Today we’re sharing insight from guest blogger Ron Kitchens, Chief Executive Officer of the Southwest Michigan First Group of Companies. We hope you enjoy Ron’s wisdom and perspective.
With the rapid pace of change all around us these days and the constant drum beat of crisis, it is easy to fall into the Nike trap of management: Just Do It! Just do something! Just do anything! We all remember playing the childhood game, “Don’t Spill the Beans,” at least one point in our lives. The concept is easy: you compete against an opponent by carefully considering how to place beans on your half of a balanced bean pot in order to tip the pot towards your opponent so he gets all of those rotten beans.
The game of business is similar. A great organization knows how to place its “beans” in order to achieve success. When talking about customers or profit, we want the pot to tip in our direction. In regards to bad collection issues or supplier time delays, we want the pot to tip away.
Now, do not get me wrong, I am a mass and velocity kind of guy, but let’s make sure the things we are doing are those that will make an actual difference – a difference in our favor – in the long-term viability of our businesses. When we look at companies that succeed in good and bad times, they focus on the 10 points below.
- Commit to an abundance mindset, not one of scarcity. No company becomes great without leaders who believe there is more than enough for them to become successful.
- Have a portable mission and vision. Being portable means your mission and vision for your company is short and concise enough for your team and your customers to take with them. In short, this means your mission and vision need to be only a couple of sentences so it can easily be repeated. Why repeat? Because, simply, you need to wear it in your heart and have it written plainly on your forehead.
- Focus on constant improvement by asking your customers their needs, wants, and desires. The only way you are going to sell more products or services is by gaining more market share, which means you have to sell what people want.
- Use the language and lessons of Good to Great. If you have not read this book by Jim Collins or it has been a while since you last read it, take the time now to make it your own.
- Hold everyone on your team accountable, including yourself, to well-established goals and principals.
- Replace “employees” with “team members” and “groups” or “committees” with “teams.” Language is important to building a culture of success. The players on the Detroit Tigers are all employees of the Tigers’ Baseball organization, but you would never hear them called employees. Everyone on the payroll at Disney is a “Cast Member.” Does that reinforce their role? Absolutely.
- Invest in your people. You cannot coach a soccer team for four-year-olds these days without some sort of ongoing training. Yet, we let people in our own organizations deal with our customers with very little upfront training and almost no follow-up. How can you say your business is important when you do not invest in the people that will determine your success or failure?
- Delegate to talent, not titles. It is too easy and, to be honest, lazy, to delegate to people based on their titles or time in service. Use this year to learn – I mean really learn – what the talents are of your people, and then help them maximize their use of those talents.
- Quit. That is, quit trying to be everything. You have to learn your own talents and then do those things that are in your sweet spot. You will get more done and have more joy in doing it.
- Take time to think. Great leaders commit real amounts of time to think and focus on the future of their business. If you are going to drive your success, you must first commit time to study your road map.
Change is constant. There will always be good times and bad times. Some companies will succeed and others will not. You are in the position to determine your future. So, what is it going to be? What difference are you going to make? Tip the scale in your favor.
What’s The Risk?
There will be highs and there will be lows. But the lows won’t kill us, how we handle them will. When our focus as leaders is ONLY on output we overlook the importance of leading a team of human beings. We risk having highly engaged team members and knowing what our customers truly want. By not focusing on the ten points above, leaders lose impact as individuals and as an organization. Let’s not work for mass and velocity, let’s strive for quality work that produces great influence.
Always Forward
Ron
This content was written and shared by guest blogger, Ron Kitchens.
Ron’s focus is to lift up leaders by accelerating their impact, influence and well-being in career, family and community.
Ron is the senior partner and chief executive officer of Southwest Michigan First, an economic consulting firm, which has grown 20% annually under his leadership. In addition, Ron leads Consultant Connect, is the publisher of 269 MAGAZINE™, board member of Impact Athletic, chairman of the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts and a Trustee of Western Michigan University.
Ron is the founder of the leadership conference Catalyst University and the co-founder of NEXT, an invitation-only leadership symposium for global economic development leaders.
Ron and his teams have been extensively featured in over 100 national and international media outlets including The Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, CBS, NBC, Fox, USA Today, Forbes, Fortune, The Economist and National Public Radio.
Southwest Michigan First is recognized as one of the Top 5 Best Places to Work in America by Outside Magazine, as well as a National Best & Brightest Company.
Ron is author/co-author of 3 books, including the bestseller Community Capitalism, and speaks globally on leadership, creating thriving multi-generational teams and community capitalism. He blogs and podcasts at ronkitchens.com and can be found on Twitter @ronkitchens.
