A key mistake that business owners make is to leave decision making up to chance. Your business has many layers and multiple people managing those layers. These team members throughout the day run into areas where they have to make choices, they have to make decisions!
The organizations who succeed are the ones who have empowered their people to make the right decision based on the company’s core values, whether or not the leadership team is around. The ones who don’t will only go as far as the leader’s time capacity to make those decisions.
One complaint that I hear more than any other from business owners and leaders is
How do I get my team to make the right decision when I am not around.
If you are wondering the same thing then you are not alone. This is a question that has puzzled many leaders in the past. This seems to be the missing formula or the secret sauce that every company is searching for but there is no mystery behind this. Success leaves clues and if we look at any successful company they have all defined a set of rules for their team members to follow to make decisions.
The Journey To Creating Your Core Values
Let me introduce you to our Journey Map. To simplify decision making in any business you have to be able to answer 4 questions.
1. Why
- Why are you in business?
2. What
- What market do you serve?
3. Where
- Where do you want your business to be 10 years from now
I have created a previous article where I talk about these three in great details. You can read all about it here.
The last question you should be able to answer is…
4. How
- How do you want your company to behave or to make decisions on a day to day basis
These are your company’s core values. Think of your core values like your compass, guiding you towards your north star. They are a small set of essential timeless guiding principles. Usually about 3-7. Simplicity is key here.
They are what define your culture. They define who you are as an organization and how you operate. You’ll find that when they are clear, you will attract people to your org. People who are intrinsically motivated to make the right decision for your company.
You’ll also find that they will remove the wrong people from your organization. The ones that just don’t fit. You hire, fire, review, recognize and reward around these core values.
At Velani Consulting, we have 5 guiding principles:
1. Simplify Complexity
- This for us means that we find the root cause of the problem and work on fixing that, not just the symptom. We also believe in consistency in our work and not one of heroic efforts.
2. Listen & Help First
- We believe in providing value to our clients without an expectation of getting anything in return. Our philosophy is that a rising tide raises all ships
3. Be In Pursuit Of Excellence
- We believe in being self-effacing. To know and recognize our mistake and work on fixing them. We also believe in finishing what you start rather than jumping from project to project. Also, we are ok saying no to a client because we do believe we can't help everyone. So we focus on the clients who are ready to create a culture of Growth, Innovation, & Excellence or GIE.
4. Never Be A Finished Product
- We believe in innovation and excellence and to continue to optimize our internal process. We also believe in investing in ourselves and our knowledge. In order for us to be effective, we have to continue to learn so we can continue to teach.
5. Find The Next Mountain
- We celebrate successes but never settle there. We are always looking for the next project to help.
This is how our company behaves on a day to day basis, whether leadership is around or not. It gives our team boundaries where they have the freedom to make decisions without causing a bottleneck.
How Defining Your Core Values Can Simplify Decision Making
Let me give you an example here. One of our core values is to “Be In Pursuit Of Excellence”. Part of that core value is to finish what you started. If our leadership team is not around and our team members find the opportunity to start a new project, internally or externally, they have clear cut guidelines here.
If they have pending projects that are on their plate, those have to be completed first before we take on any new work. This works both ways though. Our leadership team is now forced to prioritize the highest valued projects first that are in the best interest of the organization.
I know this seems too simple to work but the best way to reduce complexity within your organization is to simplify. This process won’t rid your leadership of all decision making but it will reduce the number of low value decisions they have to make on a day to day basis. Freeing up their time to focus on strategy decisions to help the organization Grow, Innovate, & Excel or as I like to call it, GIE.
That is why I’ve created a special free mini course called Growth = Innovation and Excellence. Here you can learn all about GIE and how to create it by implementing 5 habits within your organization. Click the link below to check it out right now.”
