I’ve shared about the cycle of a business in the past, where there are four components; with you being the owner/the leader, your number one job is to take care of the team. Make sure that all the structure, the systems, and the culture are in place so the team feels good about themselves, they’re on their A-game, and in return, they are taking care of the customers. The customers are happy. They’re being well serviced. They’re coming back more often. They’re telling their friends. They’re giving you positive Google reviews, and the customers are now taking care of your business which you’re increasing revenues, increasing profits, and the business’s job is to take care of you, the owner, so you could do what you want when you want with whoever you want.
Now, there’s another component as you put that structure in place between you, the owner/leader and the team that is also your responsibility. And that is to eliminate excuses. Yes, we don’t want excuses. A little phrase I started a long time ago with my son when he was playing baseball is, “Zach, there are no excuses. There’s only execution.” We’re looking for execution in our organization. We’re not looking for excuses. So where does that start?
Well, most importantly, it starts at the top of the cycle of a business. It starts with the owner. If the owner is showing up with excuses, the team’s going to show up with excuses. However, the owner/leader shows up in that realm of excellence, taking full ownership, accountability, and responsibility for everything that happens in the organization. They hand out praise when things are going well, and take the blame when things go wrong. They will constantly be making the shift to get better, so they can educate and train their team accordingly.
Because when the owner/leader shows up in that realm of excellence, that energy shifts to the other leaders in the organization. It shifts to the employees in the organization. Once you are showing up right, you can expect the same of them. Now just don’t expect it. Help them get there. Ask them what they can do to get better. Ask them what you can do to help them achieve more. And that’ll get them thinking ahead.
I shared last week about a couple of books you can use; Rhinoceros Success is a simple little book that gets people in the mindset to be a rhino, always charging ahead, and making things happen. It gets into the mindset of the individual, followed up with 212 Degrees, which is all about the difference between 211, very hot water, and 212-degree water, which is boiling water. Boiling water that creates steam, steam powerful enough to move a locomotive engine. One degree difference, a huge difference in the outcome. This read gets them in the mindset of how they can get a little bit better each and every day.
Lead with accountability and responsibility each and every day and your team will begin to step up. You’ll be educating them using simple messages from books and so on which acts as leverage that you’re sharing a message you want them to get, but it’s not coming from you. You can have them read my book, Knock It Out of the Park Leadership, which has many golden nuggets your team can use and talk about and mastermind how you can all get better. It’s really simple. You do whatever you need to do to keep your team motivated and moving forward. But remember, every morning when you look in the mirror and brush your teeth, say, it starts with me.
So, your job as an owner, and as a leader of an organization is to take care of that team and eliminate the excuses. Whatever you need to put in place, systems, default calendars, scheduling, a way to keep them motivated, inspired and learning about getting better each and every day, that’s how you will eliminate excuses. Your business will do well, you’ll be beating your competition, you’ll be delivering excellence to your customers, and that’s what produces results.
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