Don’t practice until you get it right...
...Practice until you can’t get it wrong.
Sustainability and spaced repetition are joint themes deeply embedded in our coaching practice since day one. Sustainability is mentioned in all seven of our books and spaced repetition is built into our attitude change platform/practice. In fact, a good portion of our coaching practice is helping our clients focus on repetitive practice to develop new attitudes, behaviors, and skills.
In this discussion, we take a look at how repetition factors into the key elements of business leadership. We will explore the value of repetition as it pertains to leading people, managing resources and creating value regardless of whether the business is for-profit, non-profit, small business, large corporation, public or privately held. Let’s get started with the most important aspect of business leadership: leading people.
- Leading People ~ In any business, people are the heart and soul of the sustainable success of any business. In today’s dynamic new reality, attracting and retaining the right people for the business is an ongoing challenge. The new generation of workers have different expectations than the work force of ten or twenty years ago. The repetition required to retain and lead today’s workforce must be inherently baked into the business culture. As culture is defined as the values, attitudes, norms and beliefs that influence the behavior of the workforce. What is repeatedly modeled and/or tolerated by leadership will set the cultural tone of the business, for better or for worse! You can see more about culture in this short video.
- Managing Resources ~ In a practical sense, we’ve always viewed resource management as an optimizing (vs. minimizing) process. In particular, we focus on how waste can be eliminated from the day-to-day operations. One of our more popular business workshops speaks directly to the seven wastes (defects, waiting, motion, inventory, overproduction, overprocessing and transportation) and how waste can be reduced through streamlining. Effective, Efficient and Adaptable systems are optimized to produce repeatable outcomes. The repeatability includes the leader’s routine monitoring of resources in real time as well as establishing a repeatable cadence in which the systems are evaluated for relevancy!
- Creating Value ~ Creating sustainable success in today’s dynamic business environment is about creating repeatable value. The opportunity lies in the evolving definition of value in the eyes of key stakeholders, both internal and external. What was valuable to employees, clients, donors and investors five years ago is different than value defined in today’s terms. The leader’s key responsibility is leading their business to deliver tangible value (think measurable impact) through the many evolutions of what value entails. As the expression goes, the best investor in a business is repeat clients/donors!
Leaders create sustainable success by addressing the repeatability of their business on the actions that matter most. They model a culture that routinely inspires the workforce. They manage resources at a cadence that optimizes their contribution to the business while mitigating all possible waste. And they create value that differentiates their business from the one-hit wonders to being a hall of famer!
How are you ensuring your business can’t get it wrong? If you are not sure, we can help!
Lead Well!
