Does the title of this blog resonate with you? If so, you may be running a successful, growing business that has hit a ceiling.
Not to worry. This is a normal phenomenon that happens when the growth of the business is outrun by complexities that naturally ensue. Tasks that were easy or second nature are now more difficult and time consuming, and new challenges seem to arise daily.
If you are the founder, CEO, or simply a member of the leadership team, there’s good news — in fact, great news — you and your team have the ability to turn things around by mastering five leadership abilities. You must master the ability to simplify, delegate, predict/anticipate, systemize, and structure.
1. Simplify: As organizations grow, they naturally become more complex. Your job is to constantly simplify it to the least complex level. I’m not insinuating your business is “simple,” just that you can make it “simpler.”
2. Delegate: Delegation is also key to taking charge of your business. You no longer have the bandwidth to do all the tasks that used to bring you success. Now you need delegate and elevate to your unique ability, and accept that others will need to do things that you may have done well in the past, but are no longer a valuable use of your time. In other words, you need to find ways to build extensions of yourself.
3. Predict/Anticipate: The ability to predict future patterns and trends will enable you to proactively address issues, rather than participating in reactionary management or fire fighting. The best way to do this, is to seek out issues before they are a problem. Issues come in two basic forms: opportunities and problems. You’re always better addressing them as opportunities to stay on course.
4. Systemize: Every business has their magic formula for delivering value to their markets. You need to systemize how you do that to maximize efficiency and provide consistent, dependable outcomes for clients. This includes identifying and documenting all core processes (typically 6 – 10 in total) and training employees to follow each one.
5. Structure: Finally, you must structure your organization to support your future growth. This involves identifying all main functions of the business, clarifying the roles and responsibilities for each function, and then (and only then), assigning the right people to those functions (getting the right people in the right seats).
Master these simple — but not easy — leadership abilities and you will once again be in control of your business, wondering why so many around you are floundering when the going gets tough!
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