Scale Architects
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Training takes time. Promotion-level openings don't become available simply because someone is ready. Change is uncomfortable. These realities make it hard to move employees within your company, which forces them to start looking for work outside of your company. But what if you could substantially extend the shelf-life of your average employee even if you can't give them a promotion?
Who are the high performers on your team? The individuals you can always count on to produce time and again. Who are the ones that are easy to manage, who understand what they need to do and get it done? It's time to fire them. Well, at least from their current position.
Internal policies, no matter how well-intentioned, can become crushing, especially for your top performers. Employees are less willing to put up with it than ever before, and as a result, are leaving their organizations in greater numbers than ever before.
We spend a lot of time talking about hiring right now, but the truth of the matter is that we are missing the point. While hiring is undoubtedly a challenge, it is predominantly a symptom of a much bigger problem that haunts large and small organizations alike - employee retention.
The economy continues to climb business is booming. But it's got executives everywhere scratching their heads.There is a nearly universal pressure to find new talent. Whether it is the "Great Resignation" affecting the upper levels of organizations at an unprecedented rate or the Millennial shock and other trials affecting even entry-level positions, I'm almost certain you are struggling to hire right now.
Every organization in (or around) Predictable Success has some form of strategic planning. It may be formal or informal, highly structured or free-form. While there are benefits and disadvantages to each of these issues, we need to be careful not to assume that the right strategic planning methodology will suddenly silence our limbic antagonist.
Your strategic planning process is essentially an old-western showdown between the limbic system (which is tasked with keeping you and your organization alive) and the prefrontal cortex (which allows you to thrive). And in this good ol' shootout, the limbic system is the reigning champ. The scary part is it's going to kill your organization without you ever knowing it.
The most tempting strategy for most leaders is to do more of what we're already doing and do it better. That same strategy will suffocate even the best innovators if we aren't careful. So how do we protect innovation from process and use process to scale up innovation?
Innovation will never be birthed from a process. It must start with people. To create an innovative organization, you must create an ethos of innovation throughout the entire organization.
We've all heard the story before. A nearly mythical leader (often the founder) creates a phenomenally innovative organization. Following a meteoric rise, they pass the baton on to the next generation of leaders. But then, one day, we wake up and realize the organization is barely a shadow of its former self. What happened?
Most Founders never make it to Stage 6 of their Founder's Evolution, and they never experience the joy and freedom of becoming a True Owner. They also never discover the most valuable asset a True Owner has because it certainly isn't cash (even though they have a whole lot of it).
In stage 5 of your evolution as a founder, you finally take on a title you've been using incorrectly for a long time: Chief Executive. This stage is tremendously rewarding as you lead through others and build an organization whose success will outlast you. However, some soul-searching and a few essential strategies are needed to get there.
