Now what does this have to do with business? It has everything to do with business. In business or an organization, there’s a lot of shifts being made to grow forward, to get better, to become more efficient, to be more productive. Let’s say you’re implementing a new system, a new accounting software, a new contact management system, where all the proper data needs to be inputted by everybody on the team so you can filter this through to test and measure to get the proper numbers to make the proper decisions for your company.
However, in an organization, you have a lot of different people and a lot of different behaviors. Some of us have no problem adapting to change. We know the change is of benefit to us, the team, and the organization, and because of this we just go through the process of change.
Some of us have certain behaviors that we don’t like going outside our comfort zone. We like doing it our way. We’ve been doing it this way all these years and it works just fine. Why do I have to change now? Some of us might actually avoid this new procedure, this new application, this new system. We may think, “Well, I’m just one person. What type of effect can it have in this overall company?” Well, think differently.
What type of effect did that person that created that roadblock, that bottleneck up ahead on the highway that cut four lanes down to one which made you an hour late to your next appointment? If you are not inputting the proper information into the system, the controller, the operator, and the bookkeeper, are not getting that information on time to bring it to the next level. Then there may be your superior or somebody on your team who has to take the time to chase you down to actually get you to do that, or they might just do it themselves because you’re avoiding it. That takes them away from their responsibility of working on making that system more efficient for everybody.
If that information isn’t timely, the controller is not getting what he or she needs, then the bookkeeper is not getting what he or she needs. And most importantly, the accountant of the organization isn’t receiving the numbers timely, so they can’t timely deliver the accounting work to the owners. The owners become frustrated because they think their accountant isn’t doing their job because they’re taking too much time to get the completed numbers to them so they can review and make quicker decisions to increase productivity and margins in the organization.
If you’re an individual thinking that you are not affecting the entire synergistic process of an organization because you choose to not adapt to a new system, or choose to continue to do it your way, think differently. You are now the bottleneck in the entire process of an organization that is working on getting much more efficient so they could be better for you, better for the organization, and better for the customer. If you are the bottleneck, think about it. Don’t be the bottleneck. Adapt to the new way of doing things.
In addition, if you’re a leader of an organization and you’re a little bit hesitant about making decisions, if you procrastinate, or belabor and overanalyze certain situations, you actually might be the bottleneck in the organization.
We’ve all been stuck in traffic. We’ve all been in this situation; we all know what it feels like to be inconvenienced and frustrated by something totally outside of our realm of control. If you are one that’s not doing what needs to be done in the entire organization to create a synergistic process, you are the bottleneck. And very simply, adapt, move forward, don’t do it.
COACH MICHAEL DILL is an Award-Winning Certified Business Coach, global speaker, and published author. He is a proud Action Coach Franchise partner as well as the President of Power & Ice Wealth Creation a strategic leadership company that works with business owners, leaders, teams, and entrepreneurs to both develop a systematized and structured organization while accelerating their mindset, efficiencies, and effectiveness to grow both personally and professionally to achieve extraordinary results. He brings more than 40 years of business and entrepreneurial experience in his leadership, team training, and mentoring practice. Businesscoachmichaeldill.com