Your angry or perhaps just frustrated. Someone isn’t doing what you need them to do. Worse, someone is not doing what you specifically asked them to do. Others make mistakes. As a business owner, it can be frustrating because you cannot do it all yourself. You depend on people to scale a successful business that does not rely on you putting out fires and fixing things.
Being frustrated with people or even firing them because they are seen as the problem is a common and unproductive response because it does not address the root cause – you. A business is always a reflection of the owner’s good and bad aspects. We all know this, even if it is an unpleasant thought. Therefore, a problem can only be solved starting with you, the owner, or the manager.
When you notice the same problem or frustration appearing again and again, solve a problem for good:
- Begin by clearly stating your frustration.
- When you are clear, write it down.
- Write the result you want instead.
Example: If you are frustrated that the sales department rarely does what you tell them to do, then the result you want is for your sales team to conduct sales in a way that converts sales at a high level. Another example may be the production crew frequently forgets to power down the equipment. The result you want is for the production department’s equipment to be powered down entirely every day.
You can put a band-aid on the problem by reminding people to do what you told them to do, but how many times have you done just that. Issues have to be solved and eliminated at the root cause, requiring curiosity and a willingness to analyze a situation. If you are impatient and want to solve it with the first thought that comes to mind, you are using the band-aid method. The problem will reappear.
Your Contribution to the Problem: Finding the root cause starts with asking, “What am I doing to contribute to this frustration?” As the leader, and knowing the business is a reflection of you, discover how you are part of the cause. You may not have developed a reliable system for your team to convert sales in the example above. Perhaps you have not held people accountable to power down equipment. Maybe you have not taken the time to find out from the production manager what he needs to make sure the equipment is powered down each day or not mentored the sales manager enough to get results from his people. There are so many ways in which leadership impacts results.
Others Contribution to the Problem: The obvious next step is to identify how others may be contributing to the frustration. For example, the sales manager and the production managers do not hold their people accountable. Perhaps managers have not sufficiently trained their staff.
Missing System is the Problem: Most frustrations and issues are a systems problem, not a people problem. Written systems may not exist, or a written system does not produce the intended result; when design and document a system that delivers the desired results, the problem is eliminated.
If we change how we think about frustrations, find the root cause and a system solution, we can spend our time creating the business and the life we desire.