No Superheroes Needed
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No Superheroes Needed
Is your business run by superheroes?
Do you rely on key people to put in the extra hours, or go the extra mile when things get tough?
Does work pile up when they’re on holiday?
Are teams empowered to make their own decisions, or do they look to one person for direction?
If the answer to any of these is ‘yes’, then you’re suffering from 'Superhero Syndrome' and, without attention, you risk business growth coming to a halt.
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In the early stages of a business, your focus will always be on delivery: meeting customer expectations and doing everything possible to ensure the customer isn’t let down. At this point a Superhero can be a real asset: someone you can rely on to get things done to the right quality at the right time.
As your business grows you will hire more staff and typically structure the business into Sales, Operations and Administration work silos.
The inevitable consequences of growth therefore are that you’ll have more staff to manage, different levels of authority to govern, more customers and product niches, new competitors and ultimately might be considering computer systems to manage it all.
Do you know how to effectively schedule work through a team, organise a warehouse or conduct an HR review?
‘The Peter Principle‘ states that…
“…a person who is competent at their job will be promoted to a position that requires different skills. If they lack the skills required, they’ll be incompetent at the new level.“
Or, to put it differently…
“People are promoted to their highest level of incompetence!“
The skills needed to make the business work effectively will have changed considerably and this is where your superheroes start to become a restriction to growth. Chanelling all decisions through one person can add delay and unnecessary complication to the smooth running of the business.
Lean Management can help, by recognising that your company skill set needs to develop as your company grows. The core focus of your management team needs to migrate from one of ‘Delivery’ to one of ‘Development.’
These development areas include
- Implementing Standard Work – ensuring consistent processes
- Performance Management – monitoring the rate, quality and delays to work being done
- Developing a culture of Continuous Improvement
For example, a packaging company we worked with improved efficiency per head by 15% whilst disseminating decision making to the shop floor, thereby reducing the dependence on the charismatic and hugely experienced Warehouse Manager. The team were more motivated and engaged, taking responsibility for seeing through improvement ideas whilst developing as people too.
Superheroes can help in the early stages of building your business, but knowing when to enforce controls and when to empower teams is essential for sustainable growth.
Contact us at ALC for more details on how to keep your Superhero cape in the cupboard!
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