Moving Your Company From Good To Great
Most organizations and leaders are good at what they do. They achieve success and hit their metrics and financial goals. Yet their organizations and their employees aren’t reaching their full potential. It often feels harder than it should to reach the results. So they push a little harder, work a little more and get just a slight increase in results. What they don’t realize is that there is a subtle yet very important difference between being a good company or a good leader and being a great company with great leaders.
Let me give you an analogy. Every day, week and month, your business is running races. It could be a merger or acquisition, the launch of a new product or service, a new market opportunity, or a change in leadership. We will always have races that our teams are running and both good companies and great companies can make it to the finish line. The difference is in how they get to the finish line.
From the outside, it appears we are successful because we crossed the finish line, yet many times behind the scenes, our team members are exhausted and burned out and have broken down trust with one another to get to the finish line. We made it to the finish line! Our people just don’t want to run a race like that ever again.
A “good” company gets to the finish line. A “great” company gets to the same finish line, but they use the opportunity to build their people up along the way. They run the race differently; at the end, their team members are still tired, but they are engaged and have built trust with one another along the way. Together, they realize they can do hard things.
Both companies look successful from the outside, but the subtle difference is how they reached success. Here are some things you can do to start moving your teams from good to great.
1. Be transparent.
Trust is built during the races we run. In the hard times, we have the opportunity to build the most trust with our teams. That trust building begins with transparency. Be open about where you are at in the race, what things you know for certain and what things you are still figuring out. Our teams want to know the truth, and they will help us navigate if we can share openly with them about the successes and obstacles we will face.
2. Take a change management approach.
Pay attention to the channels in the organization to see how your people are dealing with change. Are they fully committed, or are they struggling with the change and just pushing through each day? In order for any growth or change to be successful, we need to be constantly monitoring how people feel by paying attention to what they are saying and, more importantly, not saying. Do not assume everyone is on board with the change; cast the vision of the new destination and then support them as they help figure out how to get you there.
3. Increase your communication channels.
The strongest and most successful (i.e., “great”) organizations know that communication is the key to achieving success. It is the way to get the entire team rowing in the same direction, even when the path is hard. Examine your communication channels and assess whether they are sufficient to allow for information to flow in all directions within the organization. We often have good communication flowing down into the organization, but it’s not two-directional, so we don’t get real-time feedback flowing back up to inform next steps or pivots. Communication is core to being a great company, and taking a hard look at how you can improve in this area will reap rewards for each new race you have to run.
The difference between good companies and great companies might be hard to tell from the outside, but from the inside, it is a competitive advantage to allow you to do more with less, increase the performance levels of your employees and create an environment where you can beat your competition with agility and strength.
Instead of having your eyes on the finish line, keep an eye on what’s going on around you as you run the race. Pay attention to what you are hearing and seeing, as well as the clues that will tell you how the race is going and if you team has the endurance to finish. Figure out what your team needs to make the transition from good to great.