I\u2019m often asked to identify a single \u201cblind spot\u201d that keeps leaders from growing their businesses aggressively. There are actually a number of these \u2026 but one that\u2019s particularly common is the failure to collect best practices and assemble them in a regularly updated \u201cplaybook.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This could be a playbook that managers use for the most important recurring activities, such as holding meetings, coaching, conducting performance reviews, or handling difficult conversations. It could be a playbook new hires use to get a documented, accessible summary of the best practices of the top performers in their specific area. It could be a playbook that outlines, in detail, the specific process that your sales team uses when executing its sales process with a target company in a particular industry sector. There are countless variations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Without such playbooks, critical \u201ctribal knowledge\u201d walks out the door forever when you lose a key employee. With <\/em>these playbooks, the least experienced people in any area of your business can quickly reach a state of mastery, so that they ramp up to a position where it seems as though they have been on the job for decades. And you can always improve the playbook as your team updates what is working in the field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If for some reason you aren\u2019t<\/em> capturing and recording the way you want things done in a given area, you are minimizing your team\u2019s potential to achieve. Unfortunately, many leaders do just that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n EASE THE TRANSITION TO MASTERY<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n There is often a very long list of skills, resources, and procedures that someone who wants to contribute to your organization must master within a given role. As a leader, you must recognize that it\u2019s sometimes going to be a challenge for any one individual to master everything that\u2019s necessary in a short amount of time. And you must make the transition to mastery as easy as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You<\/em> can\u2019t answer every question personally, and you shouldn\u2019t try. Your goal as a leader must be to create and support teams are self-sufficient. That means you must give your people the tools, resources, and insights they need to become as productive as possible, as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Begin by setting aside self-deceptive talk like, \u201cWe only hire bright people who can figure things out for themselves,\u201d or \u201cSo-and-so will hit the ground running.\u201d They won\u2019t<\/em> hit the ground running, and they shouldn\u2019t be expected to do so. You don\u2019t want them taking months or years learning from making mistakes that could have been prevented. You want them to capitalize on other people\u2019s previous successes, people who have been doing the job at a superior level and\/or have experience that they can share and transfer to others. So enlist the help of your top performers. Create a playbook \u2026 and update it regularly!<\/p>\n\n\n\n An inescapable reality of the working world is that we can\u2019t expect our people to be great at everything. It\u2019s virtually impossible for everyone to become an expert, a black belt, in all the areas that our organization hires for \u2013 and even if they somehow could, it would take them far too long to reach that point. Here\u2019s another inescapable reality: At some point, if people don\u2019t have experience or guidance as they enter a new situation, and can\u2019t get it, they will make up the best answer they can. It won\u2019t always be the right answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes. Your people want<\/em> to do the right thing \u2026 but if there\u2019s no playbook for them to look to, if there\u2019s no experience that they can rely on, and no one to turn to, they will improvise \u2013 or not do it at all. While improvising is sometimes necessary, it\u2019s not really an effective daily strategy when it comes to growing your business!<\/p>\n\n\n\n