Sadly, the personal touch in business is being lost. The more technologically advanced we become, the fewer people we find who are willing to take responsibility, both in their personal lives and in their business dealings.

The ability to take decisions seems to be the preserve of committees, with individual judgement calls being relegated to the annals of history. Are we losing sight of the fact that people do business with people – not computers? Is this the result of information overload, or is it because we have lost faith in human instinct, believing that it is so badly flawed that we dare not rely on it any longer?

There is a direct correlation between responsibility and accountability. You can quite frankly not hold people accountable if you do not charge them with responsibility or if you deny them input into the decision-making process. Likewise, if you charge people with responsibility but restrict their ability to institute change, you can certainly not hold them accountable in line with the responsibility you have given them. It is precisely this factor, which drives people to the point where they are fearful of taking action, and which is the cause of many businesses rewarding mediocrity.

The three most admirable characteristics sought in any employee are enthusiasm, initiative, and imagination. We bemoan the fact that we can’t find these characteristics in our employees and blame society, politics, the education system, the economy, and a host of other nebulous scapegoats, yet seldom do we look at ourselves and say, “… hold on a minute, do I encourage these attributes?”. We are too afraid to give people unbridled responsibility in the fear that they will in some way defraud us or lose customers for us. This fear results in us making our employees frustrated and it is generally only through frustration that employees start taking the law into their own hands. Give them the responsibility but hold them accountable. Make them answerable for their actions, or lack thereof. This is hard though, because first you must exercise discipline on yourself by enforcing accountability – on yourself.

In tandem with giving people responsibility and holding them accountable you must also let them take the credit – it makes them feel they are part of something special and besides, you can’t do it all yourself. Stop killing initiative and you will be nurturing the seeds of enthusiasm and imagination. By doing this not only will your business flourish. You are, after all, only as strong as your team.

On the other hand, maybe you are a control freak or are just too scared that somebody will outshine you. The risk of this ever happening is remote because control freaks gather puppets around them, and it is impossible for a puppet to outshine the puppet master. If this is you, bail out now because your business will never grow.

Ah, but if I do as this post proposes, I run the risk that people will make the wrong decisions and end up costing me money. Of course, this is going to happen! We are human, and we learn by making mistakes. Look at an eagle diving in for the kill – with all his experience behind him he only succeeds in making the kill once in every three attempts, yet in his early years his success rate was only one in ten! Are you right on the money with every decision you make? Allow people to make mistakes but hold them accountable and coach them through the mistakes they make. Teach them those three mantras, which should be at forefront of everyone’s mind:

• The Important issues take precedence over the Urgent issues.
• Need takes precedence over Want.
• Action supersedes ALL.

Obviously these three mantas must be cemented together with the RIGHT ATTITUDE!

Maybe the parable of the cow will help you instil the right attitude … ‘When everything gets really complicated and you feel overwhelmed, you have to do three things: First, get the cow out of the ditch; Second, find out how the cow got into the ditch; Third, make sure you do whatever it takes so the cow doesn’t go into the ditch again’. Translated, this means that you first concentrate on survival, you then figure out what happened, and finally learn from the lessons and make sure you have put a plan in place to recognise the signs and never go there again.

Decide now to take that quantum leap of faith and begin to travel the path that will lead to a significant improvement in productivity – stop trying to control everything and stop spending all those unproductive hours in project or committee meetings – give people specific responsibilities, make them accountable, and coach them through the process of increasing their ‘hit’ rate from one in ten to one in three!

Your internal controls will always remain vitally important, and, if you have the desire to start the process of change, lay carefully thought-out plans and execute those plans with rigour. Start with the small things and encourage the process to grow. Allow your staff to build credibility through demonstrating their initiative – allow them to find their own way through. Do not allow them to come to you with a problem to solve – they must come to you with a solution. Use the process to pass on your experience and to ensure that their thinking processes are in line with ‘best practice’. Act!

Don’t get discouraged when not every employee buys into your initiative though – 80% of them will not. Select only the sparks in your team – probably only 20% in number, and work closely with them. Allow them to be the carriers of the message and entrust them with the responsibility to infect 20% of the best people they are in continuous contact with. Give them latitude as to how they do this and don’t try to micro-manage them in the process. Manage their accountability.

Allowing people to exercise initiative and imagination will automatically uplift their enthusiasm. Enthusiasm automatically translates into action, and action does not have to cost money. Let people show you what they can do, and if they can prove a concept without spending money, believe me you will find whatever money it takes to expand a winning concept. Empathise with failure because in failure lies great opportunity, provided it is handled correctly.

 

QUOTATION:

One of the most valuable things any man can learn is the art of using the knowledge and experience of others.

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