’m talking about the basics. I should have three to five non-negotiables that no one can override. Some of those things might be talking to their people every single day. I want them to spend at least five minutes every day with the people who report to them. It doesn’t need to be anything special or specific, but they do need to say hi and ask them how everything is going and if they need anything. Another one might be that they check in a few times a month on their productivity. Everyone should always know where they stand.  Another one might be that I want everyone to hear one piece of positive feedback and one piece of concern every few weeks. I would consider those three things my main course, non-negotiables. No matter your potential, no matter what is happening around us, those things must happen. So, what can they do on their own? I’m going to call these things my side dishes and desserts. I want them to show me some creativity when it comes to these things. What can you do on top of the basics to show me improvements with your team? How can you take the information you gathered with the basics and use that to build a dominate team? If every few weeks you are going over a concern, at some point you shouldn’t have that concern. If they know where they stand, then they know what they can do to get better. How can I help? Well, how you decide to help them is completely up to you. If you need my help, ask me. In the end something interesting happened last week. After going back and forth on a few things one thing was one hundred percent answered, when one has questions about others, ask others! What a simple and basic way to improve. It’s easy to try and read someone’s mind, but it would be way more effective just to ask them. We know that clarity is important for being great, the best way to have clarity is to ask specific questions.