There are many articles this time of year\nabout how to improve individual productivity, thereby accelerating company\ngrowth over the course of the year. I\u2019ve written my fair share of these\narticles and, of course, they have their place. But this year, I want to step\nback and take a different approach, viewing growth from a strategic\nperspective. I want to speak to you \u2013 not about improving productivity on an\nindividual level, but about improving the productivity of the business as a\nwhole. I\u2019m about to share something I have implemented here at Sandler which has\njump-started our growth year after year after year. The process is designed for\nteam and company leaders, and it is known as the Six Ps. Let\u2019s look at each of\nthe Ps now. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
1.\nPlanning.<\/strong> You need to begin with a plan. This means\nasking yourself where, specifically, you want the group to be in years one, two,\nand three. Then you go on to look at where you personally <\/em>would like to be in each of those years. Tying personal\ngoals into the corporate goals is vitally important. At the team and company\nlevel, this is the beginning of a discussion about planning, not the end game.\nYou must ensure the whole team is engaged in the discussion about where the\ngroup will be going, because then it becomes \u201cour<\/em> plan.\u201d As the leader,\nof course, you’re shaping it, and you make the ultimate calls, but the more you\ncan turn this into a \u201cwe\u201d process, as opposed to a \u201cme\u201d process, the better off\neveryone will be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2.\nPositions.<\/strong> Now that you’ve created a plan that lays\nout where you would like to be over the next one to three years, the next\nquestion addresses what type of roles are needed within the organization to\nmake that happen. They may be exactly the same as the roles you have in place\nright now. Often, though, they’re not. Recently, I added eight additional\npositions to our organization, in order hit the plan we had created. The plan\nwas the driving force behind how our organizational chart needed to look. That\nis as it should be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 3.\nPeople. <\/strong>You start this one by asking, \u201cWho do I need\nto fill my organizational chart in order to hit my plan?\u201d Sometimes you\u2019re\ngoing to be moving people to different seats on the bus. When you have open\npositions, you have to either recruit from the outside or assign from within. As\nthe leader, you’re the one who needs to make that decision. The second part of\nthis People step, which is equally important, is all about development. Once\nyou have the right people in place, you will need to ensure they are properly coached\nand trained to be 100% competent and able to do everything necessary to hit the\nplan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 4.\nProcess. <\/strong>In this step, you\u2019re making sure to capture,\ndocument, and circulate critical best practices. Basically, you\u2019re creating a\nplaybook \u2013 something that is essential for any professional team. I’m always\nshocked when I learn how many organizations do not have a good playbook. If you\nask one person in any given department, \u201cHey, could you tell me the process for\nA, B, and C?\u201d and that person is unable to respond, it\u2019s typically because that\nspecific process is done by someone else. So what happens if that other person is\nrecruited away by a competitor tomorrow? This, of course, is not an issue when\nyou capture the best practice for each process necessary to execute your plan.\nDon’t have an overkill exercise where you document 600 processes, but be sure\nto focus on what\u2019s most essential to the plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 5.\nPerformetrics. <\/strong>This is another word for Key\nPerformance Indicators (KPIs), with the important proviso that these KPIs are\ncustomized to the individual team member, and they must measure activities that\nare totally under his or her control. Note, for instance, that whether a sale\ncloses is not under a salesperson\u2019s control! The total number of conversations\nwith new prospects is under the person\u2019s control. You should be measuring\neverybody, and I do mean everybody, on the metrics that matter most. This may\ntake some time to set up. Invest the time! Everyone in the organization should\nhave a trackable, personalized KPI driving the plan that you initially set.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 6.\nPassion. <\/strong>As the leader, you need to have passion,\nrooted in a firm belief that the plan is going to take you to your goals. You\nalso need to be passionate in your conviction that you have done everything\nhumanly possible to identify the right positions, assign the right people, put\nthe right processes in place, and measure people\u2019s behaviors so they know (and\nyou know) whether they’re contributing. Perhaps most important of all, you<\/em>\nmust have the passion to see it through. This is all about being consistent.\nThis can’t be a program called, \u201cThis, Too, Shall Pass.\u201d If your team thinks of\nit that way, you will not accelerate, and you will not grow. You will end up\nputting in a lot of hard work with no payoff, so follow-through and a\ncommitment to finish is imperative. <\/p>\n\n\n\n